Indra Nooyi, Bhavesh Patel among 10 highest-paid CEOs

As many as three persons of Indian origin have been named among 100 highest-paid chief executives globally, with PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi and LyondellBasell's Bhavesh Patel making it to the top ten of the list compiled by Equilar.

Chemicals company LyondellBasell Industries' chief executive Patel was ranked sixth on the list with a total compensation of $24.5 million, while Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo. was ranked eighth on the list with a total pay of $22.2 million.

Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, was ranked 26th with a total compensation of $18.3 million.

The list was topped by Mark V Hurd and Safra A Catz of Oracle Corp, with both earning a total compensation of $53.2 million each.

Others in the top 10 include Robert AIger of Walt Disney ($43.5 million), David M Cote of Honeywell International ($33.1 million), General Electric's Jeffrey R Immelt ($26.4 million), Randall L Stephenson of AT&T ($22.4 million), Rupert Murdoch of Twenty-First Century Fox ($22.2 million) and James P Gorman of Morgan Stanley ($22 million).

This list is a snapshot of companies that file annual proxy statements before 1 April and aims to provide an early look at CEO pay trends for 2015.

The report further noted that the median pay for Equilar 100 CEOs was $14.5 million in fiscal year 2015, up 3 per cent from the previous year.

Interestingly, eight CEOs on the list are female, and they far outpace the median pay for the Equilar 100 as a whole.

"Median compensation for these eight women was $20.0 million in 2015, while average pay was $22.7 million," Equilar said.

Catz. who tied with her colleague Hurd as the highest paid individual CEO in the Equilar 100, was the highest paid female with $53.2 million.

Apple is the largest company by revenue on the list, totalling $233.7 billion in 2015, followed by Berkshire Hathaway with $210.8 billion.

"Notably, Tim Cook of Apple was paid below the median ($10.3 million) and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway was by far the lowest-paid CEO in the Equilar 100, earning $470,244 in total compensation last year," it added.