Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Meeting date:   June 12, 2015 Regeneron CEO Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D. received total disclosed compensation of nearly $42 million in 2014.

He also realized over $96 million in value through cashing previously received stock options. Over the past 4 years, Schleifer has exercised nearly 1.3 million option shares for a total realized value of $223,893,868.  Based on beneficial ownership reporting it appears that he sold most of these shares.

In 2014, the board awarded Schleifer over 210,000 additional options shares. This award came as Schliefer, who co-founded the company in 1988, continues to hold over 2 million exercisable options.

Even CEOs are critical of such excessive awards: Procter & Gamble CEO A.J. Lafley wrote in an HBR article entitled, “Executive Pay: Time for CEOs to Take a Stand,” that while equity compensation had a role to play, “In some cases a CEO may have accumulated so much equity that additional grants provide little incremental motivation. At that point the CEO should ask the compensation committee to put those grants back into the pool for other employees.”