AT&T CEO John Stankey ranked first among the five executives in CRN’s 2021 compensation roundup, with $24,820,879 in reported total compensation. The exact figures come from AT&T’s 2022 proxy statement, published the year after the compensation was earned; they are total-compensation disclosures, not salary figures.
AT&T’s five highest-compensated executives in 2021
Ranked by the exact totals in AT&T’s Summary Compensation Table, these were the five executives featured in CRN’s April 8, 2022 article:
| Rank | Executive and position reported by AT&T | 2021 total compensation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Stankey, CEO | $24,820,879 |
| 2 | Jeff McElfresh, CEO, AT&T Communications LLC | $12,329,529 |
| 3 | Pascal Desroches, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO | $11,745,133 |
| 4 | David McAtee, Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel | $10,542,922 |
| 5 | Lori Lee, CEO, Latin America and Global Marketing Officer | $7,509,257 |
CRN’s article rounded the totals to $24.82 million for Stankey, $12.39 million for McElfresh, $11.75 million for Desroches, $10.54 million for McAtee, and $7.51 million for Lee. The McElfresh figure differs from AT&T’s exact proxy total: $12,329,529, or about $12.33 million, not $12.39 million. The exact figures above follow the company filing. See CRN’s April 8, 2022 ranking and AT&T’s 2022 proxy statement filed with the SEC.
What “total compensation” includes
The amounts are not annual salaries. AT&T’s Summary Compensation Table combines salary with stock awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, changes in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, and all other compensation. A large reported total can therefore reflect awards and accounting measures as well as cash pay.
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Stock awards are grant-date values
AT&T reports 2021 stock-award figures at grant-date value for performance shares and restricted stock units. Performance-share distributions depended on performance goals, with possible payouts ranging from 0% to 160% of target; the shares’ value at distribution also depended on AT&T’s stock price. The table’s stock-award figure is not a statement of the amount ultimately realized.
“All other compensation” is a defined category
AT&T says this category includes personal benefits, relocation benefits, consulting payments and benefits, company-paid life insurance premiums, and company matching contributions to deferral plans. The filing also says Stankey and former CEO Randall Stephenson reimbursed AT&T for the incremental cost of personal aircraft use.
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Why the proxy lists more executives than CRN’s five
CRN selected five people for its ranking; that is not the full population covered by AT&T’s disclosure. The proxy says its named-executive-officer table includes the CEO, the two individuals who served as CFO during the year, and three other highest-compensated executive officers. It also includes a seventh named executive officer who had retired but would have been among the highest-compensated group if active at year-end.
For context, CRN reported that AT&T had $168.86 billion in 2021 total operating revenues, down 1.7% from $171.76 billion in 2020, and that the company closed its DirecTV sale to TPG for $7.1 billion in cash in 2021. Those company-level figures do not change the basis of the executive compensation totals.
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