Splunk’s Most Highly Compensated Executives In Fiscal 2023

CRN breaks down the compensation of Splunk’s top seven highest paid executives – collectively earning more than $107 million – in the recently concluded fiscal 2023.

Splunk, founded in 2003 and based in San Francisco, develops technology used to collect, index and search machine-generated data. In recent years the company has focused on marketing its platform for unified security and observability applications.

Splunk is publicly held and for its fiscal 2023 (ended Jan. 31) the company reported revenue of $3.65 billion, up nearly 37 percent from $2.67 billion in fiscal 2022.

But the company has reported bottom-line losses for many years, included losses of $908.0 million in fiscal 2021 and $1.34 billion in fiscal 2022 when the company struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic upheaval. (Splunk’s loss in fiscal 2023 narrowed to $277.9 million and the company recorded a $268.8 million profit in the fourth quarter.)

In February Splunk laid off about 4 percent of its workforce or about 325 employees

In fiscal 2023 the seven executives earned a total of $107.3 million including salary, bonuses, stock awards and other compensation. Here we take a closer look at those compensation numbers.

The fiscal years covered here include the second half of calendar 2021 and the first half of calendar 2022 when a significant number of Splunk’s top executives, including CEO Doug Merritt, left the company. Some, including President and Chief Growth Officer Teresa Carlson and President of Products and Technology Shawn Bice, were with the company for only a year or so, but their terms spanned two fiscal years.

Here’s a breakdown of the fiscal 2023 total compensation of Splunk’s top seven executives as reported in the company’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, ranked from the lowest compensation to the highest.

No. 7: Graham Smith, Former Interim CEO and Director

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $2,565,414

Total Compensation Fiscal 2022: $3,010,388

Smith, a longtime CFO at Salesforce and then-chairman of Splunk’s board of directors, was tapped to serve as Splunk’s interim CEO after then CEO Doug Merritt resigned in November 2021. Splunk had struggled through 2020 and 2021 and in June 2021 private equity giant Silver Lake invested $1 billion in the company.

Smith relinquished the interim CEO position in May 2022 when the company hired Proofpoint founder and CEO Gary Steele as CEO.

Smith’s fiscal 2023 compensation included a salary of $2,367,798, stock awards worth $197,403, and other compensation of $213 (a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

Smith’s fiscal 2022 compensation included a salary of $2,740,137, stock awards worth $269,398, and other compensation of $853 (a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

No. 6: Brian Roberts, CFO

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $5,582,597

Roberts, previously CFO at Lyft and OpenSea, was hired as Splunk’s chief financial officer in January of this year, right near the end of the company’s fiscal year (ending Jan. 31, 2023).

Roberts fiscal 2023 compensation included a salary of $14,176, stock awards of $5,567,566, and other compensation of $853 (a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

No. 5: Teresa Carlson, Former President and Chief Growth Officer

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $5,971,162

Total Compensation Fiscal 2022: $19,350,880

Carlson was hired by then-CEO Doug Merritt in April 2021 and worked at Spunk for one year until March 2022.

Carlson’s fiscal 2023 compensation included a salary of $96,986 and other compensation of $5,874,176 (including $720,986 in termination payments, $5,148,318 attributable to accelerated vesting of equity awards in connection with her termination of employment, $4,730 for a matching contribution to Carlson’s 401(k) plan account, and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

Carlson’s fiscal 2022 compensation included a salary of $473,425, a $3,250,000 cash signing bonus (approximately equal to an imminent compensation opportunity she forfeited when she left her previous employer), $14,773,270 in stock awards, and $794,028 for non-equity incentive plan compensation.

The fiscal 2022 compensation included other compensation of $60,157 including $17,736 in tax gross-ups, $27,337 in spousal expenses associated with attendance at Splunk’s annual sales achievement event and a gift presented to all attendees at the event, $10,085 in a matching contribution to Morgan’s 401(k) plan account, and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits.

The ”other compensation” in fiscal 2022 also included “travel expenses for spousal travel to accompany Ms. Carlson for travel she engaged in for business purposes; spousal expenses associated with attendance at a customer event that Ms. Carlson engaged in for business purposes; gifts presented to Ms. Carlson in connection with team building events and the commencement of her employment with the company; and expenses for travel that Ms. Carlson engaged in that could be required to be reported as all other compensation under the [U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s proxy disclosure rules,” according to the filing.

No. 4: Scott Morgan, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Global Affairs and Secretary

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $9,297,092

Total Compensation Fiscal 2022: $6,574,065

Total Compensation Fiscal 2021: $7,606,029

Morgan has worked in his current capacity at Splunk since February 2012.

Morgan’s fiscal 2023 compensation included $525,000 in salary, $8,616,149 in stock awards, $145,824 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and other compensation of $10,119, including $9,266 in a matching contribution to Morgan’s 401(k) plan account and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits.

Morgan’s fiscal 2022 compensation included $475,000 in salary, $5,399,953 in stock awards, $637,336 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and other compensation of $61,776 (including $23,949 in tax gross-ups, $28,171 in spousal expenses associated with attendance at Splunk’s annual sales achievement event and a gift presented to all attendees at the event, $8,804 in a matching contribution to Morgan’s 401(k) plan account, and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

Morgan’s fiscal 2021 compensation included $430,000 in salary, $6,851,708 in stock awards, $320,776 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and other compensation of $3,545 (including $553 tax gross-ups, and $992 in a matching contribution and $2,000 in a discretionary contribution to Morgan’s 401(k) plan account.)

No. 3: Jason Child, Former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $13,365,113

Total Compensation Fiscal 2022: $10, 078,582

Total Compensation Fiscal 2021: $11,637,030

Child was Splunk’s CFO between May 2019 and November 2022 when he left to become executive vice president and CFO at semiconductor designer Arm.

Child’s fiscal 2023 compensation included $431,644 in salary, $12,924,646 in stock awards, and $8,823 in other compensation (including $8,112 in a matching contribution to Child’s 401(k) plan account and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits).

Child’s fiscal 2022 compensation included $540,000 in salary, $8,565,464 in stock awards, $905,688 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $67,430 in other compensation (including $26,421 in tax gross-ups, $31,205 in spousal expenses associated with attendance at Splunk’s annual sales achievement event and a gift presented to all attendees at the event, $8,806 in a matching contribution to Child’s 401(k) plan account, a premium payment for long-term disability benefits, travel expenses for spousal travel to accompany Child for travel he engaged in for business purposes, and a gift presented to Child in connection with a team building event.)

Child’s fiscal 2021 compensation included $485,000 in salary, $10,734,528 in stock awards, $413,492 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $4,010 in other compensation (including $847 in tax gross-ups, and $1,163 in a matching contribution and $2,000 in a discretionary contribution to Morgan’s 401(k) plan account.)

No. 2: Shawn Bice, Former President of Products and Technology

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $18,846,455

Total Compensation Fiscal 2022: $20,862.459

Bice worked at Splunk for just over one year, from June 2021 to June 2022. Today he works at Microsoft as corporate vice president of cloud ecosystem security.

Bice’s fiscal 2023 compensation included $232,877 in salary, $14,360,453 in stock awards, and $4,253,125 in other compensation. The latter includes “the portion of Mr. Bice’s signing bonus under his employment letter, from which he was released in exchange for a release of claims against the company and other covenants, including non-disclosure, non-disparagement, and cooperation covenants in favor of the company,” according to the filing. The other compensation also includes a $2,769 matching contribution to Bice’s 401(k) plan account.

Bice’s fiscal 2022 compensation included $402,740 in salary, a $8,500,000 signing bonus, $11,222,763 in stock awards, $675,475 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $61,481 in other compensation.

The other compensation included $18,907 in tax gross-ups, $29,142 in spousal expenses associated with attendance at Splunk’s annual sales achievement event and a gift presented to all attendees at the event, $10,085 in a matching contribution to Mr. Bice’s 401(k) plan account, and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits. It also included “travel expenses for spousal travel to accompany Mr. Bice for travel he engaged in for business purposes, and gifts presented to Mr. Bice in connection with team building events and the commencement of his employment with the company,” according to the filing.

No. 1: Gary Steele, President, CEO and Director

Total Compensation Fiscal 2023: $51,212,720

Splunk announced in March 2022 that it had hired Steele to replace Doug Merrit, who stepped down from the CEO job in November 2021. Steele assumed the CEO post on April 11.

Steele came to Splunk from email security tech developer Proofpoint, where he was the founding CEO and served in the top post for nearly 20 years.

Steele’s fiscal 2023 compensation included $729,863 in salary, an $8,000,000 signing bonus, $42,154,016 in stock awards, $316,761 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $12,080 in other compensation.

The signing bonus was, in part, due to “the significantly higher long-term, performance-based compensation opportunity he forfeited when he separated from his prior employer, which opportunity was more than twice the target value of Mr. Steele’s initial equity awards and the new-hire cash signing bonus,” according to the filing.

The other compensation included $11,227 in a matching contribution to Steele’s 401(k) plan account and a premium payment for long-term disability benefits.