Vendor Execs Taking It On the Chin

New York —Slightly more than half of the execs ranked in this year's Executive Compensation survey — nine out of 17 — took a pay cut, mostly in the form of lower or nonexistent bonuses, and worthless stock options.

That can be compared to the three-year running average, in which slightly more than 40 percent, seven of the same 17 executives, took a haircut.

The highest paid execs came from Mohawk Industries, where profits rose 9 percent last year on a double-digit gain in sales.

Reflecting the success of their business, the two best paychecks in 2004 went to two Mohawk execs, William Kilbride, chief of Mohawk Home, at $2.1 million, and his boss, Jeffrey Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO, who pocketed $1.5 million.

In Kilbride's case, most of the compensation came in the form of a cash bonus and stock options, which added to his base salary of $383,000. In the past, Kilbride has chosen not to bank the proceeds from the stock options he's exercised, instead donating the money to charities.

Lorberbaum chose not to exercise any stock options during 2004, but took home a $730,000 cash bonus in addition to his salary of $1.5 million.

Nine of the remaining 15 skippers lost ground last year in lock step with their companies' performance.

The other gainers reported only modest increases in salary: Arthur Birkins, basic bedding president at WestPoint Stevens, was up 4.8 percent, to $396,000; M. Beatrice Spires, chief of design and merchandising at Quaker, up 1.5 percent to $331,000; Mark Hellwig, head of supply chain management at Quaker, up 1.4 percent; and Thomas Muzekari, sales chief at Quaker, up 1.3 percent.

Two Culp executives, Franklin Saxon, president and chief operating officer, and Rodney Smith, president of Culp Decorative Fabrics, reported their salaries unchanged.

The biggest loser last year was Larry Liebenow, president and CEO of Quaker Fabrics, whose pay was slashed by more than 76 percent, to $682,000 from $2.9 million in 1993, when he augmented his cash salary of $672,000 with $2.2 million from exercised stock options. During 2004, Liebenow settled for a 1.3 percent increase in his cash salary, to $682,000, up from $673,000 the preceding year.