James Owens H.B. Fuller Co.
President and CEO
Total compensation: $5,879,823 for the year ended Nov. 30
Salary: $1,031,760
Nonequity incentive pay: $474,511
Other compensation: $324,922
Exercised stock options: $1,740,930
Value realized on vesting shares: $2,307,700
New stock options: 182,039
Total fiscal 2016 shareholder return: 18.3 percent
Note: Owens' total compensation more than doubled from the $2.86 million he took home the previous year and would have been more but the board's compensation committee reduced the annual cash incentive pay of executives.
In early December, H.B. Fuller announced a $17 million to $20 million restructuring plan that would eliminate 220 jobs at the Vadnais Heights-based maker of industrial adhesives. In the third quarter, the board's compensation committee, using its discretion and citing cost containment efforts, reduced the payout under the 2016 short-term incentive plan by 50 percent.
Owens' salary and annual incentive bonus increased modestly, but the value of previously issued equity awards that were either exercised or vested during the year went from $1.2 million to $4 million.
For fiscal 2016, the compensation committee of H.B. Fuller's board added a financial metric to 50 percent of the restricted stock awards granted to executives. Owens, who already had financial measures pegged to half of his restricted stock awards, had more financial components tied to the remainder of his restricted stock grants.
Patrick Kennedy
