Infosys top management salary bill crosses USD 10 million

The remuneration paid to its key management personnel, which includes directors and executive council members, had remained almost unchanged at about USD 7 million for fiscals, 2009-10 and 2010-11, as per an annual regulatory filing by the US-listed Infosys with the US market regulator SEC.

But it rose sharply in 2011-12 despite a fall in the individual pay packages of some top executives, including its Executive Co-Chairman S Gopalakrishnan, CEO S D Shibulal and Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan.

During the year 2011-12, the top paid executive, as per Infosys' filing, was Stephen R Pratt, an Executive Council member, with a total package of about USD two million.

Among others, B G Srinivas was paid USD 1.19 million, while Ashok Vemuri got USD 1.18 million. Both of them have held various leadership positions at Infosys in the past and joined its board last year.

The total package of Shibulal was USD 162,990 in 2011-12, down by about USD 80,000 from the previous year, while that of Gopalakrishnan fell by about USD 85,000 to USD 164,543.

On the other hand, compensation paid to its independent Chairman K V Kamath rose from USD 125,600 to USD 205,000. Kamath took charge as Chairman of the Board in August 2011, but has served as an independent director since May 2009.

N R Narayana Murthy, who retired from the board in August last year, was paid USD 67,100, down from USD 137,500 in the previous fiscal.

Infosys said a committee determines and recommends the compensation payable to the directors, and all board-level compensation is approved by shareholders.

Remuneration of the executive directors q` consists of fixed component, bonus and a variable performance-linked incentive. The Compensation Committee makes a half-yearly appraisal of the performance of the employee directors.

"We have a variable compensation structure for all of our employees... Our Board aligned the compensation structure of our employee directors in line with that applicable to all of our other employees," it said.

All its executive directors are entitled to a bonus of up to 20 per cent of their fixed salary, as also the incentives linked to the company's and individual performances.

In the last fiscal, non-executive directors were paid an aggregate USD 1.47 million, including reimbursement towards their attendance at board and committee meetings.

Those whose total payout increased during 2011-12 also included Deepak M Satwalekar, Omkar Goswami, Sridar Iyengar, David Boyles, Jeffrey Lehman and R Seshasayee.