Chief technology officers (CTOs) are becoming more and more influential in the automotive C-Suite, a new study from Datarails, a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform for Excel users, found. The study analyzed a sample of SEC filings for 20 automotive parts and car companies and based its findings on compensation of key executive positions at companies including General Motors, Ford, BorgWarner, Autozone and Aptiv.
The findings reveal that CTOs have jumped in annual compensation from $2 million in 2020 to $4.8 million in 2023, based on their salary, bonuses, stock awards and options. This emphasizes the rapid rise of the CTO in the race for a technological edge in top car and manufacturing companies. The highest paid in the sample was John Douglas Field, CTO at Ford Motor Company, with an annual compensation of $15 million, the study found. The study was based on complete SEC filings for 2022 and partial filings for 2023.
In the auto C-suite, only CEOs receive higher compensation than CTOs, with CEOs attaining $8.9 million in compensation. Automaker CEOs on average earn more than other CEOs in other US sectors, the study found.
In third place for C-suite pay are CIOs, who have annual compensation of $3.7 million. CFOs are in fourth place with $3 million, the study found. This was followed by general counsel or chief legal officers averaging $2.2 million, chief marketing officers ($2 million) and chief operating officers in last place ($2 million)
The CFO-specific report: CFOs and the C-Suite 2023 is available at https://www.datarails.com/research/cfo-and-csuite.
