How much does the average CEO of a tech company or channel partner get paid? How much should they get paid?
CRN broke down the fixed remuneration and total payments for CEOs of 25 ASX-listed channel partners and tech companies during the 2021 financial year. Governance Institute of Australia’s Megan Motto also explained the difficulty of getting the balance right when it comes to holding onto CEOs without frustrating stakeholders.
The figures were taken from the companies' most recent annual reports, which had information of CEOs that have since departed the company.
The average pay of a channel partner’s CEO remains well below the average CEO pay of the top 200 publicly listed companies, which reached a record high in the last financial year; the average CEO’s realised pay hit $9.14 million according to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors' report on the ASX 200.
The average ASX 200 CEO pay is around 132 times what the average worker makes, with weekly wages currently at $1328.
Three tech and channel-aligned companies were mentioned in the ASCI’s report. Megaport’s CEO Vincent English ranked 14th at $10,676,056 realised pay. Megaport did not reply to requests for comment on how its remuneration committee determines fixed salaries, bonuses and incentivisation schemes or how effective they’ve been at increasing results.
Kogan’s CEO Ruslan Kogan had the highest reported pay for the 2021 financial year at $8,992,714. His realised pay was $497,707 for the period.
TPG’s CEO Inaki Berroeta’s had a reported pay of $4,537,879 for the 2021 financial year and realised pay of $3,389,391. TPG declined to comment.
1. Megaport’s Vincent English
Fixed salary: $561,817
Issued 1,000,000 options during the year ended 30 June 2021, at a closing value of $3,617,204
2. Telstra’s Andrew Penn
Fixed salary: $2,390,000
Total remuneration: $5,305,000
Penn is set to depart Telstra in September, with head of finance Vicki Brady named as replacement.
3. TPG’s Inaki Berroeta
Fixed salary: $1,850,000
Total remuneration: $5,550,000
4. JBHiFi’s Richard Murray
Fixed salary: $1,475,00
Total remuneration: $4,259,032
5. NextDC’s Craig Scroggie
Fixed salary:: $1,298,306
Total remuneration: $3,146,357
6. Uniti Group’s Michael Simmons
Fixed pay: $456,662
Total remuneration: $1,103,959
7. Data#3's Laurence Baynham
Fixed salary: $531,000
Total remuneration: $1,034,301
8 SYMBIO Holdings’ founder Rene Sugo
*Rene Sugo is a founder
Fixed salary: $575,000
Total remuneration: $956,772
9. Aussie Broadband founder Phillip Britt
Fixed salary: $389,381
Total remuneration: $954,037
10. Macquarie Telecom Group founder David Tudehope
Fixed salary: $676,150
Total remuneration: $953953
11. Vonex’s Mathew Fahey
Fixed salary: $286,000
Total remuneration: $683,417
12 Superloop’s Paul Tyler
Fixed salary: $750,000
Total remuneration: $762,062
13 Firstwave Cloud Technologies’ Neil Pollock
Fixed salary: $356,061
Total remuneration: $615,766
14. Webcentral’s Joe Demase
Fixed salary: -
Total remuneration: $537,721
15. Field Solutions Holdings’ Andrew Roberts
*Andrew Roberts is a founder
Fixed salary: $295,000
Total remuneration: $478,366
16. Tesserent’s Kurt Hansen
Fixed salary: $335,616
Total remuneration: $476,190
17. Nexion founder Paul Glass
Fixed salary: $ 249,840
Total remuneration: $458,698
18. Cipherpoint’s Edward Pretty
Fixed salary: $123,000
Total remuneration: $399,075
19. Spirit Technology Solutions’ Sol Lukatsky
Fixed salary: $381,538
Total remuneration: $947,550
Lukatsky stepped down as CEO in early July, with Julian Challingsworth named as his replacement.
20. Cirrus Networks Holdings’ Matthew Sullivan
Fixed salary: $306,924
Total remuneration: $322,017
Sullivan resigned as CEO in October 2021, with chief operating officer Chris McLaughlin named as his replacement.
21. MoQ’s Joe D’Addio
Fixed salary: $180,000
Total remuneration: $197,100
23. Hubify’s Victor Tsaccounis
Fixed salary: $200,000
Total remuneration: $277,613
24. Atturra’s Stephen Kowal
Fixed salary: $375,00
750,000 Performance Right as part of long-term incentive scheme
25. Dicker Data’s David Dicker
*David Dicker is a founder
Appears to have no fixed salary but has interests in 58,000,000 shares in the company:
10,000,000 Ordinary shares in Dicker Data Limited
48,000,000 Ordinary shares held by Rodin Ventures Limited
10,000 Ordinary shares held by his wife
Getting the balance right?
Governance Institute of Australia’s CEO Megan Motto told CRN of the two predominant factors determining CEO pay: one pulling them up and another pushing them down.
Companies’ remuneration committees need to pay their bosses enough to keep them at the company, without creating a perception among stakeholders that CEOs are getting more than their fair share.
“Overall, the executive pay market seems to be in a state of catch up and as the war for talent continues, including at CEO level, there may be some further pressure on salaries - getting the right person for these top jobs is critical and remuneration is often a key factor for candidates.”
“When setting executive pay, organisations, including those in the technology sector, need to carefully navigate shareholder and stakeholder expectations with any large salary increases that may potentially be perceived as unjustified by internal and external stakeholders
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