The 100 highest paid CEOs of the biggest companies by revenue earned more than $1.6 billion (Rs 10,430 crore) as salary last year, with India-born Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi becoming the second highest paid woman CEO and the seventh highest paid CEO globally, taking home more than $25.89 million (Rs 168.92 crore). While her pay increased just three per cent, over what she earned in 2016, her ranking jumped three places, from 10th highest paid CEO in 2016.Nooyi's pay was 650 times the average earnings of a Pepsico employee.
Another Indian-origin CEO in the top 20 highest paid CEOs in 2017 is Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, who romped home with more than $20.01 million (Rs 130.56 crore), placing him at 17th rank.Nadella, who was ranked 26th in 2016, earning $17.69 million (Rs 115.40 crore), received an increment of 13 per cent.
Co-founder of SanDisk and a BITS Pilani alumnus, Sanjay Mehrotra is the third CEO of Indian origin in the 100 highest paid CEOs, in his capacity as President & CEO of Micron Technology which earned him more than $15.73 million ( Rs 100.29 crore) last year, making him a new entry into the club of 100, at number 54.
Thanks to his hostile $121 billion (Rs 789,261 crore) bid on Qualcomm, Broadcom rewarded its CEO Hock E Tan with $98.3 million (Rs 641.10 crore) worth of stock options, taking his total compensation to more than $103.21 million (Rs 673.08 crore), making him the highest paid CEO last year.Of course there's a catch - those stock options will vest only in 2020 and 2021, but that's just a minor technicality for the Malaysian origin, MIT and Harvard educated top dog.
The richest CEO in the top 100 club, Berkshire Hathaway founder and Chairman Warren Buffett took home just $100,000 last year (Rs 65.21 lakh) - a substantial drop from his salary of $487,881 (Rs 3.18 crore) in 2016. His ranking though, saw a slight improvement - from 101st in 2016 to 100th in 2017.Buffett's salary was just twice what the average Berkshire Hathaway employee earned in 2017.