Biz people: Lehman CEO pockets $40m

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, the fourth-largest US securities firm, gave Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld (above right) a 17 percent raise to $40.5 million in 2006, a year when Lehman posted a record annual profit.

Fuld, 60, received a $6.3 million cash bonus, $10.9 million of restricted stock, $10 million in options and $750,000 in salary, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The total compensation also included $12.5 million from the vested portion of a long-term incentive plan.

Rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc set a new all-time high for Wall Street compensation in December when it granted CEO Lloyd Blankfein $54 million for 2006. The five biggest US securities firms handed out about $36 billion in bonuses last year.

"Fuld's compensation is in line" with Lehman's size and performance, said Richard Lipstein, a managing director at Boyden Executive Search in New York. "As successful as it is, Lehman's business is at a smaller scale compared with bigger rivals. Fuld must be happy with this figure; I don't see him going anywhere soon."

(China Daily 02/28/2007 page16)