Egregious Executive Pay Levels

Another year, another big pay day for the top executives at Verizon, AT&T, and recently bankrupt Frontier.

Verizon, AT&T, and the current iteration of Frontier Communications have expanded their listing of executives within their proxy disclosure. The growing roster of the very well compensated even includes several “former” CEOs under consulting contracts.

At Verizon, CEO Hans Vestberg took home $20,342,871 in 2021, up from $19,097,582 in 2020. Meanwhile Mr. Vestberg’s team is boosting its compensation too. Executive Vice President and CFO Matthew Ellis made $9.1 million in 2021.

Ronan Dunne, Group CEO of Verizon Consumer, made $10.7 million, Tami Erwin, Group CEO of Verizon Business, made $8.8 million, and Chief Technology Officer, Kyle Malady, made $7.6 million. K. Guru Gowrappan, Group CEO of Verizon Media received a $3 million bonus, with his total compensation reaching $9,964,442, as Verizon Media was sold to Apollo.

These raises continue in spite of a recent $13.4 million settlement with the FCC and the Department of Justice in relation to the TracFone acquisition to resolve allegations that TracFone violated the False Claims Act by signing up more than 175,000 ineligible customers to the FCC’s Lifeline Program.

Our Association’s 2022 Clawback proposal would cover such willful misconduct issues in the future.

AT&T’s newest CEO John Stankey raked in $24.8 million, even as he was actively cancelling life insurance policies to tens of thousands of loyal retirees, effective Jan 1, 2022.

 

Stankey is catching up to his predecessor, Randall Stephenson, who made $29 million in his final year at the helm of AT&T in 2020.

 

However, there is no easy way to say goodbye to Stephenson just yet.

Stephenson led and presided over the acquisition of Time Warner, now Warner Media. Warner Media was later spun off and merged with Discovery. Stephenson was paid $16.3 million for his services in 2021, which apparently “represents the lift on the proration of his outstanding performance shares.”

AT&T CFO John Stephans stepped down in March 2021, but still cleared $4.1 million. His successor Pascal Desroches managed to earn $11.7 million throughout the balance of the year.

And let’s not forget Frontier Communications, which is made up of many assets across 14 states spun off from Verizon. Over the last year, the Norwalk, CT company has been on a senior executive hiring binge, after emerging from bankruptcy in April of 2021.

Executive Chairman John Stratton made the most at over $48 million in 2021.

Frontier President and CEO Nick Jeffery made $17.2 million. CFO Nick Beasley made $6.09 million, Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer Mark Nielsen made $6.1 million, and Veronica Bloodwork, Chief Network Officer, made $5.6 million. Former CEO Bernard Han made $3.9 million and former CFO Sheldon Bruha $1.7 million, bringing the grand total to about $89 million for the top tier of a still struggling firm.

Whether a bankrupt or healthy company, each year these executive compensation numbers get more and more outrageous. In 2021 the comparative CEO to average worker pay ratio in America averaging at 254 times greater. Perhaps that type of inequity is why the advocacy of your Association of BellTel Retirees is so needed to continue our fight.