ARMONK, N.Y.: IBM Chairman and CEO Virginia Rometty’s pay doubled in her first year running one of the world’s biggest technology companies, but she still took home less than her predecessor.
Rometty, the first woman to run IBM, received a 2012 pay package worth $15.4 million, based on an analysis of regulatory documents filed Monday. That’s up sharply from the roughly $7.5 million she made the year before as senior vice president in charge of the company’s global sales and marketing. As with most CEOs, most of Rometty’s compensation consisted of long-term stock awards that could wind up being worth more (or less) than the $9.3 million listed in the initial disclosures.
Rometty, 55, got off to a solid start, focusing on growing IBM’s software business, which has higher profit margins, over hardware. The company’s adjusted earnings climbed 13 percent from the previous year under Sam Palmisano and it forecast 2013 results above analyst expectations.
Its stock price edged up just 4 percent last year, though, lagging the 7 percent gain in the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 bellwether stocks.