Gold-Plated Exit For Exxon CEO

When Lee Raymond retired from Exxon Mobil Corp. in January, his pension was worth almost $100 million. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s outgoing chief executive, Lee Raymond, received $48.5 million in salary, bonus, incentive payments and stock awards last year and retired Jan. 14 qualifying for a pension with a lump-sum value of $98.4 million, according to the company's latest proxy statement.

By the end of 2005, Raymond had accumulated $183.1 million worth of Exxon Mobil stock and had options worth $69 million to buy additional company shares. The company also covered his expenses for items including club memberships and private use of corporate jets.

A company spokesman said he did not know whether Raymond, who worked for Exxon for 43 years, took the lump-sum retirement payout or whether he opted for an $8 million-a-year pension instead.

The company said Raymond's pay package reflected his 12 years as the company's chief executive. In that time, the stock price increased five-fold and the market value of the company rose from $82 billion to more than $352 billion. For 2005, Exxon Mobil reported the highest profit ever for a U.S. public company.

The company's proxy said Raymond's package was "appropriately positioned relative to CEOs of U.S.-based, integrated oil companies and other major U.S.-based corporations, particularly in view of the long-term performance of the company and the substantial experience and expertise that Mr. Raymond has brought to the job."

In 2004, Raymond's total compensation came to $37.7 million. Forbes magazine ranked Raymond 44th in compensation among the 500 largest U.S. public companies.

Exxon Mobil's new chief executive, Rex W. Tillerson, received a relatively modest $13 million in total compensation in 2005, the proxy said.