Marcelo Claure, the Bolivian-born billionaire who was tapped to head up struggling wireless giant Sprint in August, received $21.8 million in total compensation in fiscal 2014, making him one of the highest paid executives in the telecom business.
Sprint’s fiscal year ends on March 31.
Claure, the founder of mobile phone distributor Brightstar, was tapped by Sprint’s largest shareholder, Softbank chairman Masayoshi Son, to replace Dan Hesse, who had been CEO for about seven years. Hesse received $10.5 million in total compensation in fiscal 2014, most of that from his severance package.
Claure received a base salary of $923,077 as well as generous stock awards ($10.6 million) and option awards ($7.7 million), according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. Claure has overseen an aggressive price war aimed at winning back customers to the wireless carrier but which has battered its bottom line.
In the telecom space, Claure was topped only by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who received total 2014 compensation of about $24 million, according to reports.
