Mr. Grasso’s pay of US$187 million on leaving as CEO of the NYSE pales in comparison with others.  Earlier this year, even blase US media hacks were stunned when it was revealed that United Healthcare’s CEO (Dr William McGuire) was sitting on executive stock options that left his US$128 million annual pay packet in the shade.  The gain from his stock options was worth US$1.6 billion (that is no typo). 

Not bad, given that there were no performance hurdles in the Australian sense, and that if you described United Healthcare’s shareholder return performance as ordinary, your description would be seen as effusive and generous.

Now it has just been revealed that one of the company’s directors, William Spears, resigned in the wake of revelations that Mr. Spears was handling some of Dr. McGuire’s financial investments at the same time he was presiding over the company’s compensation committee.

And Dr. McGuire?  It appears his recent departure from the role of CEO is related to an inquiry into option backdating.

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