Douglas Baker Jr. Ecolab Inc. chairman & CEO
Total compensation: $22,348,908 for year ended Dec. 31, 2017
Salary: $1,237,500
Nonequity incentive pay: $1,856,300
Other compensation: $243,608
Exercised stock options: $14,195,646
Value realized on vesting shares: $4,815,854
New stock options: 172,742
Total 2017 shareholder return: 15.8 percent
CEO pay ratio: 238:1
Median employee pay: $60,556
Note: Baker took home 11.7 percent less in 2017 than he did in 2016.
Baker, who joined the St. Paul-based company in 1998 and has been chairman and CEO since 2004, is exercising options nearing the end of their 10-year life. He realized 22.6 percent less from stock option gains in 2017, which pulled down his overall compensation. Most other compensation categories went up.
Baker saw a 4.2 percent increase to his base salary and a 9.3 percent increase to his annual incentive pay. Baker and other Ecolab executives mostly earned larger annual incentive pay than the previous year as performance against pre-established goals hit 98 percent of target for the year.
More than three-quarters of Baker's pay plan is composed of long-term equity awards, half from stock options and half from performance-based restricted stock awards. Baker realized 24 percent more in 2017 from restricted stock awards. The performance-based restricted stock awards are based on the company's return on invested capital over the last three years, and Baker and other officials earned the maximum award.
Patrick Kennedy
