MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Dow Chemical Co.'s chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris earned $15.7 million in 2009, including a $4.5 million bonus that helped drive his pay up 23 percent from the previous year.
His base salary was nearly flat at $1.7 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of the company's proxy statement. He also received stock and option awards worth $9.3 million on the days they were granted, down 15.6 percent from 2008. Some of those awards Liveris will receive only if the company meets profit targets through Sept. 30, 2011.
The $4.5 million bonus accounted for most of the increase in Liveris' pay. He received no bonus in 2008, as Liveris recommended none be given to him and other top executives as Dow struggled amid the economic crisis.
He received his 2009 bonus after Dow disconnected its cash bonus program from financial targets last February. Dow said it made that change because of economic uncertainty, as well as its inability to predict when it would finish its $16.5 billion purchase of chemical maker Rohm & Haas. That deal closed in April.
Liveris' other compensation in 2009 included $138,296 for personal use of the company jet, which Dow requires for security reasons, and $62,345 for financial planning. He received perks of $138,681 in 2008, contributing to his total pay package of $12.8 million that year.
The Associated Press formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's compensation during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.
The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.
Liveris, 54, has been CEO of the Midland, Mich., company since 2004. He also serves as president.
Since the Rohm & Haas acquisition last year, Dow has been selling assets to pay down the debt. Earlier this month it sold its Styron plastics division to Bain Capital for $1.63 billion.
For 2009, Dow shares rose 83 percent to finish the year at $27.63.
