CEO survey: https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/employee-survey-most-hated-bay-area-tech-ceos-18409398.php - David Goeckeler of San Jose’s Western Digital didn’t receive a single vote of approval. The manufacturing company laid off more than 200 Bay Area workers in June. Goeckeler’s compensation package was unusually high last year; he made an eye-watering 3,332 times what Western Digital’s median employee made
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I can't wait to see how he addresses this at the next All Hands.
pay for performance
@7fqm+1oXUJUud Just the fact that DG makes more than the CEO of Adobe (a $250B company) while WD is valued at under $15B seems a bit excessive. Meanwhile, no STI, no 40K matching, no raises, no promotions… etc
If DG has any operational control next year the BoD should all resign regardless of the outcome of the split/merger. He has done nothing for WD except plunder it and hire losers. The BoD has presided over what is arguably the worse corporate disaster in the history of the storage industry. We've sat through a dozen all-hands where literally nothing has been said, no vision portrayed, no leadership demonstrated. Just self-congratulations and telling us we're in a great market with great customers.
let’s see if the DOB parachutes him out following the merger bc having Apollo and Elliott help you unlock business value is what the CEO is supposed to do
According to latest Proxy Statement filed 10/5/23, shareholders are apparently "not pleased with the amendment to our CEO's sign-on award eliminating the performance metric."
So not only was DG one of the most highly compensated CEOs in the US (#35: https://ceoworld.biz/2023/05/06/ceo-compensation-highest-paid-chief-executive-officers-in-the-united-states-in-2022/)...
...he also is apparently one of the most hated: (https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/employee-survey-most-hated-bay-area-tech-ceos-18409398.php)...
...and on top of that you eliminated his performance requirement :(https://seekingalpha.com/filings/pdf/16975641) so no matter what he gets his sign-on award?
WTF were you thinking, BoD?
we know institutional investors hold the majority of our stock typically vote yes
Even the BOD has acknowledged they made a mistake in removing performance for DGs incentives it’s in the proxy statement for the November annual shareholders meeting.
Vote them all out!
I am not surprised if all the votes go to “strongly disapprove”
@5xth+1oXUJUud
Those answers are standard fillers taught at business/management schools. I've been in the industry for 20+ years, so I don't take those kind of things seriously anymore.
If he would be at least honest to himself, he could not say such stuff as below. Instead, he dreams and destroys the company while getting $33 Million
"In an April 2022 interview with McKinsey & Company, Goeckeler touted creating a work environment people want to join.
'I’ve made a career of going into new organizations, and this question always comes up: How are you going to attract talent and retain all the great people that are here? The answer is to create an environment they want to be a part of,' he told the outlet.
'I have a core belief that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
' how do we create the sense that our employees are a part of something? If you can create that, you will get tremendous loyalty.'
given the Daily Mail's tabloid esque journalism, it's doubtful there's a lick of concern
world news: US most hated CEO
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12607461/US-hated-ceo-David-Goeckeler-uber-apple-META.html
"In other words, a CEO with a 0% approval rating indicates no employee answered 'strongly approve' or 'somewhat approve' in the survey."
That's right - out of no less than 100 WD employees surveyed, not ONE could even muster lukewarm approval for their CEO. That's pretty pathetic.
: @3dym+1oXUJUud trying to see BS posted here when with 20min of effort reading the proxy statement you’d have publicly available, factual compensation information. Hope you work in flash and not HDD so we can wave goodbye to you and your false assumptions
DG pay in 2022 was $1M with $31M in bonuses and stock grants. Halve his salary and leave bonuses and stock untouched would lower him to $31.5M for 2023.
I'd like to be wrong, but we'll find out at the end of 2023 when WD reports 2023 numbers to the SEC.
@3tbu+1oXUJUud let's see if there's any reaction by anyone to take any action at all
The FY 2023 Proxy Statement is posted on the SEC website which includes executive comp (starts page 39) and includes how the CEO pay ratio was calculated (page 74)
DG’s pay was cut by half this year I.e 2023 not 2022. So you shall see his salary being 16 million this year.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12607461/amp/US-hated-ceo-David-Goeckeler-uber-apple-META.html Damn this news is everywhere. MailOnline even asked Western Digital for their comments on this DG ranking 🤣🤣🤣.
DG exact total compensation is reported in WD financials. In 2022 (when cuts started and future cuts were planned) he made $32M total compensation, even while WD revinue, margins, units shipped, stock value, and employee head counts dropped. Google it, isnt not hard to find.
Why should he bother to work to try to turn WD around when hes paid more than Exon/Mobiles CEO to sell off what he inherited piece by piece. Expect Cottle road to be sold next, to fund the 2024 executive payoff.
His cronies will tell you that WDs failure was inevitable, and things are going acording to plan. Why try if they dont?
The average manufacturing employee would be between 45k and 65k USD... fyi
Re: @wxl+1 maths….
To assume the average employee makes $100,000k per year in a manufacturing company with most of the jobs being overseas is a joke. If DG really made $32M+ last year while telling his employees he was actually taking pay cut, seems outrageous. Either way, it’s not a good look for DG or what’s left of our company.
Some put treating others with dignity and doing their jobs well, above grabbimg all the money they can regardless how many are hurt. Feel free not follow this page of wisdom, but its shared freely.
DG is a very smart man. Doing the least amount of work with the most amount of monetary benefit. Everyone should take a page out of his book.
No way the BoD brought him in to split the company. That was Elliott and Apollo insisting on it. DG has never had any initiative to do anything except pad his income.
Doesn’t care I believe he was hired to split the company up and will retire with the package.
No STI, no 401K matching, no raises, no promotions…. He is making almost double what the previous CEO is earning and when the company was profitable. Company is hacked. Product quality is suspect. $32M is outrageous. When will the BOD wake up and throw this b-m out.
well, no surprizes here
To the poster Post ID: @mxv+1oXUJUud
Please do not use % if too complicated!!!
- "The 3000% over average pay is misleading". Please do your math again:
"he made an eye-watering 3,332 times what Western Digital’s median employee made"
So this would be 3332 000% and on 3000% .
- Goeckler made $32,137,338. Let's say US salary is on average $100 000. So Goeckler makes as much as 321 employees with a 100 K salary!
As the poster likes %: He makes 321 000% more then employees earning 100K
without doing anything apart from taking down WD. Magic
The 3000% over average pay is misleading because a high percentage of our workforce is manufacturing, and there is no tally of how many emails were received. Publishing that our CEO didn't receive a single positive vote aligns with the sentiment of many.
Dear BODs…..