Apple CEO Tim Cook Earns $14 Million In FY 2020, Up 28%; Co. Ads Longtime Newspaper Editor Monica Lozano To Board

Apple CEO Tim Cook earned $14.8 million in fiscal 2020, up 28% from the year earlier as the company beat its financial targets despite a global pandemic.

The chief executive’s package included a $3 million base salary and $10.7 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, according to a proxy statement filed Tuesday with the SEC. Other compensation was about $1 million. He earned $11.5 million the previous year.

The CEO to average employee pay ratio, which companies are all required to disclose, was 256 to 1.

CFO Luca Maestri’s package of $26.2 million – up from $25.2 million the year before — included more than $21 million in stock awards. Executives from general counsel Kate Adams, to head of “retail + people” Deidre O’Brian and COO Jeff Williams were similar.

Apple’s performance exceeded target goals for both net sales and operating income, noted the proxy, a report issued annually that includes compensation of a company’s five highest paid executives. Apple’s fiscal year ends in September.

“The Compensation Committee [of the board] considered the significant efforts of the executive team to deliver these strong financial results during 2020 and determined that no downward adjustments to the payouts would be made based on Apple’s 2020 performance and the individual contributions of our named executive officers.”

Apple was one of the first major companies to lead the COVID-19 response, the proxy noted, temporarily closing retail stores and moving to flexible work arrangements for our corporate offices globally.

“We have continued to pay our teams during temporary store and office closures; expanded our paid leave policies; provided team members with personal protective equipment; and established policies and procedures for a safe work environment. Together with our suppliers, we also implemented new health and safety procedures for supplier workforces, and worked to support our suppliers’ ability to pay their hourly workers. And we have further supported our business partners by accelerating our payments to suppliers and extending payment and credit terms for our resellers,” it said.

Achievements include launching AppleTV+ a year ago November. It’s been taking big, highly public swings on movies and A-list projects but has kept its subscriber numbers under wraps, folding the platform into its expanding services division. It’s included at no charge to those buying Apple devices, more than 1 billion of which exist in the world.

Separately, Apple announced that Monica Lozano, longtime newspaper editor and CEO of College Futures Foundation, has been elected to its board, which will expand to eight directors.

Previously, she spent 30 years in media as editor and publisher of La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S., helping shine a light on issues from infant mortality to the AIDS epidemic. She went on to become chairman and CEO of La Opinión’s parent company, ImpreMedia. She serves on the boards of Target and Bank of America.

The company said that of its eight nominees for election to the board, three self-identify as women, and four self-identify as individuals from underrepresented communities (Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, or who self-identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender).

As Deadline reported recently, there’s an increasing push for diverse boards.

Shareholders will vote on the director slate and other issues at Apple’s annual meeting which it set for Feb. 23.