• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 30, 2021

MDC Partners disclosed in an SEC filing this week the compensation of its top-three highest-paid executives for 2020.

All three took significant cuts, compared to the prior year, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Many executives inside and outside Adland took pandemic-related pay cuts.

CEO Mark Penn had total comp from MDC last year of $1,795, 681, down sharply from his 2019 paycheck of $4,913,405. While that’s some haircut, bear in mind Penn generates significant income outside of MDC, as well. He founded and continues to run Stagwell Partners, which seems to be doing pretty well.

Stagwell has not disclosed its founder’s compensation, but Penn recently said Stagwell was poised to soon become a $2 billion company. And two years ago, when he became CEO at MDC, Penn and Stagwell invested $100 million in the company.

MDC CFO Frank Lanuto had total comp of $1,010, 944 in 2020, down from $1,578, 914 in 2019. And General Counsel David Ross pulled in $1,612,787 last year, versus $2,432,814 in the prior year.

The good news: Early indications are that Adland and other industries will be rebounding significantly in 2021.