It’s that time of year again when we sift through an avalanche of regulatory filings to find the highest-paid executives. In this case, “we” refers to our own FierceVideo Editor Ben Munson, who tracked down the names and numbers for us.
This year, we’ve split our list in two. The FierceWireless list focuses on executives within telecom and wireless while FierceVideo’s list focuses on executives within the pay TV and streaming video industry.
Some notable names that didn’t make the list this year include Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm (who made about $13 million in 2018), CenturyLink director and former CEO Glen Post (who made about $10 million in 2018) and Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer (who made about $11 million in 2018). Intel executives like Navin Shenoy, EVP, and Venkata Renduchintala, group president, also didn’t make the cut. However, one who did—AT&T’s John Donovan—just made news for another reason, announcing his retirement effective Oct. 1.
For some compare and contrast, make sure to revisit the highest-paid executives lists from 2018 and 2017.
AT&T (2018 revenue: $170.8 billion)
25. John Donovan, CEO, AT&T Communications
Total compensation (2018): $14,585,867
Total compensation (2017): $15,193,700
Salary: $1,175,000
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $13,410,867
24. John Stephens, CFO, AT&T
Total compensation (2018): $15,642,304
Total compensation (2017): $13,892,807
Salary: $1,096,875
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $14,545,429
Verizon (2018 revenue: $130.9 billion)
23. John Stratton, Former Executive Vice President, Verizon
Total compensation (2018): $15,646,852
Total compensation (2017): $13,540,151
Salary: $1,260,962
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $14,385,890
Apple (2018 revenue: $265.5 billion)
22. Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Total compensation (2018): $15,682,219
Total compensation (2017): $12,825,066
Salary: $3,000,000
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $12,682,219
T-Mobile (2018 revenue: $43.3 billion)
21. David Carey, Executive Vice President, T-Mobile
Total compensation (2018): $15,853,977
Total compensation (2017): N/A
Salary: $774,038
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $15,079,939
20. Steven Rodgers, General Counsel, Intel
Total compensation (2018): $16,211,900
Total compensation (2017): N/A
Salary: $800,000
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $15,411,900
19. Robert Swan, CEO, Intel
Total compensation (2018): $16,706,700
Total compensation (2017): $11,114,700
Salary: $898,000
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $15,808,700
18. Gerri Elliott, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Cisco
Total compensation (2018): $16,848,424
Total compensation (2017): N/A
Salary: $187,500
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $16,660,924
17. Brian Krzanich, Former CEO, Intel
Total compensation (2018): $18,050,300
Total compensation (2017): $21,544,700
Salary: $694,000
Other compensation (stock awards, etc.): $17,356,300