Ian Read bags $19.5 mil­lion, tak­ing a big pay cut for his swan song as Pfiz­er CEO and leav­ing the phar­ma gi­ant at a cross­roads

Ian Read passed the CEO ti­tle on to his hand picked suc­ces­sor Al­bert Bourla at the be­gin­ning of this year, but not be­fore one last big haul of ex­ec­u­tive com­pen­sa­tion. His over­all num­ber came down sub­stan­tial­ly from 2017, large­ly due to a big drop in the stock op­tion col­umn, but he still scored $19.5 mil­lion for 2018 com­pen­sa­tion.

Read’s big re­tire­ment haul came in 2017, when he took home a chart-top­ping $27.9 mil­lion pay pack­age that in­clud­ed an $8 mil­lion bonus for stay­ing on an ex­tra year. His vic­to­ry lap at the phar­ma gi­ant came as the com­pa­ny was fac­ing a sea change in the in­dus­try, with a lid on an­nu­al price hikes and a shift to the in­ter­nal pipeline.

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