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Top-paid CEOs: Steve Jobs drops from No. 1 to No. 120

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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May 2, 2008, 4:39 PM ET

Having topped Forbes‘ list of the U.S.’s highest-paid CEOs last year with a total compensation of $646 million — thanks almost entirely to restricted stock grants that vested in 2006 — Apple’s (AAPL) $1-a-year CEO dropped to No. 120 this year. Total 2007 compensation: a mere $14.6 million.

Steve Jobs doesn’t even make the magazine’s list of the top 10 highest-paid tech CEOs. Oracle’s (ORCL) Larry Ellison, America’s highest-paid CEO, is also No. 1 on the tech list (total 2007 compensation: $192.9 million).

Among tech CEOs, Jobs came in at No. 11, despite the fact that his company is one of the most efficient in terms of return on investment, delivering 99.3% in fiscal year 2007, second only to MEMC (126.1%).

You can page slowly through pictures of the top 12 technology CEOs at Forbes.com (link), or take them in at a glance below:

  1. Larry Ellison, Oracle: $192.9 million
  2. Nabeeb Gareel, MEMC Electronic Materials: $79.6 million
  3. John Chambers, Cisco: $54.8 million
  4. Mark Hurd, HP: $27.6 million
  5. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA: $24.6 million
  6. Samual Palmisano, IBM: $24.3 million
  7. Wendell Weeks, Corning: $22.6 million
  8. Joseph Tucci, EMC: $20 million
  9. William Sullivan, Agilent: $17.4 million
  10. Paul Otellini, Intel: $16.3 million
  11. Steve Jobs, Apple: $14.6 million
  12. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun: $13.5 million

Methodology: “Forbes compiled the list by calculating the overall compensation for the past year for executives, factoring in salary, cash bonuses, vested stock grants, stock gains and exercised stock options.”

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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