Google’s Sundar Pichai Is Now The Best Paid CEO In The World

Google’s CEO is now the best paid chief executive in the world, despite recent conflicts in the UK over tax issues.

Sundar Pichai was awarded nearly $200m worth of shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, earlier this month, bringing his total to around $650m worth of shares, despite only being appointed chief executive in October 2014.

This puts him far ahead of figures such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, however Pichai’s holdings still fall well short of Google’s founder Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both of whom are worth around $34bn.

Taxing

Overall, Pichai was given 273,328 shares worth $199m, according to a company SEC filing, which will vest in quarterly phases through 2019, meaning he won’t be able to cash this all in at once.

Google may see the award as fair value for the work Pichai has done for the company over the years, as he took charge of its Android, Chrome and search business arms over the years, bringing Google nothing but success.

Earlier this month, Alphabet became the most valuable firm in the United States, suprassing Apple, with its latest reports showing that the company smashed quarterly profit forecasts on Monday, hitting consolidated revenue of $21.33 billion (£15bn) for the financial quarter ending December 31, an 18 percent increase from the $18.10 billion (£12.5bn) reported a year earlier.

The latest award is ironically far above the amount of tax that Google is being forced to pay in the UK following a long-standing wrangle with the British government.

Last month, Google agreed to pay £130m in back taxes after striking a deal with UK tax authority HMRC, saying that it had agreed a “new approach” to cover taxes since 2005.

Google paid just £20.4m in taxes in the UK in 2013, despite its UK sales having a value of that year £3.8bn.

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