Overpaid CEO award

Take your pick. The crop of entries for the inaugural Lex Overpaid CEO of the year award was richer than any could have dared imagine. The term “rewards for failure” scarcely did justice to a broken model of executive compensation that brought the global financial system to within an ace of collapse. From Europe, Sir Fred Goodwin, ousted as chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland in October, was a popular choice among readers, after taking home a total of £8.2m in 2007 and 2006. Ditto the bosses of the Icelandic banks: they managed to sink not just their own companies, but an entire country.

But their packages look positively stingy when compared to the payouts offered to the disgraced titans of the US financial sector. Daniel Mudd, who pocketed $23m for his last two years’ service at Fannie Mae, and Dick Syron, paid $33m by Freddie Mac over the same period, were both stand-out candidates. They were the two men who arguably did most to stoke the housing bubble that pushed the world’s largest economy into recession. Both men made enough to set up their descendants for generations. Then they threw the government-sponsored enterprises into the arms of the taxpayer.

In the end, though, there could only be one winner: Dick Fuld. The Lehman Brothers boss made many tens of millions of dollars in the years preceding the bank’s collapse in September, an event that triggered an earthquake in global markets. His stubborn refusal to sell the bank when he had the chance was the single worst trade of the year. Picking up $34m in 2007 and $40.5m in 2006, (nodded through by Sir Christopher Gent, a member of the board’s four-person compensation committee), he set a high standard for the 2009 award. All suggestions for shortlistable candidates for next year should be e-mailed to lex@ft.com or posted online at www.ft.com/overpaidceos.

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