Filings detail CEO pay at local publicly traded companies

They undoubtedly have challenging jobs — leading companies with several thousand employees, working hard to keep revenue flowing at a healthy clip, and turning a profit to pay salaries and expenses, all while keeping shareholders happy with their investment.

That said, chief executive officers more often than not are paid very handsomely for those responsibilities and the CEOs of the publicly traded firms headquartered in Columbus are no different. At the top of the financial high-rise is Aflac’s Dan Amos, followed by Troy Woods of TSYS, Kessel Stelling of Synovus and David Passman of Carmike Cinemas.

As companies that sell shares of stock to investors, all four of the Columbus entities are required to file reports and other key information routinely with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The string of reports include annual “definitive proxy statements,” or Form DEF 14A, giving those who own stock detailed information to make sound decisions heading into annual shareholder meetings.

That information includes compensation paid to CEOs and other top management, with tables laying out salaries, bonuses, stock awards and options, incentive pay and “all other compensation.” The “other” category typically lists various perks or benefits ranging from auto allowances and personal use of corporate aircraft to life insurance and security services, along with items such as country club dues paid while handling business.

Here is a breakdown of what each CEO made in 2015 at supplemental health and life insurer Aflac, credit-card and payment processor TSYS, regional bank Synovus Financial Corp., and movie-theater chain Carmike Cinemas. This could be the final year that Carmike is headquartered in Columbus, with the company in the process of being purchased in a deal valued at $1.1 billion by Kansas City area-based AMC Entertainment Holdings, operator of AMC Theatres. The buyout is expected to close by the end of this year.

Aflac Inc.

Amos, chairman and CEO of Aflac, took home a salary of $1.4 million, which hasn’t changed over the last three years. In fact, as the firm’s earnings growth in Japan and the U.S. have slowed over that time, his total compensation package has dropped from nearly $18.6 million in 2013 to $15.4 million in 2014 to just under $12 million last year.

In 2015, Amos received stock awards valued at $4.8 million, non-equity incentive plan compensation of $5.5 million and other perks totaling just over $231,000. The bulk of that was for security service for the multimillionaire — nearly $190,000 — with about $22,000 for personal use of a company aircraft.

Total compensation packages of Aflac’s other four top executives, according to the SEC filing, came in at $3.5 million for Aflac Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Frederick Crawford, who joined the insurer at the end of June. Kriss Cloninger, Aflac Inc. president and former CFO, received total compensation of just under $7 million in 2015, down from $8.9 million the year prior. Paul Amos, the son of Dan Amos and president of Aflac, saw total compensation valued at $5.4 million, down from $6.1 million the year before. Eric Kirsch, global chief investment officer and executive vice president, had a package of about $4 million last year, $100,000 more than he earned in 2014.

TSYS (Total System Services)

At TSYS in 2015, CEO Troy Woods took the chairman’s role from longtime CEO Phil Tomlinson. He also carried the title of president, but will give it up to new hire Pamela Joseph on May 1, as she becomes president and chief operating officer. Woods, who has engineered the two largest acquisitions ever by TSYS in prepaid card specialty firm NetSpend and merchant acquiring firm TransFirst, saw his total package climb to nearly $6.2 million last year, up from $4.2 million in 2014 and from nearly $2.4 million in 2013.

Woods’ base salary last year was $843,000, with stock awards valued at about $2 million, option awards of $1.1 million, and non-equity incentive plan compensation of nearly $2 million. “Other” compensation and perks amounted to $122,500. They included contributions to a deferred compensation plan, financial planning fees, life insurance coverage and personal use of corporate aircraft totaling $35,000.

Total pay packages of the other four top executives at TSYS in 2015 were $2.9 million for Paul Todd, chief financial officer and senior executive vice president, up just over $1 million the year before with Todd starting as CFO in July 2014; $2.3 million for William Pruett, senior executive vice president and former CFO, which was up from just under $2 million in 2014; and $2.5 million for Patricia Watson, chief information officer and senior executive vice president, who was hired last September and received a cash award and signing bonus totaling $550,000. Stock awards valued at nearly $1.6 million pushed the figure much higher. A fifth executive, G. Sanders Griffith III, the firm’s general counsel, secretary and senior executive vice president, received a total package of just over $2.2 million last year, up from $1.8 million the year prior.

Synovus Financial Corp.

For Synovus, the SEC filings show Chairman and CEO Kessel Stelling’s total compensation package nearly doubling since 2013, with the company becoming more profitable and putting the U.S. financial crisis further behind it to the point that acquisition speculation has died down and Wall Street analysts occasionally ask the banking executive about buying other financial institutions. That has meant a rise from from $2.2 million in total compensation in 2013 to $3.4 million in 2014 to just over $4.2 million last year.

Stelling’s base salary in 2015 was $962,269, which was actually down from over $1.1 million the year prior. But his non-equity incentive plan pay jumped by $367,000 to more than $1.2 million last year. His stock awards, valued at nearly $1.8 million, were also higher, as were his “other” compensation and perks. About $150,000 of the latter category was deferred compensation plan contributions by the company, with a housing allowance of $26,400 and an auto allowance of $6,000, along with transportation costs of more than $14,000 and financial planning service costing $50,000.

Total packages last year for the remaining four top executives at Synovus were nearly $1.3 million for Thomas Prescott, chief financial officer and executive vice president, up from $1.1 million in 2014; nearly $1.3 million for Allen Gula, chief operations officer and executive vice president, which was up from $954,494 the year before; about $1 million for Allen Kamensky, general counsel, secretary and executive vice president, up from $964,626 the year prior; and $1 million for J. Barton Singleton, the executive vice president who oversees Financial Management Services. With Synovus since 2005, this is the first year the bank has reported his compensation as a top executive.

Carmike Cinemas

Rounding out the SEC filings for 2015 was Carmike Cinemas CEO and President David Passman, who turned the motion-picture exhibitor around in a major way through improvement of older theaters, steadily opening up new theaters nationwide with build-to-suit lease deals, and snatching up smaller theater chains that fit his company’s strategy. Ultimately, the firm’s comeback drew the admiring eye of AMC Entertainment Holdings and helped push Passman’s total compensation package to just under $3.9 million last year, up from $3.2 million in 2014 and from $3.1 million in 2013.

Passman’s base salary in 2015 was $770,000, with him receiving a bonus of $120,120, stock awards valued at $1.9 million, non-equity incentive plan pay of about $680,000 and “other” compensation and perks topping $408,000. That included deferred compensation contributions, life insurance, nearly $15,000 for use of a company-provided vehicle, more than $168,000 for personal use of company aircraft, living expenses totaling $73,500 and more than $15,000 for club membership dues.

Compensation packages in 2015 for the other top executives at Carmike totaled nearly $1.3 million for Richard Hare, chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance, up from $1.1 million the year before; $1.5 million for Fred Van Noy, chief operating officer and senior vice president, higher than the $1.3 million he received the year prior; just over $1 million for Daniel Ellis, general counsel, secretary and senior vice president, up from $951,220 a year earlier; and more than $1.1 million for A. Dale Mayo, president of alternative programming, which was up from $362,424 with the executive taking the job in August 2014.

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Filings detail CEO pay at local publicly traded companies."