A six million dollar smile?
One of the chores awaiting General Motors’ new Chief Financial Officer, Chris Liddell, will be to pull the books in order following the maker’s well-publicized bankruptcy, a critical step towards GM’s planned Initial Public Offering.
But creative accounting is also part of the duties. GM, like other companies living off of federal bailout money, has to live within strict pay limits for its senior executives, a real problem when it comes to attracting good talent to the troubled automaker, which presumably Liddell is.
The solution? A package that includes not only $750,000 in annual salary for the New Zealand native, but nearly $5.5 million more in stock. Of course, that depends on GM pulling off the IPO, which would bring the company public again, allowing it to actually trade stock.
That could happen as early as 2010 – though Chairman and Acting CEO Ed Whitacre cautioned, earlier this month, that he will not be rushed to stage the IPO before the company is ready. GM lost $1.2 billion in its last quarter, hardly the kind of results to encourage potential investors to buy the stock.
The package to be given the 51 year-old Liddell had to be authorized by federal authorities; the government currently owns a 60% stake in the new GM. An exemption was authorized by the White House pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg.
In all, Liddell could stand to receive more than $6 million, a significant increase over the $2.4 million he was getting in his previous job as CFO of the software giant Microsoft. Of that money, Liddell will be paid in the form of $3.45 million in company stock, which he’ll receive over the three years starting in 2012.
To encourage GM to pay back its $6.7 billion in government loans, Liddell will be authorized to receive another $2 million in stock grants, vesting in three years, and paid back in 25% increments for every 25% of the fed money paid back.
GM issued its first billion dollar check to the government this month and, according to Whitacre, from money taxpayers had already lent it, the goal is to completely pay back the loan package by June 2010.
The Chairman, incidentally, is receiving $350,000 a year for his work on the GM Board of Directors, but nothing for his Acting CEO duties. That could change. The board’s Compensation Committee meets in January, and Whitacre’s pay is expected to be on its agenda.
Liddell ends his duties at Microsoft on December 31st. He will then move to Detroit to replace outgoing CFO Ray Young. Young will formally relinquish his title on February 1, 2010 and move on to GM’s fast-growing International Operations as its chief financial official and second-in-command.
One of the chores awaiting General Motors’ new Chief Financial Officer, Chris Liddell, will be to pull the books in order following the maker’s well-publicized bankruptcy, a critical step towards GM’s planned Initial Public Offering.
But creative accounting is also part of the duties. GM, like other companies living off of federal bailout money, has to live within strict pay limits for its senior executives, a real problem when it comes to attracting good talent to the troubled automaker – like Liddell.
The solution? A package that includes not only $750,000 in annual salary for the New Zealand native, but nearly $5.5 million more in stock. Of course, that depends on GM pulling off the IPO, which would bring the company public again, allowing it to actually trade stock.
(That could happen as early as 2010 – though Chairman and Acting CEO Ed Whitacre cautioned, earlier this month, that he will not be rushed to stage the IPO before the company is ready.)
The package to be given the 51 year-old Liddell had to be authorized by federal authorities; the government currently owns a 60% stake in the new GM. An exemption was authorized by the White House pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg.
In all, Liddell could stand to receive more than $6 million, a significant increase over the $2.4 million he was getting in his previous job as CFO of the software giant Microsoft. Of that money, Liddell will be paid in the form of $3.45 million in company stock, which he’ll receive over the three years starting in 2012. To encourage GM to pay back its $6.7 billion in government loans, Liddell will be authorized to receive another $2 million in stock grants, vesting in three years, and paid back in 25% increments for every 25% of the fed money paid back.
GM issued its first billion dollar check to the government this month and, according to Whitacre, the goal is to completely pay back the loan package by June 2010.
The Chairman, incidentally, is receiving $350,000 a year for his work on the GM Board of Directors, but nothing for his Acting CEO duties. That could change. The board’s Compensation Committee meets in January, and Whitacre’s pay is expected to be on its agenda.
Liddell ends his duties at Microsoft on December 31st. He will then move to Detroit to replace outgoing CFO Ray Young. Young will formally relinquish his title on February 1, 2010 and move on to GM’s fast-growing International Operations as its chief financial official and second-in-command.