Big Payoff for Pushing Deadly Product
March 07, 2011
Last year's pay packages for tobacco chief executives are now being disclosed in financial filings with the government, and once again a big winner is Susan Ivey, the former CEO of Reynolds American Inc., the nation's second-biggest tobacco company.
Ivey retired in February and she received a 2010 compensation package of $16.8 million, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. That's a 4 percent increase compared with 2009 — a year in which Ivey's compensation had soared by 84 percent.
Meanwhile, Daniel M. Delen, who succeeded Ivey as CEO, received a package of $6.5 million for his previous position as CEO and chairman of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., a Reynolds American subsidiary.
So the two executives raked in a combined $23 million last year. Just how much is $23 million?
It's nearly $52 for each one of the 443,000 Americans who die from tobacco use every year.