(Bloomberg News) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. awarded Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein $12.4 million in total compensation for 2011, down 35 percent from $19.1 million a year earlier, as the firm's stock and profit fell.
Blankfein's pay included a $3 million cash bonus, $7 million in restricted stock, $2 million in salary and $449,600 in other benefits, according to a proxy statement today from the New York-based firm. Last year it granted him $5.4 million in cash, $12.6 million in restricted stock, a $600,000 salary and about $464,100 in benefits for 2010.
Goldman Sachs, the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, set Blankfein's compensation after earnings dropped 47 percent, the stock tumbled 46 percent and the firm eliminated 2,400 jobs. His pay compared with a $10.5 million package awarded to Morgan Stanley Chairman and CEO James Gorman, $15 million granted to Citigroup Inc. CEO Vikram Pandit and $23 million for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.
Goldman Sachs's compensation committee, which decides how much to pay top executives, has been chaired by James A. Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae, as long as Goldman Sachs has been a public company.
While pay is up from 2008, when Blankfein and six other senior officers were awarded no bonuses, it remains below his record-setting $67.9 million compensation package for 2007.
Viniar, Cohn
Chief Financial Officer David A. Viniar, 56, President and Chief Operating Officer Gary D. Cohn, 51, and Vice Chairmen J. Michael Evans, 54, and John S. Weinberg, 55, were each awarded $11.85 million for their performance during the year, plus benefits. The value of their benefits ranged from $185,500 for Evans to $242,700 for Cohn, according to the filing.
Like Blankfein, their awards included $3 million cash bonuses and $7 million in restricted stock.
The firm disclosed in January 2011 that Blankfein's salary would increase to $2 million in 2011 from $600,000 previously and that Cohn, Viniar, Evans and Weinberg get salaries of $1.85 million apiece. Each of them had received $600,000 salaries since 1999, the year the firm became a public company.
Blankfein, 57, and 10 deputies reaped a total of $107.8 million during 2011 from their investments in private equity and hedge funds managed by the firm, according to the proxy.
SEC's Method
Blankfein's payments, which included profits, any return of capital, and a share in the so-called overrides the firm receives for managing the funds, totaled $22.2 million.
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires that the company's proxy disclose how much compensation executives received during the fiscal year. Under that methodology, which includes awards received during 2011 for performance in prior years, Blankfein received a total of $16.2 million in compensation, up from $14.1 million in 2010.
The firm is set to hold its annual shareholder meeting at 9:30 a.m. on May 24 at its office in Jersey City, New Jersey, according to the proxy.