Ford paid its CEO a $17.7 million salary despite profits slumping by half in 2018

Paul Sancya / AP

Ford CEO Jim Hackett’s compensation rose 6% to $17.75 million, from $16.7 million in 2017, despite the company’s difficult 2018 results which saw profits drop by more than 50%.
The automaker struggled in Europe and Asia last year as it attempts to complete a major overhaul of its strategy.
In an internal memo last week, Hackett described Ford’s performance as "mediocre by any standard," according to Bloomberg.

Ford’s CEO Jim Hackett boosted his salary by over a million dollars last year despite the automaker’s poor results.

Hackett’s compensation rose 6% to $17.75 million, from $16.7 million in 2017 according to an SEC filing, despite the company’s difficult 2018 results which saw profits drop by more than 50%.

Ford’s share price fell 40% last year but Hackett earned $1.3 million in basic pay, a $1 million bonus, $10.3 million in stock awards plus $3.6 million from the company’s incentive plan.

Ford struggled outside of the North American market last year. The carmaker cut thousands of jobs in Europe as part of its $11 billion restructuring plan and showed considerable weakness in Asia, particularly China, where it lost $515 million in the fourth quarter.

"Certainly, it was a challenging year, in that we were hit by some headwinds outside of our control and frankly, poor performance in some parts of the business which we have now taken action to address," Hacket said in the company’s fourth quarter results.

Hackett also told employees in that email that it was “time to bury (2018) … in a deep grave," according to Reuters.

Ford recently announced a partnership with German carmaker Volkswagen, whose CEO is also under the spotlight, to jointly develop electric and self driving vehicles in a cost cutting exercise.

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Source: Business Insider – cburroughs@businessinsider.com (Callum Burroughs)