Directors

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The annual retainer paid to directore at seven of the 20 largest public companies in the Tampq Bay area forwhich year-to-year comparisonw are available increased in 2008 compared to 2007. Increase ranged from 6.7 percent to 100 Tampa Bay Business Journal research The findings mirror those in a national study by the independent research firmThe , which said 2008 was the thire year of double-digit increases in board pay. pay jumped, even as CEO pay both in the Bay area and A studyby Equilar, a San Francisco informatiobn services firm, found CEO pay dropped 6.8 percentr in 2008 for 500 companies.
Like executivre pay, directors’ pay is made up of several usually a blendof cash, stock and options. At many directors receive an annual retainer and extra compensation for attending meetings or chairinga committee. Directors have takenm on greater liability and spendd more time on regulatory compliance sinc the passage ofthe Sarbanes-Oxle Act of 2002, said Olga a shareholder at the Tampa law firm .
“If you have that kind of exposured you expect to be compensated for But companies also are wary of the publidc perception that they are payinhg executives unfairly when other parts of the firm are takingf cost reductions orpay cuts, said Michaekl Weeks, senior associate director of the at the and assistantg professor of management. He does not expect to see increasezsin directors’ pay in 2009. “Although executives may be having to work hardefr and boards having to exercisemore oversight, they don’t want a scenarilo where their compensation practices come into a bad light,” Weekse said.
It wasn’t until late in the thirdx quarter of 2008 when the deptjh of the financial crisis became so Weeks said some of the dataregardinb directors’ pay could be lagginvg economic realities. For instance, directors at ( : COT) voter in June to raise their retainefr by nearly 28 percentfrom $56,656 to Cott sets director compensation “at a levelk that reflects the significant amount of time and high skill levepl required of directors in performingf their duties to Cott and to its the company said in its proxyh filing with the .
During 2008, directors at the Tamp a beverage firm dealt with both turnovef in CEOs and a changein strategy, refocusintg on retailer-branded soft drinks. The biggest percentage increassein directors’ pay was at (Nasdaq: The Seminole manufacturer said in its 2008 proxy that directorxs were paid $3,000 a twice the quarterly compensation liste d in the 2007 proxy. Michael Benstock, CEO, said the boars reevaluated compensation after many years withoutany change. “Wew did a study of similar companies of similar size andtheirf directors’ compensation and found that ours were grosslyu under market,” Benstock said.
“We triefd to bring it close to market for our directors but not quitdeto market. We still believe that our directorxs fall below market in termse oftheir compensation.” A handful of directors at Tampa Bay area companiezs have expertise that puts them in high demanxd to serve on corporate Directors at (NYSE: ROP), a Sarasotw manufacturer, are among the most sought Five of the nine directors serve on at least two other corporates boards. The highest-paid director in the Bay area is Steve chairmanof (Nasdaq: TECD).
who stepped down as CEO of Tech Data in continues to receivea $200,000 salarhy as a part-time employee of Tech Data, part of the $797,500 in totalk compensation he received from the company in 2008. He also receivedr board compensationof $303,356 from and $116,2311 from (NYSE: WCC), bringing Raymund’s total 2008 compensation from board service to $1.2 million. —Margiwe Manning