"Buffet is one of the most talented managers in America, and with a compensation package apparently totalling only $356,000 a year with no stock options, shareholders are certainly getting their money's worth by hiring him to run the company. It is hard not to view getting a manager of his caliber for that kind of money as a complete steal. But the thing that really makes Buffet a steal, is that he truly tries to manage for shareholders interests and value, rather than for the purpose of lining his own pockets at shareholders' expense. Execs like Buffet, that view shareholders as important partners in the business, and whom consider themselves stewards of shareholders interests for the long run, are hard to find imo. "
This is breathtakingly naive. Buffett's "compensation" comes from his ownership position in Berkshire Hathaway and his other holdings.
Referring to his "355,000" salary package as what he was "hired" for is naive and misleading. This was my point about Gordon Moore, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, etc.
Buffet was not "hired" by shareholders, and he is not some grunt CEO working on salary. He is as much a founder of his company as Moore, Ellison, Gates, Jobs, etc.
The real debate is about how to compensate lesser managers, especially those not sharing in the original distribution of stock. This is what compensation committees do.
Is Barrett "worth" having accumulated a few hundred million dollars? Considering the size of the company he runs, and his role in the 80s and 90s, his compensation is fair, in my view. (Especially considering how a guy I knew joined a start up company, not as one of the core founders, and when it went public he was worth, on paper, $749 million. He was younger than me, and much less talented that Barrett is. Right place at the right time. However, the bubble on his company burst and then he was killed in a helicopter crash in Alaska.)
Anyway, yammering about Buffett is being paid only several hundred thousand dollars is, as I said, naive. Look at his holdings. Look at his position on the Forbes list.
--Tim May |
