CEOs Paid INXS

The 1st Annual OMP Award!

Times are tough. But not for everybody. That is, not if you're the Chief Executive Officer of a major multi-million dollar corporation in the United States of America! Most likely for you, it's a wonderful life.

I Read It On The Internet - or better known by it's acronym IRIOTI - has decided to pay tribute to some other acrimonious acronyms....the CEOS that were paid INXS for 2005. The OMP Award - named after the character Old Man Potter from 'It's A Wonderful Life', is awarded to those who excel at excess, at the expense of its employees and stockholders. Any one of these nominees would make Mr. Potter proud.


Here are our official picks:



Larry Johnston - Albertson's
Larry Johnston is the CEO of the supermarket superchain Albertson's. Mr. Johnston has paid himself a total of about $76 million dollars in over the past four years....while stockholders of Albertson's watched as their stocks fell 39% over that same period. Talk about a clean-up in Aisle 7!



Scott McNealy - Sun Microsystems
Scott McNealy, the founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems, awarded himself a salary of over $13 million dollars over the past four years....while the sun went down on the stockholders, who lost about 76% of their investments.



Gary Smith - Ciena
Ciena's stockholders have literally lost 93% of their investments in Ciena over the past four years. But Ciena CEO Gary Smith has seen a salary of approximately $41 million dollars over that same period.


And the Old Man Potter Award for 2005 goes to.....



Richard Fairbank - Capital One
Mr. Fairbank banked a whopping $85 million dollars - the very same year that Capital One closed its Tampa, Florida credit card center....laying off more than 1000 employees! Old Man Potter would most definitely be proud!

Well, at least now we know....what's in your wallet, Richard!