Amos, Anthony, Tomlinson earn big in 2009

They’re three different CEOs who headed in distinctly different directions in terms of how much they were paid in 2009.

At the top of the compensation ladder among publicly traded companies headquartered in Columbus was Dan Amos, according to proxy filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The chairman and chief executive officer of supplemental insurer Aflac Inc. was paid handsomely last year, drawing a total pay package of $13.6 million, up 26 percent from $10.8 million in 2008. He led his company to a $1.5 billion profit in 2009, which was a 15 percent improvement from $1.3 billion in net earnings the prior year.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Richard Anthony, who experienced a 60 percent cut in compensation — with his package tumbling from about $3 million in 2008 to nearly $1.2 million last year.

The chairman and CEO of Synovus Financial Corp., a regional bankholding company, has dealt with a mountain of loan write-offs over the last two years amid a severe national recession, housing-market implosion and financial crisis. Company losses in 2009 and 2008 were $1.47 billion and $584 million, respectively. Synovus has shed 1,000 jobs during that time, slashed other expenses to become more efficient and received nearly $968 million in preferred stock sales from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The man in the middle of Amos and Anthony is Phil Tomlinson, who despite posting a profit last year — albeit smaller than in 2008 — had a 13 percent bite taken out of his pay package. It dropped from nearly $5.3 million to about $4 million.

The chairman and CEO of TSYS, a global credit card and payment processor, has had to grapple with the economic downturn, along with key clients moving their business elsewhere. The $215 million profit posted by the company in 2009 was more than 11 percent lower than the year before. On top of that, TSYS has projected earnings will slide as much as 15 percent this year and already has cut 5 percent of its work force or about 400 positions.

Aflac and TSYS on Friday said the executives most appropriate for commenting on compensation were not available.

Synovus issued a statement from Anthony pointing out its executive pay structure is specifically tied to how the firm performs.

“Clearly, we are focused on building a successful future for team members, customers and investors, and believe we have the right team to lead us back to long-term success,” the CEO said. “ As Synovus emerges stronger from this challenging economic cycle, we remain committed to properly and appropriately rewarding the many talented team members who are dedicated to serving our customers, strengthening our company and returning us to profitability.”

Publicly traded companies are required each year to disclose in SEC filings the compensation of their top five executives. The information is typically viewed by existing and prospective shareholders and investors following the firms.

Anthony, the most beleaguered of the local CEOs, was paid a base salary of $928,200 last year, the same as in 2008. He and the other top Synovus executives received no bonus or stock awards.

The percentage decline last year, however, was skewed somewhat by the CEO receiving a $1.4 million stock-option grant in 2008 tied to the spinoff of TSYS from its longtime parent company. Factoring out the one-time grant, Anthony’s pay package would have dropped 25 percent from 2008 to 2009 instead of 60 percent.

The CEO, in a recent interview, expressed frustration with how executive compensation is perceived by the public.

“When companies are not performing as well as they need to be, that’s one of the first points of attack,” he said. “Not from your more sophisticated shareholders, but I think maybe the public in general. And I think compensation disclosures sometimes can be so complicated that people believe there’s more value than really exists.”

Still, Anthony said he is sensitive to the company’s investors and understands the backlash that can occur when profits and dividends plunge as they have at Synovus and many other banks across the U.S.

“I feel badly for our shareholders. I feel responsible,” he said. “We are doing, and I’m doing, everything within our power to return to a level of strength so that we can restore the dividend to a higher level and so that we can begin to demonstrate the creation of value from this very low base that we have gotten down to here in recent times.”

Tomlinson, during an interview in which he disclosed the companywide layoffs, which were completed at the end of February, said TSYS lost business had cost the firm about $150 million in revenue. He was even more incredulous about the potential 15 percent earnings drop this year, something that has never happened at the company.

That means no merit increases this year for the rank-and-file work force, he said, but also no pay cuts. As for top executives, everything will remain “static,” with no raises or bonuses.

“There may be stock options awarded at some time in the year,” Tomlinson said. “But you have to understand stock options; they’re not worth anything unless the price of the stock goes up considerably.”

Tomlinson did receive a slight bump in his base pay last year, with it rising from $827,774 in 2008 to $840,000.

That also was the case with Amos, whose base salary increased from $1.3 million to $1.4 million. The CEO who gave the ultimate approval for the landmark Aflac duck advertising campaign a decade ago has said he expects company earnings to climb as much as 15 percent this year. The company also has improved operating earnings for 20 straight years with Amos at the helm.

Although the chief executive took home a $4.1 million performance-based bonus last year, it countered his move in 2008 when he turned down a $2.8 million bonus.

At the time, Aflac said the firm’s board of directors accepted Amos’ proposal to decline the bonus because “although Aflac delivered a strong operating performance in 2008, it is not reflected in the company’s stock price given the current turbulence in the stock markets.”

If he had received that bonus two years ago, Amos would have made around $13.6 million — the same amount he did in 2009.

Nationwide, falling executive compensation in 2009 was definitely the norm and not the exception among larger corporations, according to California-based research firm Equilar.

A study of more than 230 proxy filings of firms with at least $1 billion in annual revenue found that bonuses were down 12.6 percent, from an average of $930,133 in 2008 to $812,799 last year. Nearly 46 percent of CEOs took home no bonus at all. It also said that more companies are re-evaluating their performance goals amid the U.S. economic downturn.

Leading economists believe the recession, which began in December 2007, technically ended last summer, although a rebound is expected to be slower than usual.