Not many CEOs can boast of getting paid more than Apple CEO Tim Cook, who received $99 million in total compensation last year.
Just nine executives can boast a compensation package that crosses the $100 million threshold, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from analytics company C-Suite Comp. Some are big names, like Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman (paid $253 million), Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (paid $216 million), and Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr (paid $182 million).
But one name stands out: Kiwi Camara, the 39-year-old founder and CEO of CS Disco, an Austin-based legal technology firm. Camara earned almost $110 million last year, combining $500,000 in salary with $109 million in stock options, in exchange for running the firm, valued at just over $500 million. (By comparison, Apple closed at a $3 trillion market capitalization on Friday.)
The Wall Street Journal notes that Camara’s stock options vest only if the company’s average share price hits specific targets by 2032, or if the company is acquired, or if he leaves his position.
Still, the total compensation package is a sizable pay jump for the founder, who earned just $1 million in 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Who is Kiwi Camara?
Camara’s path to being one of the few CEOs to be paid more than Tim Cook is a winding one.
Born in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. As an infant, Camara was the youngest-ever graduate from Harvard Law School, earning his Juris Doctor at age 19 in 2004.
Yet his time at Harvard Law was marked by controversy. In 2002, the then-16-year-old law student uploaded his class notes online, revealing that he had used a racial slur to refer to legal covenants barring Black people from purchasing land. The use of the phrase spurred an outcry among his fellow students and resurfaced in the years since. He apologized for using the term but claimed in a 2009 interview with ABC News that the incident stopped him from getting a high-profile job at a law school.
Camara later founded a law firm, Camara & Sibley, which worked pro bono to represent the defendant in one of the first cases on file sharing.
In 2006, four record labels sued Jammie Thomas-Rassett for downloading and sharing 24 songs on Kazaa, a peer-to-peer network. While Thomas-Rassett was found guilty of copyright infringement, the trial lasted for years as both parties argued how much she owed in damages. At one point, Thomas-Rassett was held liable for $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song. Eventually, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Thomas-Rassett liable for $222,000 in damages in 2013.
What’s CS Disco?
Founded by Camara in 2013, CS Disco offers new technologies, like artificial intelligence and cloud computing, to lawyers and law firms. The firm argues on its website that its services help “lawyers spend their time doing what matters most: securing justice for its clients and winning the most important disputes in the world.”
The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in July 2021, trading under the snappy “LAW” ticker.
The company’s shares have performed poorly since then. The company stock price peaked at $65.88 in September 2021, but has since fallen 87% to hit $8.40 as of today.
CS Disco generated $135.2 million in revenue in its 2022 fiscal year but reported a $70.8 million net loss, up from a $24.3 million net loss the previous year.
CS Disco did not immediately respond to Coins2Day’ s request for comment.
Who else is paid more than $100 million?
Camara is one of just nine CEOs with pay packages exceeding $100 million.
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman tops the list with a $253 million pay package last year. Only three of the nine CEOs making over $100 million work at S&P 500 companies: Alphabet’s Pichai, Live Nation’s Michael Rapino, and Oracle’s Safra Catz.
Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr, Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy, Sarepta Therapeutics CEO Douglas Ingram, and Pinterest’s new CEO Bill Ready round out the list.
Still, fewer CEOs broke the $100 million threshold in 2022 than did so the year before. Over 20 CEOs earned over $100 million in 2021, notes C-Suite Comp. The firm points to reduced equity awards for executives for the drop.
Shareholders and investors are starting to look skeptically at executive pay. In June, Netflix shareholders voted against a pay package for co-CEO Ted Sarandos, which combined a $3 million salary, $20 million in stock, and a possible bonus of up to $17 million. The vote, which was nonbinding, was done at the behest of striking writers.