SINGAPORE: According to The Wall Street Journal, the CEO with the highest compensation package around the globe is Chinese-American business executive Tan Hock Eng of semiconductor company Broadcom.
Mr Tan, born in Penang in 1951, took home an eye-watering US$162 million (S$218.8 million) last year.
Since the average yearly salary in Singapore is around S$70,000, this means that the average Singaporean earns just 0.032 per cent of Mr Tan’s pay package.
Not that this is news to anyone, of course. This is not the first time the businessman made the top of the list of CEOs with the highest salaries. As far back as 2017, he was already named the top-earning CEO in US when he took home US$103.2 million (S$139.31 million) that year, besting Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
WSJ reported that Mr Tan had received an eye-watering 318 per cent increase in his salary from 2016, when he took home “just” US$24.7 million (S$33.34 million).
While his base pay in 2017 was US1.1 million, he received a performance bonus of US$3.7 million, and his shares were valued at US$98.3 million. One can only imagine that these figures are much higher now.
However, for this year, there are strings attached to Mr Tan’s pay package. For instance, his compensation is dependent on whether or not Broadcom’s stock reaches a specific level by next year. Also, he needs to stay on as the company’s CEO for the next five years.
Mr Tan comes from modest beginnings in Penang. He received a scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and by 1975, graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. A few years later, he obtained an MBA at Harvard.
In spite of his millions, Mr Tan has called himself “kind of a frugal guy.” But he is also known for his generosity to causes close to his heart. As the father of two children with autism, he and his family have donated US$30 million (S$40.48 million) to autism research.
He and his Singapore-born wife K. Lisa Yang have also donated millions to MIT and Cornell University, Ms Yang’s alma mater. Their family lived in Singapore for a few years when their children were young, but moved to the United States for their oldest son’s schooling after he was diagnosed with autism. /TISG
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