Along With Apple, Tim Cook Also Heads This Money List

Stepping into the shoes of an almost-legend cannot be easy, but Tim Cook has established his own style of leadership at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) following the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, and by all accounts, he is an astute leader. Cook has shown that he is willing to take risks despite being a firm and strong leader, and as was clear from his Maps apology and the subsequent departure of two top executives from the company, he’s not too proud to either say sorry or too easy in the face of opposition.

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And for ushering the company fairly successfully into the post-Jobs era, the company’s new chief executive is getting paid big bucks. According to a CNBC.com report, Cook is the highest-paid CEO in the United States right now, with $95 million in annual compensation. Cook, who has been the CEO since August 2011, when he also received stock awards valued at $376 million, has seen a year-to-date stock gain of 32.56 percent. And the Apple chief has a fairly big lead over second-placed Larry Ellison of Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) at $70 million and J.C. Penney’s (NYSE:JCP) Ron Johnson at $53 million.

Interestingly, all the three names on the top of the list happen to have an Apple connection: Ellison was known to be a close friend to Jobs and Johnson was the company’s retail head for nearly eight years.

Leslie Moonves of CBS (NYSE:CBS), with $52 million, and Richard Adkerson of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX), with $49 million, complete the top five.

The figures for the analysis came from CapIQ and measure average compensation packages over the four years from 2007 to 2011.

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