texas

Highest-Paid CEO in Texas According to Associated Press and Equilar

The median pay for S&P 500 CEOs was $12 million last year

The highest-paid CEO in Texas may not be who you think. Names like Dell, Bass, Perot and Cuban often come to mind, but when it comes to highest-paid CEO, you need to look to a home decor superstore.

Lewis Bird III of Flower Mound-based At Home Group is the top paid CEO in Texas for 2018, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.

Lewis-Bird-III-and-At-Home
Getty Images & Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Lewis Bird III (left) is the CEO of At Home Group, according to The Associated Press and Equilar he's the highest paid CEO in Texas.

The survey considered only publicly traded companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that filed their proxy statements with federal regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30. Not every state has such a company headquartered there. The survey includes only CEOs who have been in place for at least two years, but it does not limit the survey to companies in the S&P 500, as the AP's general compensation study does. That's why it includes such CEOs as Tesla's Elon Musk.

To calculate CEO pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, stock awards, stock option awards, deferred compensation and other components that include benefits and perks. For some companies, big raises can occur when CEOs get a stock grant in one year as part of a multi-year grant.

Median pay for S&P 500 CEOs was $12 million last year. Median means half made more, and half made less.

The Highest-Paide CEOs by State

StateCEO NameCompanyPay
AlabamaJ. Thomas HillVulcan Materials$7.8M
ArizonaRichard AdkersonFreeport-McMoRan$14M
ArkansasC. Douglas McMillonWalmart$23.6M
CaliforniaElon MuskTesla$2.28B
ColoradoGregory MaffeiLiberty Media$20.2M
ConnecticutGlenn FogelBooking Holdings$20.5M
DelawareHerve HoppenotIncyte$9.3M
Washington, D.C.Thomas Joyce, Jr.Danaher$15.4M
FloridaFrank Del RioNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings$22.6M
GeorgiaMartin RichenhagenAGCO$18.6M
HawaiiConstance LauHawaiian Electric Industries$5.7M
IdahoDarrel AndersonIDACORP$4.5M
IllinoisMiles WhiteAbbott Laboratories$24.3M
IndianaDavid RicksEli Lilly$15.7M
IowaDaniel HoustonPrincipal Financial Group$10.5M
KansasThomas Gentile IIISpirit AeroSystems$9.9M
KentuckyWilliam CarstanjenChurchill Downs$21.1M
LouisianaLeo DenaultEntergy$9.3M
MaineJonathan AyersIDEXX Laboratories$6.8M
MarylandDavid ZaslavDiscovery$129.5M
MassachussettsJames HeppelmannPTC$50M
MichiganMary BarraGeneral Motors$21.9M
MinnesotaJames CracchioloAmeriprise Financial$24.8M
MississippiJoe Sanderson, Jr.Sanderson Farms$4.2M
MissouriMichael NeidorffCentene$26.1M
NebraskaLance FritzUnion Pacific$12.8M
NevadaSheldon AdelsonLas Vegas Sands$24M
New HampshireTimothy McGrathPC Connection$4.5M
New JerseyKenneth FrazierMerck$20.9M
New MexicoPatricia CollawnPNM Resources$4.8M
New YorkJames DimonJPMorgan Chase$30M
North CarolinaBrian MoynihanBank of America$22.5M
North DakotaDavid GoodinMDU Resources Group$4.1M
OhioGary HemingerMarathon Petroleum$18.9M
OklahomaHarold HammContinental Resources$13.3M
OregonBryan DeBoerLithia Motors$5.5M
PennsylvaniaBrian RobertsComcast*$35M
Rhode IslandLarry MerloCVS Health$21.9M
South CarolinaJohn WilliamsDomtar$8M
South DakotaDavid EmeryBlack Hills$4.1M (left company on Dec. 31, 2018)
TennesseeR. Milton JohnsonHCA Healthcare$20.1M (left company on Dec. 31, 2018)
TexasLewis Bird IIIAt Home Group$43.1M
UtahJoseph MargolisExtra Space Storage$4.4M
VirginiaPaul SavilleVNVR$39.1M
WashingtonJohn LegereT-Mobile US$66.5M
WisconsinJeffery YabukiFiserv$12.4M

*Editor's Note: Comcast is the parent company of NBC Universal which owns NBC 5 and NBCDFW.com

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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