My dad was a CEO for a while.
I haven’t ever asked what sort of package he recieved when he got the boot a few years ago, but I can’t see that he’s had any source of income since then (Not to say he hasn’t been working. He suspended his own pay for a while to help the company he was trying to put together scrape along for a while.)
It never seemed to me like he did, well, much of anything. He was out and about the nation visiting new sites and what-not a lot of the time… but, IMO, it seemed like most of that should have been delegated. (E.G. there was a big problem with the kitchen workers at one facility putting grease down the grease trap. This went on for months and he went down there personally several times. I must ask: Ummm, why? Get a welder and install a lock on the access they’re misusing. Done.)
During his time with the company it grew by leaps and bounds (many new large facilities constructed, stock went from local exchange at about $2.50 to NYSE listing it at a max of $60 or so). Then some interesting things started happening due to the machinations of a couple key shareholders on the Board. IMO it was a concerted effort to drive the value of the company into the ground prior to, basically, selling it to their children. With all the interesting groovy re-organizations and modifications to the charter… I go in one end with a couple hundred shares worth about 10K… and come out with, wait for it, 2 shares worth about fifteen dollars. It was amusing to put a couple dollars in dividends on my taxes for a few years, there, though.
Anyway, during this time my dad got removed as CEO and tossed into a shell position in another part of the company… and then eventually fired. I’m curious if other folks think he was responsible for the crash of the company, or if they think he got the boot for trying to fight the changes.
BUT, yeah. I think if he HAD accepted responsibility for the stumble and fall rather than washed his hands of it and basically said “Hey, I think it’s a bad idea, but it’s orders from above.” he probably would have gotten a better deal when he was finally removed.