Feinberg grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts, and graduated from UMass Amherst in 1967.
Fair Play, Fair Pay
Kenneth R. Feinberg ’67 calls for slashing execs’ salaries
Kenneth R. Feinberg ’67, ’02Hon. just released his plan for cutting total compensation by about half for the 25 top earners at seven companies that received money from the $700 billion federal Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout package.
Feinberg was appointed in June by President Obama to oversee pay packages for 175 top executives at some of the nation’s largest companies including Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, and Chrysler.
All the companies had made requests that were not in the public interest, says Feinberg, asking for excessive compensation and the wrong mix of cash and stock. In most cases, he restricted cash salaries to $500,000 and imposed new restraints on stock grants and bonuses tied to company performance.
Feinberg’s plan further requires executives seeking more than $25,000 in special benefits—such as country club memberships, private planes, and company cars—to get permission for those perks from the U.S. Treasury.
From the beginning, Feinberg was mindful that too heavy a hand could lead to a mass exodus of executives; the new policies still permit some to earn millions of dollars. For instance, if Citigroup and Bank of America rebound, 22 of the top 34 earners could make more than $5 million over the next year.
Feinberg oversaw the federal compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. His UMass Amherst ties are strong, including sponsorship of the campus’s Feinberg Institute, which supports research and scholarship created to guide policymakers, the legal community, and others forced by circumstances to assign a monetary value to human life.