Salesforce boss Benioff scores payday of nearly $30m amid cost cutting

Salesforce founder, CEO, and president Marc Benioff received a compensation package weighted astatine almost $30 cardinal successful its astir caller financial year, nan 1 successful which it chopped 10 percent of nan workforce.

For nan twelvemonth ended January 31, 2023, nan exec sewage a guidelines net of $1.55 million, $14.76 cardinal successful banal awards, $9.84 cardinal successful action awards, $2.17 cardinal successful non-equity incentives and $1.55 cardinal for each different compensation. This was up connected nan $28.6 cardinal he made a twelvemonth ago.

The figures were disclosed successful a proxy statement [PDF] revenge pinch nan SEC up of a shareholder gathering successful June.

“We’re moving aggressively crossed each 4 fronts of our translator plan—short-term and semipermanent restructuring of nan company; improving productivity and performance; prioritizing our halfway innovations; and building a deeper and moreover stronger narration pinch our stockholders,” says Benioff successful nan document.

“At nan aforesaid time, we’ve taken meaningful steps to guarantee accountability to our stockholders, including changes to Board and committee creation and leadership, our executive compensation program, and our stockholder engagement program,” he adds.

Poor aged Marc, who is worthy an estimated $7.5 billion, has had a reliable clip of late: axing 10 percent of nan 79,390-strong workforce successful January aft hiring quickly successful caller years and not being capable to warrant nan headcount successful a cooling economy, arsenic good arsenic exiting existent property and cutting agency abstraction to boot.

Then activistic investors circled Salesforce, smelling an opportunity to wring retired much rate from nan business, and successful consequence nan board was refreshed successful a first measurement to appease them. Benioff, astatine least, resisted calls to make much redundancies.

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A better than expected end to its fiscal 2023 sated galore of nan activists, and Benioff has moved quickly to prosecute pinch them by making changes to early exec compensation, including restructuring semipermanent equity awards, reducing nan semipermanent inducement of Benioff by astir 40 percent and eliminating nan usage of banal options.

Salesforce is surely leaner astatine nan apical of nan organizational chart, aft main strategy serviceman Gavin Patterson, Slack laminitis and CEO Stewart Butterworth, Tabluewa CEO Mark Nelson and co-CEO Brett Taylor split.

Taylor, was paid $26.79 cardinal for nan year, according to nan proxy statement, CFO Amy Weaver sewage $15.7 million, and Park Harris, nan CTO and co-founder, took location $15.7 million.

The median worker compensation was $199,130, giving a CEO salary ratio of 150:1. ®