• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 18, 2022

IPG’s Philippe Krakowsky received a very handsome pay raise for 2021, his first year as CEO of the company.

According to the firm’s recently released 2022 proxy statement, Krakowsky nearly doubled his total compensation in 2021 to approximately $17.3 million, up from about $8.8 million in 2020 when he was COO of the company.

That makes him the second highest paid CEO among the three biggest ad groups reporting so far for 2021, following John Wren who earned just under $20 million. WPP’s Mark Read was paid almost $5 million and Publicis Groupe hasn’t yet released executive compensation data for last year.

As is the case with many top C-suite executives, most of Krakowsky’s compensation came from a bonus, a stock award and an incentive plan. His base salary was $1.5 million.

Krakowsky’s predecessor Michael Roth (who retired as board chairman at the end of 2021) was the second highest compensated executive at the company last year with a package totaling about $13.7 million, versus $16.9 million for 2020, his last year as CEO.

IPG CFO Ellen Johnson received total remuneration of $5.4 million last year, up from $2.8 million in 2020.

The firm’s annual meeting will be held virtually this year, on May 26.