CEOs Ritter James Top Highest-Paid List

With total compensation at more than $18 million in 2006, Regions Financial Corp.'s C. Dowd Ritter won the title of the highest paid CEO among the Birmingham area's public companies last year.

Ritter, the former CEO of AmSouth Bancorporation who took over the helm of Regions last November after the two banks merged, topped the Birmingham Business Journal List of Birmingham's Highest-Paid Public Company CEOs in several money-making categories: third place for his $995,000 salary and first place for his $6.6 million in stock awards and $7.4 million in bonuses.

This year marks only the second year stockholders - and any other interested party - could get a fairly accurate picture of how top executives the country's public companies are compensated.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission required reporting companies to make executive compensation packages more clear to shareholders, including giving a total - something many companies never did before.

But some experts say current reports still confuse shareholders and may not get much clearer for several years.

"One thing is very clear - you can't do a casual perusal of proxy statements and come up with anything concrete," said Paul Dorf, managing partner for New Jersey-based consulting firm Compensation Resources Inc. "You have to go into great detail. The average shareholder is still totally bewildered."

Compensation has been the topic of conversation in many business circles lately, with public outcry against millions of dollars being paid to underperforming executives.

That wasn't the case for Ritter, who helped to make 2006 profitable for Regions and AmSouth. Ritter's package was awarded after Regions reported a 35 percent increase in net income.

Other top CEOs turned a hefty profit for their companies and shareholders.

The public company CEO compensation list for 2006 represents a total of $78.1 million in compensation last year.

Dorf said he foresees the possibility of compensation packages getting even bigger in the future.

Vulcan Materials Co. Chairman and CEO Donald M. James made $16 million in total compensation after leading Vulcan to a more than 20 percent increase in net income.

Since larger numbers are being added into the total compensation package, which may or may not be representative of the CEO's performance, boards will begin weighing those larger numbers against each other in the industry, he said.

For example, stock awards, which now show up on the total compensation line, could have been awarded up to 10 years ago for excellent performance at that time. It is not necessarily a barometer for the previous year's performance if the stock had to be exercised by last year.

Dorf calls it obfuscating - "where you write something down but it's double speak and no one understands what it means."