New BMS CEO gets 89% raise

Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Jim Cornelius didn't fare too badly during his last full year on the job: According to the company's preliminary proxy statement, his pay dropped a bit, to $18.2 million from $19.7 million. But it's still a lot more than he earned back in 2007.

The biggest drop for Cornelius came in his option awards, which amounted to $5.2 million for 2009, down from $7.15 million in 2008. That's a decline of more than 25 percent. In most other categories, his compensation ticked upward a bit; restricted stock awards, for instance, grew to $5.66 million from $5.12 million.

Meanwhile, the company disclosed just how much of a raise the incoming CEO will get. Lamberto Andreotti will see his base salary grow by 12 percent to $1.4 million. His incentive pay target will increase to 150 percent of his base salary, and long-term incentive pay will more than double to $7.5 million. Total target compensation--$11 million, an increase of 89 percent.

And Andreotti won't have to wait until next year to win at least part of his new compensation. Soon after becoming CEO, he'll get some extra long-term incentive compensation to bring that category up to $7.5 million for this year. The extra awards amount to $3.475 million. Call it a signing bonus.

- get a link [1] to the company's preliminary proxy
- see the Wall Street Journal story [2]

Related Articles:
BMS' Cornelius to retire, Andreotti named CEO [3]
BMS's James Cornelius - CEO Pay [4]