The 15 Highest Paid CEOs Of 2014

By on May 21, 2015 in ArticlesEntertainment

There has been a lot of press of late about the incredible compensation the top CEOs in the U.S. make. From cash compensation to stock and options, the top 15 highest paid CEOs raked it in during 2014. Every CEO in the top 10 made more than $50 million. Any one of them could be thumbing through catalogs for private jets and super yachts right now.  When available, we also plugged in the percentage gain or loss in comparison to the previous year's salary. Nicholas Woodman of GoPro came in the big winner there with an overall gain of 4,079%. Conversely, Oracle's Larry Ellison saw his total compensation decline by 14%. But don't cry for him, he still makes more in one year than the vast majority of us will make in a lifetime. Cable TV and Technology companies dominate this list, so new college graduates who want to make millions should be looking for jobs at companies like these.

Interestingly, only one of the top 15 is a woman, and that is, unsurprisingly, Yahoo!'s Marisa Mayer. In fact, of the top 200 highest paid CEOs, only 12 are women. After Mayer, the next woman is Carol Mevrowitz of TJX. She comes in at #54. Other women making the top 200 include Hewlett-Packard's Meg Whitman, PepsiCo's Indra K. Nooyi, IBM's Virgina M. Rometty, and Lockheed Martin's Marilyn A. Hewson. Not surprisingly, the list is comprised of predominately white males.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Let's take a look at the 15 Highest Paid CEOs and how much they made in 2014:

1. David Zaslav

CEO Discovery Communications

Salary: $156.1 million

Cash compensation: $11 million

Stock and options: $145 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +368%

2. Michael Fries

CEO, Liberty Global

Salary: $111.9 million

Cash compensation: $16 million

Stock and options: $95.9 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +140%

3. Mario Gabelli

CEO, Gamco Investors

Salary: $88.5 million

Cash compensation: $88.5 million

Change in total pay (1 year): + 4%

4. Satya Nadella

CEO, Microsoft

Salary: $84.3 million

Cash compensation: $4.5 million

Stock and options: $79.8 million

5. Nick Woodman

CEO, GoPro

Salary: $77.4 million

Cash compensation: $2.7 million

Stock and options: $74.7 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +4,079%

6. Gregory Maffei

CEO, Liberty Media & Liberty Interactive

Salary: $73.8 million

Cash compensation: $8.5 million

Stock and options: $65.3 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +1,077%

7. Larry Ellison

CEO, Oracle

Salary: $67.3 million

Cash compensation: $2.3 million

Stock and options: $65 million

Change in total pay (1 year): -14%

8. Steve Mollenkopf

CEO, Qualcomm

Salary: $60.7 million

Cash compensation: $2.7 million

Stock and options: $58 million

9. David Hamamoto

CEO, NorthStar Realty Finance

Salary: $60.3 million

Cash compensation: $11.6 million

Stock and options: $48.7million

Change in total pay (1 year): +227%

10. Les Moonves

CEO, CBS

Salary, $54.4 million

Cash compensation: $29.9 million

Stock and options: $24.5 million

Change in total pay (1 year): -6%

11. Philippe P. Dauman

CEO, Viacom

Salary: $44.3 million

Cash compensation: $24.4 million

Stock and options: $19.9 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +19%

12. Bob Iger

CEO, Walt Disney

Salary: $43.7 million

Cash compensation: $26.4 million

Stock and options: $17.3 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +27%

13. Jay Brown

CEO, MBIA

Salary: $43.6 million

Cash compensation: $8 million

Stock and options: $35.6 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +730%

14. Marissa Mayer

CEO Yahoo!

Salary: $42.1 million

Cash compensation: $2.1 million

Stock and options: $39.9 million

Change in total pay (1 year): +69%

15. Leonard Schleifer

CEO, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Salary: $42 million

Cash compensation: $3.3 million

Stock and options: $38.6 million

Change in total pay (1 year): + 15%

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