In a 2018 report on pay packages mostly from fiscal 2016, the reported totals for 25 executives with CIO or closely related technology roles at large U.S. companies ranged from $1,908,700 to $8,397,989. Those figures were not salary alone: they could include annual bonuses, stock and option awards, and other compensation. They are historical reported figures—not a measure of what CIOs make today.
The original CIO article was published September 19, 2018, and used the latest packages its authors could find at the time, mostly from 2016. Its sample is selective, and some executives had broader technology, operations, or transformation responsibilities than a CIO title alone suggests.
What the reported pay packages show
The examples below reproduce figures and component labels reported by CIO in 2018; they are not recalculated from company filings. The article’s displayed breakdowns do not show every component for every person. “Not shown” means no separate amount appears in that breakdown; it does not mean the component was necessarily zero.
| Executive and role as reported | Company | Salary | Bonus | Stock and options | Other | Reported total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Stevens, SVP of operations and CIO | CDW | $330,279 | $617,490 | $376,696 | $584,235 | $1,908,700 |
| Scott Laverty, EVP and CIO | JCPenney | $473,333 | $553,449 | $1,020,004 | $59,760 | $2,106,546 |
| Keith Rohland, CIO | US Foods | $475,000 | $1,122,100 | $590,445 | $20,248 | $2,207,793 |
| Anil Cheriyan, EVP and CIO | SunTrust Banks | $500,000 | $598,500 | $1,229,623 | $40,850 | $2,368,973 |
| David Thompson, EVP, Global Operations and CTO | Western Union | $533,300 | $524,400 | $1,418,400 | $55,900 | $2,532,000 |
| Ram Chandrashekar, EVP of operational excellence and IT | ManpowerGroup | $568,035 | $500,000 | $1,400,088 | $101,760 | $2,569,883 |
| Dave Barnes, CIO | UPS | $491,439 | $251,458 | $1,930,658 | $25,262 | $2,698,817 |
| Wayne Shurts, EVP and CTO | Sysco | $601,675 | $772,933 | $1,318,029 | $45,730 | $2,738,367 |
| Pawan Verma, EVP and CIO/CTO | Foot Locker | $216,071 | $664,053 | $1,890,267 | $130,638 | $2,901,029 |
| Matt Carey, EVP and CIO | Home Depot | $710,385 | $834,079 | $2,190,187 | $18,478 | $3,753,129 |
| Robert B. Carter, EVP, information services and CIO | FedEx | $762,960 | $385,793 | $1,568,014 | $1,252,727 | $3,969,494 |
| Deborah Butler, EVP of Planning and CIO | Norfolk Southern | $450,000 | Not shown | $1,399,184 | $2,169,698 | $4,018,882 |
| Meg McCarthy, EVP, Operations and Technology | Aetna | $627,960 | $737,880 | $2,774,536 | $124,189 | $4,264,565 |
| Chris Hjelm, EVP and CIO | Kroger | $653,368 | $1,302,852 | $2,772,636 | Not shown | $4,728,856 |
| Martin Lippert, EVP and Global Head of Technology and Operations | MetLife | $681,250 | $2,300,000 | $2,369,817 | Not shown | $5,351,067 |
| Neville Ray, EVP and CTO | T-Mobile | $598,462 | $2,409,960 | $2,679,467 | $10,600 | $5,698,489 |
| Julie Bushman, SVP of Business Transformation and IT | 3M | $599,029 | $653,176 | $3,630,025 | $1,102,874 | $5,985,104 |
| Tyler Best, EVP and CIO | Hertz | $553,846 | $2,780,000 | $3,143,627 | $78,648 | $6,556,121 |
| Adriana Karaboutis, EVP Technology, Business Solutions, and Corporate Affairs | Biogen | $133,846 | $2,188,165 | $5,265,820 | $159,026 | $7,746,857 |
| Philip Fasano, EVP and CIO | AIG | $1,038,462 | $5,492,000 | $1,606,091 | $261,436 | $8,397,989 |
Source for all figures in the table: CIO’s September 19, 2018 report linked above. It describes a 25-executive sample; the entries shown here are the examples itemized in the available breakdown, not a complete reproduction of all 25.
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What counts as a CIO’s total compensation?
A salary figure is only one part of a public company’s reported executive compensation. The companion Network World analysis groups compensation into three broad buckets:
- Cash: salary, annual bonus, and performance-based bonus.
- Equity: stock and option awards.
- Extras: perks and other items, which can include pension-value gains and earnings on nonqualified deferred compensation.
The table illustrates why headline totals can be misleading if read as a paycheck. In the 2018 account, Norfolk Southern’s Deborah Butler had $2,169,698 in “other” compensation, with deferred and retirement compensation contributing substantially. FedEx’s Robert B. Carter’s $1,252,727 in other compensation included items such as private-jet use and security services, according to the article.
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Why a reported total is not necessarily money received that year
Company compensation tables can include the accounting value of stock and option awards, not just cash paid in the fiscal year. A grant’s reported value does not establish what the executive later realized by selling shares or exercising options. As a current illustration of the accounting distinction—not a revaluation of the executives above—Apple’s 2026 proxy statement says its stock-award column uses grant-date fair value for accounting purposes and explains the valuation of performance-based awards.
Timing also matters. CIO reported that UPS’s Dave Barnes had left the company in 2016 and that deferred compensation contributed to his reported figure. Biogen’s Adriana Karaboutis left in May 2017, but her 2017 work qualified her for the report; AIG’s Philip Fasano left in March 2017. These cases show why a reported package should not automatically be treated as a full-year, in-role salary.
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The article’s 25-person list is a selective sample of public-company executives, not a census of CIO pay. Public disclosures cover certain top officers, so IT chiefs who are not among the executives whose compensation must be reported may be missing. Network World put the limitation plainly: “There are undoubtedly higher paid IT chiefs whose compensation is not publicly reported.”
The roles also vary. Some people in the sample were CTOs or led broader operations, administration, digital, or business-transformation portfolios. Shurts, for example, was included as Sysco’s EVP and CTO because his remit involved inward-facing work associated with a CIO; other titles likewise reflect responsibilities beyond a conventional CIO job. That makes the list useful for seeing the scale and composition of disclosed executive packages, but not for a like-for-like ranking of CIOs performing identical work.
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How to interpret the older median-pay comparison
Network World’s separate 2015 analysis said the median pay for its own 25-CIO analysis topped $2.4 million. That is a different, older sample and should not be treated as the median for CIO’s 2018 feature or as a current benchmark. The 2018 article does not establish a current CIO-wide median or market estimate.
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