Only Two Philly CEOs Make Top 100 List

One chief executive earned more than $32 million in 2014.

Eric Foss, CEO of Aramark.

Eric Foss, CEO of Aramark.

Although Comcast is the most recognizable company in town, its CEO Brian Roberts isn’t the highest-paid chief executive in Philly.

That distinction goes to Eric Foss of Aramark, who earned a cool $32.4 million in 2014, according to a new study by the New York Times and Equilar. Foss’ compensation is up 95 percent from the previous year’s $16.6 million, ranking him 22nd in the United States. It came as the food-services company raked in $14.8 billion in profits.

It must be nice to be Foss, who spent $800,000 on air travel in 2014 alone, according to a recent study. That was the most among the top 100 highest-paid executives.

Roberts of Comcast came it 35th place with $26.4 million, an increase of 1 percent year-over-year. The cable giant earned $68.8 billion in 2014.

Here are a some other notable CEOs with local ties.

  • Gregory B. Maffei, CEO of Liberty Media & Liberty Interactive (parent company of West Chester, Pa.-based QVC). Maffei earned $73.8 million in 2014, a 1077 percent change from a year ago. He ranked 6th on the list.
  •  Herve Hoppenot, CEO of Wilmington Del.-based Incyte, earned $32.7 million. His pay for the previous year was not listed. He ranked 19th.
  • Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck (which has a huge presence in Montgomery County) earned $21.3 million, up 72 percent. He ranked 66th.
  • Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J. earned $20.3 million, up 34 percent from the previous year. He ranked 70th.
  • Alan Miller, CEO of Universal Health Services in King of Prussia, Pa., earned $18.3 million, an increase of 41 percent. He ranked 89th.
  • Ian Read, CEO of Pfizer (which has a large operation in Montgomery County) earned $18 million, a rise of 2 percent. He ranked 92nd.

The top five highest-paid CEOs overall:

  1. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications: $156 million, up 368 percent.
  2. Michael Fries, Liberty Global: $111 million, up 140 percent.
  3. Mario Gabelli, GAMCO Investors: $88.5 million, up 4 percent.
  4. Satya Nadella, Microsoft: $84 million. He succeeded Steve Ballmer in 2014.
  5. Nicholas Woodman, GoPro: $77 million, up 4079 percent.

Check out this interactive list from the Times where you can rank the CEOs by highest paid, lowest paid, industry and increase in compensation.