Viacom chief top-paid CEO at $84.5M

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Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom.

Updated: June 23, 2011 12:25AM

CEOs at the nation’s largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today.

The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 was $9 million in 2010, according to an analysis by the Associated Press using data provided by compensation research firm Equilar. That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.

The highest-paid CEO in 2010 was Philippe Dauman of Viacom, the entertainment company that owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. He received a pay package valued at $84.5 million, 21/2 times what he made the year before. He signed a contract in April 2010 that included stock and options valued by the company at $54.2 million when granted.

His payout dwarfs compensation paid to Illinois’ top executives. None of the region’s chief executive officers made the nation’s list of top 10 highest paid. The other nine are:

† Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum: $76.1 million, up 142 percent.

† Leslie Moon­ves, CBS: $56.9 million, up 32 percent.

† David Zaslav, Discovery Communications: $42.6 million, up 265 percent.

† Richard Adkerson, Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold: $35.3 million, up 76 percent.

† John Lundgren, Stanley Black & Decker: $32.6 million, up 253 percent.

† Brian Roberts, Comcast: $31 million, up 14 percent.

† Robert Iger, Walt Disney: $28 million, up 30 percent.

† Alan Mulally, Ford Motor: $26.5 million, up 48 percent.

† Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner: $26.1 million, up 35 percent. AP