T-Mobile US Inc. CEO Mike Sievert ranked as the highest-paid telecommunications CEO among U.S.-listed companies in 2020, buoyed by a large stock award as Sievert took the reins of the U.S. wireless carrier following its merger with Sprint Corp.
Sievert, who succeeded outspoken telecommunications executive John Legere as head of T-Mobile, earned a total compensation of $54.9 million, including $44.3 million in stock awards. The stock awards included a one-time special equity award of $20 million in April 2020 following Sievert's promotion to CEO. Additionally, T-Mobile paid Sievert a one-time retention bonus of $3.5 million on top of his base salary of $1.4 million, contributing to total cash compensation of $5.1 million. The executive also received $5.6 million in nonequity incentives.
In second place was Liberty Global PLC's Mike Fries, who ranked as the highest-paid CEO in the telecom sector in 2019. Fries' total compensation dropped 63.5% to $45.0 million in 2020, comprised of $2.3 million in cash, $16.9 million in stock awards, $15.5 million in options, and $10.3 million in nonequity incentives. Fries' 2019 compensation was boosted by a large award of stock and options, as well as a sign-on bonus when his contract was renewed in April 2019.
In 2020, Fries' compensation benefited from a 2.5% base salary hike for some of Liberty Global's named executive officers, which took effect in April 2020. His base salary would have been about $2.6 million, had Fries not donated to the company's response fund for employees affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Vonage Holdings Corp. CEO Rory Read ranked a distant third place among the highest-paid telecom CEOs in 2020, with $29.0 million in total compensation, including $24.5 million in stock awards.
AT&T Inc.'s John Stankey placed fourth with total adjusted compensation of $21.0 million, down 6.5% year over year. Stankey's base salary and short-term target incentives decreased after he succeeded Randall Stephenson as CEO in July, in part due to the new CEO's request for a compensation reduction in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Stankey's long-term incentives grew boosted by a $4 million supplemental grant.
Hans Vestberg, who leads Verizon Communications Inc., remained in fifth place with a $19.1 million pay package in 2020, up 5.5% from $18.1 million in 2019. Vestberg's 2020 compensation included $13.3 million of stock awards, up from $12 million in 2019.
In terms of year-over-year changes in total compensation, T-Mobile's Sievert's pay package rose 235.5%, second only to VEON Ltd.'s Kaan Terzioğlu.
Terzioğlu's compensation rose 264.5% to $3.3 million, compared to about $384,000 in 2019. The executive's salary and annual incentives increased significantly after his appointment as co-CEO and later sole CEO of the company following Sergi Herrero's decision to step down from the joint executive role in June.