CEO Pay Watch: Deluxe's Lee Schram, who retired in November, made $11.7 million last year

Most of Schram's pay came from exercising stock options.

March 21, 2019 at 1:33AM
Retired Deluxe CEO Lee Schram
Retired Deluxe CEO Lee Schram (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Total compensation: $11,717,868 for the year ended Dec. 31

Salary: $999,166

Nonequity incentive pay: $1,102,520

Other compensation: $25,685

Exercised stock options: $7,045,284

Value realized on vesting shares: $2,545,213

New stock options: 81,480

Median employee pay: $59,336

CEO pay ratio: 108:1

Total 2018 shareholder return: -49.0 percent

Note: Schram retired on Nov. 25 and was succeeded by Barry McCarthy, a former executive vice president at Atlanta-based First Data Corp.

Schram became Deluxe's CEO in May 2006. During his tenure leading the Shoreview-based company, he led a shift from the company's legacy check-printing business into small business marketing and web-development services. In the past nine years, Deluxe has increased revenue every year.

In Schram's final year as CEO, he took home $11.7 million in compensation, $9.6 million of which came from previously issued options or stock awards that he exercised or acquired on vesting. He also earned a $1.1 million annual cash incentive bonus that was 87 percent higher than in 2017, as the company's performance against its financial and strategic benchmarks was 85 percent of target.

While Deluxe's shares had a negative total return in 2018, during Schram's 13-year tenure, company shares have performed nearly twice as well as the S&P 500 index.

about the writer

about the writer

Patrick Kennedy

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Business reporter Patrick Kennedy covers executive compensation and public companies. He has reported on the Minnesota business community for more than 25 years.

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