Executive Compensation: Incentives Drive Salaries

Government bailouts to rescue various Wall Street firms have put the once-hidden practice of awarding outlandish executive salaries and bonuses directly in the cross hairs of lawmakers and the American public. The excesses in the financial/investment banking world that fueled widespread public outrage, however, won't be found among the earnings of principal officers at the largest publicly held printing companies.

In what is now Printing Impressions' 20th annual executive compensation report, stock awards/options and deferred compensation once again were not included in the figures shown here. Only salaries, bonuses, non-equity incentive plans and other compensation were totalled, as reported in the most recent proxy statements of publicly held U.S. and Canadian printing firms.

If stock awards and option awards were included, the rankings would have changed considerably. For instance, Joe Davis of Consolidated Graphics would move up to the top spot with $5,889,638 in total compensation. Alan Schultz of Valassis would have followed with $3,665,544, just ahead of Cenveo Chairman and CEO Robert Burton, who received $3,591,768 in total compensation.

The numbers reported are for the most recent completed and previous fiscal years, which were 2008 and 2007, in several instances. In the cases of Montreal-based Quebecor World and Transcontinental, Jacques Mallette's and François Olivier's earnings in Canadian dollars were converted to their U.S. dollar equivalents for comparison's sake. PI

1) JACQUES MALLETTE (1)
Former President and CEO
Quebecor World 
(Now Worldcolor), Montreal
(Converted to U.S.$$)
Salary + Incentives: : $2,309,522
Other Compensation: : n/a
Total: $2,309,522
Previous Year Total: $793,038
Percentage Change: 191%
(1) Jacques Mallette succeeded Wes Lucas as president and CEO of Quebecor World in December 2007, and also performed the CFO functions from January through July of 2008.

2) ROBERT G. BURTON
Chairman and CEO
Cenveo Inc., Stamford, CT
Salary + Incentives: $1,100,000
Other Compensation: $482,479
Total: $1,582,479
Previous Year Total: $2,691,525
Percentage Change: -41%