eBusiness Weekly
Since the CEO position is prestigious, lucrative, and the most powerful office in an organisation, every employee aspires to be there someday. Even entrepreneurs and investors dream of becoming the highest paid CEOs in the world because they would be overseeing the most successful business on the planet.
The highest paid CEOs in the world make a lot of money from the reputable companies they govern. Most have maintained these much-coveted positions for decades because they are the founders. Others rose through the ranks to get to the CEO levels, and some changed companies before becoming CEOs where they are now.
Most of the highest-paid CEOs in the world work for companies that are the backbone of new technology and inventions. Since some of these companies have spearheaded historical innovations, this confirms that the best CEOs are naturally brilliant and academic giants. Below are interesting details about the highest paid CEOs in the world.
- David Zaslav — $246 million
Full name: David Zaslav
Born: 15th January 1960
Age: 62 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Nationality: American
David Zaslav’s 2021 payment soared to $246 million (from $37.7 million in 2020 and $45.8 million in 2019) ahead of the Warner Media merger this year. Discovery Inc. disclosed the CEO’s compensation and other senior executives in a regulatory filing.
David has been Discovery’s CEO since January 2007. He was born in New York and attended Boston University School of Law. He worked as an attorney for a short period before joining NBC Universal for 20 years as Cable and Domestic Television’s president.
- Tim Cook— $265 million
Full name: Timothy Donald Cook
Born: 1st November 1960
Age: 61 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: Mobile, Alabama, USA
Nationality: American
Cook was a chief operating officer at Apple Inc. before becoming its CEO in 2011. Since he served under the company’s co-founder Steve Jobs, Cook was deemed the right person to take over the CEO position even before Steve died in October 2011.
While Steve Jobs’ innovative products like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone received global attention, Cook streamlined the company’s operations and supply chain to make it successful.
Before joining Apple, Tim was Compaq’s vice president of corporate materials. He was responsible for procuring and managing all of Compaq’s product inventory.
Cook’s mum, Geraldine, was a pharmacy employee, while his dad, Donald, was a shipyard worker. He grew up in Robertsdale and attended Robertsdale High School.
Cook earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University (1982) and got a Master’s in Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (1988). Apple Inc. pays him over $265 million per annum.
- Sundar Pichai — $280.6 million
Full name: Pichai Sundararajan
Born: 10th June 1972
Age: 49 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: Madurai, India
Nationality: Indian
Sundar Pichai’s annual compensation as the CEO of Alphabet and Google is $280.6 million. He got the position in October 2015 and became a member of the Board of Directors in July 2017. In addition, the CEO was granted a $240 million stock package in 2019, which will vest in 2023.
Sundar has a Metallurgical Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, an M.S in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School. He started at Google in 2004 as a material engineer, and some of his projects at Google include Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, and Android.
- Geoffrey Price — $356.2 million
Full name: Geoffrey Price
Born: 1982
Age: 40 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: USA
Nationality: American
Geoffrey Price has been Oak Street Health’s CEO and a board member since 2012. Before co-founding this company, he was Boston Consulting Group’s consultant (2010-2012) and project leader (2012- 2013). He gets over $356.2 million annually at Oak Street Health.
Price is 40 years old and holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
- Alex Karp — $369.6 million
Full name: Alexander Caedmon Karp
Born: 2nd October 1967
Age: 54 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Nationality: American
Karp is the co-founder and CEO of a software firm called Palantir Technologies. He met fellow co-founder, billionaire Peter Thiel (a Facebook investor) while at Stanford Law School.
Karp created Caedmon Group, a London-based money management firm, before establishing Palantir in 2004. He occasionally teaches meditation classes at the company. Karp’s annual compensation at Palantir is over $369.6 million.
The billionaire struggled with dyslexia growing up in Philadelphia. His Jewish dad and an African-American mum sent him to Central High School. He later earned a Bachelor’s degree from Haverford College in (Haverford, Pennsylvania (1989), a JD degree from Stanford University (1992), and a Dr Phil. degree in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany (2002).
- Eric Wu — $388.7 million
Full name: Eric Wu
Born: 1982/1983
Age: 39 or 40 years (when 2022 ends)
Eric Wu is the Co-founder and CEO of Opendoor online real estate company. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Arizona.
After graduating, he combined his coding and real estate passions to establish his first real estate tech start-up. In 2008, Wu co-founded RentAdvisor.com for people to post reviews of neighbourhoods and landlords.
He sold RentAdvisor to Apartment List in 2013 after creating a location data analytics company called Movity.com. The company analysed the neighbourhood’s crime statistics, commute times, real estate prices, and other data for home buyers.
Wu sold Movity.com to Trulia in 2011 and co-founded Opendoor with Keith Rabois in 2014. Since the entrepreneur was 36 years in 2019, he will be 39 or 40 years old when 2022 ends. Wu receives annual compensation of over $388.7 million from Opendoor.
- Douglas Hirsch — $497.8 million
Full name: Douglas Joseph Hirsch
Born: January 1970
Age: 52 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: USA
Nationality: American
The GoodRx co-founder, co-CEO, and director previously held senior positions at Facebook and Yahoo! Hirsch holds a BA in Political Science from Tufts University. He also served as DailyStrength’s CEO, a healthcare-focused social network centred on support groups, from March 2005 to November 2008. Douglas lives in West Palm Beach in Florida and earns more than $497.8 million annual compensation from GoodRx.
- Trevor Bezdek — $497.8 million
Full name: Trevor Bezdek
Born: 1979
Age: 43 years (as of 2022)
Birthplace: USA
Nationality: American
Trevor Bezdek, Griffin Myers, and Doug Hirsch are GoodRx’s co-founders. Bezdek is also the company’s secretary and director. The digital telemedicine platform connects the public to stores with prescriptions they need at lower prices.
Bezdek was born to American parents in the US and raised alongside his siblings. He attended local schools and graduated from Stanford University before starting his career. GoodRx Company pays Trevor over $497.8 million per annum.
- Mike Pykosz — $568.4 million
Full name: Michael T. Pykosz
Born: 1983
Age: 39 years (when 2022 ends)
Birthplace: USA
Nationality: American
Mike Pykosz is a co-founder and CEO of Oak Street Health, a network of primary care centres for adults on Medicare. He has a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame and a JD degree from Harvard Law School.
Pykosz was a Payers and Providers practice member at The Boston Consulting Group. He and two BCG colleagues created Oak Street Health in 2013 after noticing low-income seniors going to the emergency room instead of their primary care physicians. As a result, Medicare managed-care plans encountered huge hospital bills.
Oak Street Health saved hospitals enough money to reinvest in primary care by reducing emergency room usage and hospitalizations. In addition, they offered doctors’ appointments, free transport, and a care team for each physician to manage chronic illnesses.
Oak Street Health now has over 20 clinics and more than 750 employees. It serves over 28,000 patients in 6 markets across 3 states. Mike Pykosz’s total annual compensation is $568.4 million.
- Elon Musk — $6.7 billion
Full name: Elon Reeve Musk FRS
Born: 28th June 1971
Age: 50 years (when 2022 ends)
Birthplace: Pretoria, South Africa
Nationality: American, Canadian, South African
Elon Musk is the highest paid CEO in the world in 2022. The SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO gets over $6.7 billion in annual compensation. SpaceX creates rockets while Tesla makes electric cars. He also co-founded the electronic payment firm PayPal.
Musk was born to a Canadian mum and a White South African dad. He grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, and briefly attended the University of Pretoria before relocating to Canada at age 17.
Musk graduated from Queen’s University and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania two years late. He moved to California in 1995 to study at Stanford University but decided to pursue a business career. — Briefly News
