Indra Nooyi, Satya Nadella, Bhavesh Patel among highest paid CEOs in world

New Delhi: As many as three Indian origin persons have been named among 100 highest-paid CEOs globally with PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi and LyondellBasell's Bhavesh Patel making it to the top ten list compiled by Equilar.

Chemicals company LyondellBasell Industries' top executive Bhavesh V Patel was ranked sixth on the list with a total compensation of USD 24.5 million, while Nooyi, the Chief Executive of PepsiCo was ranked eighth on the list with a total pay of USD 22.2 million.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft was ranked 26th on the list of 100 highest-paid CEOs with a total compensation of USD 18.3 million.

The overall list was topped by Mark V Hurd and Safra A Catz of Oracle Corp with both boasting a total compensation of USD 53.2 million.

Others on the top 10 include, Robert A Iger of Walt Disney (USD 43.5 million), David M Cote of Honeywell International (USD 33.1 million), General Electric's Jeffrey R Immelt (USD 26.4 million), Randall L Stephenson of AT&T (USD 22.4 million), Rupert Murdoch of Twenty-First Century Fox (USD 22.2 million) and James P Gorman of Morgan Stanley (USD 22 million).

This list is a snapshot of companies that file annual proxy statements before April 1 and aims to provide an early look at CEO pay trends for 2015.

The report further noted that the median pay for Equilar 100 CEOs was USD 14.5 million in fiscal year 2015, up 3 per cent from the previous year.

Interestingly, eight CEOs on the list are female, and they far outpace the median pay for the Equilar 100 as a whole.

"Median compensation for these eight women was USD 20.0 million in 2015, while average pay was USD 22.7 million," Equilar said.

Catz tied with her colleague Hurd as the highest paid individual CEO in the Equilar 100, was the highest paid female with USD 53.2 million.

Apple is the largest company by revenue on the list, totalling USD 233.7 billion in 2015, followed by Berkshire Hathaway with USD 210.8 billion.

"Notably, Tim Cook of Apple was paid below the median (USD 10.3 million) and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway was by far the lowest-paid CEO in the Equilar 100, earning USD 470,244 in total compensation last year," it added.