Estee Lauder Cos. Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Freda saw his compensation almost triple to $48.4 million last year, buoyed by a stock award aimed at keeping him from leaving the cosmetics company.
Estee Lauder granted the executive a hefty long-term equity award in September 2015 that won’t fully vest until 2023. That pushed up the value of his total stock awards to $36.8 million last year, from $6.25 million the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday. His total compensation was $16.7 million the prior year.
The incentive plan “reflects the desire to retain Mr. Freda and further align his interests with the interests of our stockholders,” according to the filing. The company said it wanted to “provide an incentive for sustainable and effective stewardship of the company’s brands, talent base, and reputation over that extended period of time”
Given the length of time the stock award covered, Estee Lauder doesn’t expect to make a similar arrangement with Freda in the current year. The 59-year-old’s salary, meanwhile, rose 5.6 percent to $1.9 million last year.
Sales at the New York-based beauty company have grown by more than 50 percent since Freda became CEO in 2009, when he replaced William Lauder, the grandson of the founders. The business is going through a multiyear restructuring that entails cutting as many as 1,200 jobs to free up resources that it can invest in research and development as well as new technology.
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