Good morning.
I’m a fan of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. He’s a smart man, a proven leader, and a person of integrity. If his bold plan to remake Intel succeeds, it will not only be good for the company, but good for the world. Oil-rich Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown in high relief how vulnerable the West is to the possibility of China invading semiconductor-rich Taiwan. Intel’s plan to make more chips in the U.S. And Europe would significantly reduce that vulnerability. (You can listen to Ellen McGirt’s and my interview with Gelsinger on Leadership Next here. “Chips are the new oil,” he told us.)
Still, I was taken aback yesterday to see the Wall Street Journal report that Gelsinger was given a $180 million pay package in 2021, making him the second highest-paid CEO among S&P 500 companies. Sure, Gelsinger only gets the full payday if his plan succeeds. A $45 million slug of it requires Intel’s stock to triple in five years. If that happens, shareholders will happily underwrite his paycheck.
But here’s the catch: Intel’s turnaround plan depends on significant taxpayer subsidies from the U.S. And Europe to support his reshoring of chip manufacturing. That’s fine by me—the West has a clear geopolitical interest in diversifying chip sourcing away from Taiwan. But if governments are going to underwrite the risks of Gelsinger’s plan, shouldn’t they also participate equally in the rewards? Perhaps Chrysler-style warrants (remember those?—yet another flashback to the ‘80s) are in order.
We live in an era when companies are rethinking their role in society and taking new responsibility for problems that lie beyond their bottom line. But CEO compensation is an issue too often left out of the discussion. People will only trust companies to take on society’s biggest problems if they feel society is getting a fair shake in return.
I welcome readers thoughts on this. And I’d urge you to listen to this week’s Leadership Next interview, with Clorox CEO Linda Rendle, whose company’s stock has been on a roller coaster since she became chief—riding the pandemic wave up and now inflation and supply-chain woes down.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
[email protected]
TOP NEWS
Jobs day
All eyes will be on the March jobs report number, due out at 8:30 a.m. ET today. According to a Refinitiv poll of economists, the consensus forecast is that an additional 400,000 jobs were added to the U.S. Economy last month. (Bloomberg says consensus is closer to 490,000). For inflation hawks, wage data will be particularly in focus. CNN
A quarter to forget
Q1 is in the books, and it was a pretty lousy period for bonds, crypto, and stocks with the S&P 500 falling 4.6%. For tech bulls or those long Russian stocks, it was even worse. I charted out the Q1 carnage, the worst quarter for investors since Q1 2020. Bonus read: Why the yield curve inversion may not be all that reliable as a sell-indicator. Coins2Day
Putin’s popularity rating
More than four out of five Russians approve of the job Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing since the Kremlin unleashed its deadly assault on Ukraine. That 83% approval rating is according to independent Moscow-based pollsters at Levada Center. “The confrontation with the West has consolidated people,” Levada director Denis Volkov tells the New York Times.
The golden visa
Countries around the world have been welcoming the wealthy with open arms for years thanks to golden visa programs, a practice that’s now coming under intense scrutiny as sanctions bite against Russian oligarchs. Coins2Day’s Nicholas Gordon looks at some of the more popular golden visa schemes from around the world, and how they work. Coins2Day
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
MacKenzie Scott turns giving on its head
Author MacKenzie Scott, the very first employee at Amazon and former wife of founder Jeff Bezos, has taken the philanthropy world by storm. It’s not so much the incredible sums she’s giving away—more than $12 billion to date—but how she’s giving it away, and to whom. Coins2Day’s Maria Aspan and Emma Hinchliffe profile the super-secretive Scott, and take a closer look at her giant impact on the world of giving. Coins2Day
The hack heard round the world
Behind the headlines of this week’s bombshell revelation of a $620 million crypto heist is the truly sad story of the victim, Axie Infinity. As Coins2Day’s Grady McGregor and Nicholas Gordon explain, Axie Infinity is a popular video game that is not only a source of entertainment, but a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of users who earn a bit of money on the play-to-earn video game. Coins2Day
Financial know-how
Financial literacy equates to financial survival. We’ve known that for years—more recently, because of all the data showing how a household’s lack of financial literacy compounds inequality. In a fascinating personal essay, Ryan Williams, the CEO of Cadre, discusses how we can begin to close the racial wealth gap by offering financial-literacy training—particularly among Black and Hispanic Americans, women, and young people. Coins2Day
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by Bernhard Warner.
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