Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $36.2 million in total compensation in 2015, a 10% increase over the prior year, according to a proxy statement filed Friday.
Roberts, who received $32.9 million in compensation in 2014, stayed relatively level on the annual base salary ($2.9 million), stock awards ($5.4 million) and option awards ($5.4 million) fronts, with the biggest change coming in pension value and deferred compensation earnings. Roberts received $8.7 million in deferred comp and increased pension value in 2015, compared to $6.5 million in 2014.
But Roberts wasn’t Comcast’s highest paid executive – that honor went to new chief financial officer Michael Cavanagh, who joined Comcast in January, replacing former vice chairman and CFO Michael Angelakis, who resigned last year. Cavanagh took home $40.6 million in total compensation, including $16.5 million in stock awards and $11.9 million in “other” compensation, mainly deferred comp.
Other Comcast execs fared better. Comcast Cable unit CEO Neil Smit received $27.9 million in total compensation in 2015, a 21% increase over the $23.1 million he received in the previous year. And executive vice president David Cohen took home $17.9 million in total comp, a 33% increase over the $13.5 million he received in 2014.
NBC Universal CEO Stephen Burke made $33.7 million in 2015, slightly less than the $33.9 million he took home in 2014.
Angelakis, who resigned in June but stayed on to help with the transition to a new CFO, received $20.2 million in total compensation in 2015, a 7% increase over the prior year. Angelakis became CEO of Atairos Group, an investment fund backed by Comcast in January. Atairos recently made its first major investment, $250 million for a stake in Internet company Groupon.
