Mod­er­na’s new CFO took a cut in salary to jump to the mR­NA rev­o­lu­tion­ary. But then there’s the rest of the com­pen­sa­tion pack­age

David Meline took a lit­tle off the top of his salary when he jumped from the CFO post at gi­ant Am­gen to be­come the num­bers czar at the up­start vac­cines rev­o­lu­tion­ary Mod­er­na. But the SEC fil­ing that goes with a ma­jor hire al­so il­lus­trates how it puts him in line for a for­tune — pro­vid­ed the biotech play­er makes good as a promis­ing game chang­er.

To be sure, there’s noth­ing wrong with the base salary: $600,000. Or the up-to 50% an­nu­al cash bonus — an in­dus­try stan­dard — that comes with it. True, the 62-year-old earned $999,000 at Am­gen in 2019, but it’s the stock op­tions that re­al­ly count in the cur­rent mar­ket bliss for all things bio­phar­ma. And there Meline did well.

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