Pfizer’s Jeff Kindler Gets A Hefty Raise
18 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // March 3rd, 2010 // 8:20 am
Now that the Wyeth acquisition is complete and layoffs are under way, the raises can be given out. And so the Pfizer board has decided to give Jeff Kindler a 12.5 percent salary hike, to $1.8 million, as part of a $14.9 million pay package, which includes $5.5 million in stock awards, $2.6 million in options, a $3.5 million cash bonus, a pension boost and other perks, such as air travel, usage of a car and home security (at $1,217, this would appear to be for an alarm, so why can’t he pay that himself? He’d still get credit on homeowner’s insurance).
In all, his compensation is actually down 4 percent, to $14.9 million, but that’s due to a drop in stock awards, Dow Jones notes. Among the reasons cited for Kindler’s raise: achieving financial goals; promoting and executing strategic policies (such as protecting patents, fighting reimportation and reorganizing Pfizer); improving the product portfolio; and improving people management, such as increasing diversity and reducing the “inclusion gap” between senior-level men and women. In general, other Pfizer execs received salary increases of up to 3.8 percent (here is the proxy statement).
Last year, the board froze executive salaries, due to the weak economy, although Pfizer cfo and senior vp Frank D’Amelio and Ian Read, senior vp and group president of the biopharma biz, were awarded big prizes last fall for their work in scooping up Wyeth (see here). This was decided as Pfizer was eliminating about 15 percent of its newly combined workforce, or nearly 20,000 jobs. But that’s history now. With the headcount reduced by several thousand people, there’s more left for those running the show.
Superman
And people were worried about some sort of recession/downturn in the economy….
Jack Friday
http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2010/03/lolpharma-contd-recession-latest.html
Nolongerhere
Here is a great example of rewarding someone for Eliminating over 19,000 jobs. Most of the job cuts were from Wyeth, the company he bought because his company cannot discover and develop new products. What a waste.
M. Black
Goddamned crooks.
Bill Chappelear
Was the great performance because the Pfizer merged with (or was it bought out a) competitor (Wyeth) and subsequently put a majorityy of former Wyeth employees out of work.
I agree with M.Black
I was considering buying Pfizer stock, but not now.
Conspiracy Theorist
As if we needed yet another glaring example of how decoupled the fates of the Wall Street Elite are from virtually everyone else. Also, Jeff Kindler is a board member of the New York Federal Reserve, which seems to be ground zero for financial scandals.
RandDChemist
Whew! Now he can feed his family. It’s expensive to be a CEO!
What an enormous….
JaT
What, no bitching about big bonuses from the administration? Shocking. HCR owes some favors- no doubt.
Whenever my brother walks out a door he says JOKINGLY…
“I have things to do and people to screw”
Sure, you can use it, Jeff.
JDP
This is part of the root of the problem - and Pfizer’s Board should be smarter. It is a mistake to give him a big reward for acquiring Wyeth and laying off a lot of people (thereby reducing costs and increasing profits). This is only of short term benefit to Pfizer, and may actually be to its detriment. His team should only be rewarded if, in 4-5 years, the merged company is better able to bring more and better medicines to the market. If it is not, then he and his staff let the wrong people go, and they should be penalized. When will boards learn to take a long view?
pharmavet
looking at PFE from an investor’s perspective, Bruce Berkowitz, the highly successful manager of The Fairholme Fund (FAIRX) recently unloaded about 38 million shares pf PFE, which up to then was by far the largest holding in the FAIRX portfolio. Bruce must know something. He made people a lot of money by buying PFE a few years ago. Based on his move, I wouldn’t go long on PFE at this time.
Remember why Jeff Kindler was hired in the first place. As a lawyer, his main job was to minimize PFE’s legal exposure. He has brought in some pretty heavy duty legal muscle to manage WYE’S issues with Prempro, etc. A lot of this is behind the scenes, but these expenses go straight to the corporate bottom line. To the extent that Jeff is successful in minimizing the legal damamages he will have earned his raise. It just won’t show up in the usual pharma metrics.
Anne PME
Oh, and let’s not forget the recent false claims settlement….Maybe part of the raise has to do with the fact that Pfizer now has a corporate intergrity panel that will further convolute board member and/or CEO liability?
pharmavet
Over on CafePharma, Jeff’s headcount reduction is affectionately termed “Kindler’s List”.
Jack Friday
Ahem!
http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/search?q=kindler%27s+list
By yours truly in 2006!
Lisa Van Syckel
Geee, one would wonder why he needed home securuty, could it be from those homucidal/suicidal zoloft patients?
clarkkent
PFE stock has underperformed the DOW the entire time Kindler has been CEO. He should be getting a pay cut (or pfired,) not rewarded for subpar performance.
Former Big Pharma
Wow! Turn in a dismal performance, stagnate the company, slice R & D, lay off thousands, destroy Wyeth, and get a huge raise. What an absolute joke! Hopefully, many of the self-loving, self-promoting, egomaniacs will soon be booted.
Casual Observer
You forgot about the billions in fines that Pfizer has had to pay on his watch! I think there’s been a lot of off-label promotion and questionable marketing going on at the big P for many years. Isn’t Kindler a lawyer? Shouldn’t he know better?
Pharma Giles
Honestly, what a fuss over a lousy 12.5%. Now THIS is what I call a pay rise…