2024's top-earning CEO revealed
New analysis shows which top American executives received the highest pay packages in 2024. Last year's top earner, a man who raked in $165 million, isn't from a big tech company and hasn't generated consistent front-page news. Instead, he leads a Taser manufacturer. Rick Smith, 55, the man who has run Axon Enterprise since 1993, took home the biggest CEO paycheck in America last year.
Axon Enterprise is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company that produced weapons tech for the military, police, and civilians - and has faced some controversy. The company has developed Tasers, body cameras, dash cams, and drones. Axon Enterprise's website claims Smith 'founded the company in a Tucson garage in 1993 after two of his friends were shot and killed.' The two friends were named Todd Bogers and Cory Holmes.
However, an investigation by Reuters alleged that Smith didn't have a long-established relationship with the people he dedicated the company to. '[The company] ran a whole advertising campaign based on the murder of my son,' John Bogers, Todd's father, told the outlet. 'They profited off that, and they didn't ask for permission.' Smith has denied Reuter's reporting, with the company calling the reporting 'misguided and inaccurate.' The CEO also wrote a book called The End of Killing, where he advocates against gun control reform and heralds new technology coming out of his industry.
His company has also faced internal backlash. In 2022, nine members of the 12-person ethics board abruptly resigned after the company started testing on drone-mounted tasers for use in schools to stop mass shootings. Smith said he believed the drone would have been helpful in past mass shootings, including in Uvalde, Texas, when responders failed to enter the school premises. Axon said at the time it was working on a drone that first responders could operate remotely to fire a Taser at a target about 40 feet away. The project was eventually paused.
Smith's earnings compared to his peers
Like most CEOs, Smith's earnings were mostly tied to a large stock award, rather than a salary. A stock award is when an executive or worker takes ownership of some of the company's stock, and can benefit if the share price goes higher. Smith received his largest sum in May 2024 after the company exceeded several aggressive performance goals.
His compensation took advantage of the company's new program that allows all employees to convert pay into shares. Axon Enterprise's stock started January 2024 at $254 a share, and ended in December at $601. But the stock compensation also carries a lot of risk: it's possible to make no money on the full year. 'I feel better about making a lot if I can also make zero,' he told The Journal. 'For me it creates that startup kind of vibe.'
Smith and Axon didn't immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on this article. Some of the most recognizable American bosses are surprisingly low in the Wall Street Journal's rankings. Jamie Dimon, the outspoken head of JPMorgan Chase, ranked 23rd among his S&P 500 peers, receiving a little less than $37 million.
Dimon's banking peer, Jane Fraser, the head of Citigroup, made $31 million, according to the rankings. Fraser placed 36th. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg landed at number 63 with $27 million — most of which covered security costs. Elon Musk, the world's richest man and leader of five companies — including Tesla, XAI, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company — came in last place.
The rankings show that Musk made $0 last year as his Tesla executive pay package worked its ways through the court. Courts have been holding up an agreement with Tesla shareholders to give him a $56 billion pay package . That deal would give Musk more than 339 times the amount Smith made in 2024. Last year, only three bosses received nine-figure earnings in 2024. That is the smallest number of over-$100 million payouts for CEOs since 2016.
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