Oracle Corporations's Larry Ellison was the highest-paid US chief executive last year with total compensation of $192 million, a survey by a corporate research firm showed.
The Corporate Library survey of top executive pay released yesterday also showed a large number of financial firms' CEOs among the best-compensated despite the meltdown in the sector that began in late 2007 and continued into 2008.
Ellison, founder of the Silicon Valley business software giant, received a base salary of $1 million, with the bulk of the rest coming from stock options worth an estimated $181 million.
Number two on the list was Barry Diller, CEO of IAC/InterActive, which has since split into five entities. Diller got $184 million, also largely from stock options that overshadowed a base salary of $5,00,000.
Third on the list was Angelo Mozilo of the now-defunct Countrywide Financial, who received $124 million in 2007.
Meg Whitman, who left eBay in 2008, was fourth on the 2007 list with $120 million, including $116 million in stock options.
The financial sector included some of the other well-paid CEOs.
Aside from Mozilo, whose mortgage lending firm was absorbed by Bank of America, the list included Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein at number nine ($76 million); Capital One Financial's Richard Faribank at number 11 ($73 million) and Richard Fuld of the failed Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers at number 13 ($71 million).
The Corporate Library report said some highly compensated CEOs have successfully built shareholder value but others have not.
