DETROIT — Jim Farley’s total compensation from Ford Motor Co. jumped 41 percent to $11.8 million in 2020, when he took over as CEO.
Farley’s pay included a $1.4 million base salary, $5.1 million in stock awards and nearly $4.2 million in other awards, according to the company’s annual proxy statement filed Thursday.
It was a year in which Ford’s top executives hit just 23 percent of their business performance targets, down from 54 percent in 2019.
The executives achieved none of their revenue, cash flow or pretax earnings targets because of the pandemic disrupting production and sales, but they exceeded the company’s quality targets. Ford last year recorded its first net loss since the Great Recession — $1.3 billion — mostly as a result of the pandemic, and revenue fell 9 percent.
The company’s compensation committee did, however, make a one-time alteration to its bonus plans to reward Ford’s top executives for their response to the pandemic.
“Historically, the Compensation Committee has refrained from exercising its discretion to modify the company’s incentive programs, but, with management recommendations and advice from the committee’s independent consultant, the committee determined that the unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic warranted such an action for 2020,” Ford said in the proxy.
Former CEO Jim Hackett received the largest pandemic bonus: $1.26 million. Farley received $685,330.
Hackett’s 2020 compensation totaled $16.7 million, down 3.6 percent from 2019. Hackett stepped down as CEO on Oct. 1 but remained with the company as an adviser.
Executive Chairman Bill Ford’s total compensation declined 4.2 percent to $16 million. His compensation included $187,442 for personal use of aircraft and $921,030 for security.
John Lawler, who succeeded Tim Stone as CFO in October, made nearly $6 million. Lawler’s compensation included a $715,000 salary and $27,313 for evaluation vehicles. Stone earned $6.2 million, including a salary of just more than $1 million.
Hau Thai-Tang, chief product platform and operations officer, made $11.8 million, including a $1.2 million salary. Thai-Tang and Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of the Americas and International Markets Group, received incremental bonuses for their roles last year.
“Mr. Thai-Tang sets a high standard of leadership behavior and was invaluable in supporting the CEO transition and internal reorganizations under his team,” the company said.
Galhotra made $8.5 million in 2020, including an $865,000 salary.
“Throughout 2020, he provided steady leadership while overseeing new product launches and the launch of the company’s ‘Built for America’ and ‘Built to Lend a Hand’ campaigns using virtual platforms,” the company said of awarding Galhotra an incremental bonus.
