Executives

Fields earned 17% bump in compensation in 2015

CEO Mark Fields received $240,726 for personal use of private aircraft.
March 18, 2016 05:00 AM

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. gave Mark Fields a 17 percent raise in 2015, his first full year as CEO, the automaker said today in a regulatory filing.

His total compensation was worth $18.6 million. His pay includes a $1.8 million salary, a $3.5 million cash bonus and $12.1 million in long-term stock and performance-based equity awards.

The value of the compensation awarded to Fields during the year -- excluding changes in pension value and perks such as personal use of private aircraft -- was $17.3 million, compared to $14.8 million in 2014, when he was COO for the first half of the year before succeeding Alan Mulally as CEO.

Compensation for Ford’s five top executives totaled $49.2 million in 2015. The highest-paid executive after Fields was Executive Chairman Bill Ford, whose compensation was valued at $12.9 million, including a $2 million salary. His awarded compensation was worth $10.1 million, 1.6 percent more than in 2014.

Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, earned $6.4 million in a year when North America was the company’s largest profit generator by far. His salary topped $1 million for the first time, and his awarded compensation rose 17 percent.

Jim Farley, who moved from head of U.S. sales and marketing to president of Ford’s European operations at the beginning of 2015, received compensation worth $5.8 million.

Compensation for CFO Bob Shanks was valued at $5.6 million.

Reductions in pension valuations caused the total value of compensation to decline from 2014 for Fields, Shanks and Bill Ford. The company said that decline is outside of its control and does not reflect any direct compensation received by those executives.

The company said it spent $928,150 on security for Bill Ford, who also received $291,151 worth of private aircraft travel. Fields received $240,726 for personal use of private aircraft.

The CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Sergio Marchionne, received $10.9 million in compensation last year. GM has not revealed CEO Mary Barra’s compensation in 2015; she earned $16.2 million in 2014.

Ford earned $7.4 billion in net income last year, posting a record pretax profit of $10.8 billion. It earned $9.3 billion in just North America, which triggered profit-sharing bonuses averaging $9,300 -- the most it ever paid -- for its nearly 53,000 hourly workers.

Fields has said Ford’s 2016 pretax profit will match or surpass last year’s result.

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