These Are Cognizant’s Top 6 Highest Paid Executives

While fiscal 2020 was a down year for Cognizant, the company’s top executives did well. Here are Cognizant’s 6 highest paid executives.

Keeping Up With Cognizant’s Highest Paid Executives

Cognizant’s CEO reported nearly $14 million in total compensation in the last fiscal year at the same time that the Teaneck, N.J.-based global solution provider saw its revenue decline as it was forced to slash its workforce.

That was down from his total pay the previous year’s total pay of $15.9 million the previous year, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.

Cognizant reported that four of its top-compensated current executives, including CEO Brian Humphries, reported millions in stock awards during the year that helped boost their total pay.

Two of the six Cognizant executives on the best-paid list in fiscal year 2020 are no longer with the company.

The company is coming off a tough fiscal year 2020. For the year, which ended Dec. 31, Cognizant reported that its annual revenue dropped 0.8 percent to $16.7 billion. The company also said it was cutting jobs early last year as the COVID-19 pandemic started to ravage the globe.

Cognizant’s stock has soared around 50 percent over the past 12 months since the early days of the pandemic, buoyed by investor confidence in the technology sector.

Here’s a breakdown of the fiscal 2021 compensation of Cognizant’s top five execs as reported in Cognizant’s 2021 proxy statement as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brian Humphries, CEO

Brian Humphries, 47, became Cognizant CEO in March 2019 after having served just over two years as CEO of London-based Vodafone Business.

Humphries’ salary for calendar year 2020 was $1.03 million, up from just under $770,000 in 2019. However, in 2019 he received a one-time cash bonus of $4 million when he joined Cognizant to compensate him for some ling-term compensation he lost when leaving Vodafone. Of that, Humphries had to utilize $1 million to purchase shares of the company’s common stock during its first open market trading window after April 1, 2019.

For 2020, Humphries also received stock awards of $10.69 million, non-equity incentive plan compensation of $1.75 million, and compensation for a corporate apartment, home security services, pension alliance, and U.K. group personal pension plan matching contribution totaling $343,360. Humphries’ total pay for the year was $13.8 million.

While the rest of Cognizant’s highest paid executives were paid in U.S. dollars, Humphries was paid in British pounds.

Jan Siegmund, Chief Financial Officer

Jan Siegmund, 56, started as chief financial officer in September after a run of just under 20 years at ADP where he spent the last 6.5 years as chief financial officer for that company.

Because he joined Cognizant only during the last four months of 2020, Siegmund’s salary of $266,667 was the lowest of Cognizant’s highest paid executives for the year. However, he also received a bonus equal to his salary along with $5.66 million in stock awards for a total compensation of $6.20 million for the year.

Karen McLoughlin, Former Chief Financial Officer

Karen McLoughlin, 56, was a 17-year veteran of Cognizant, and served as the solution provider’s chief financial officer for just under 9 years until she left the company in December. She is now on Best Buy’s board of directors.

McLoughlin’s 2020 salary of $750,000 matched that of 2019. She also received $6.6 million in stock awards, $637,500 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and other compensation for home security services, 401(k) matching contribution, and CSRP matching contribution totaling $9,062, giving her a total compensation for 2020 of $7.99 million. That was up nearly 50 percent over her total compensation for 2019 of $5.38 million.

Becky Schmitt, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer

Becky Schmitt, 47, is another relative newcomer at Cognizant having joined in February of 2020 after serving a combined three-plus years as chief people officer at both Sam’s Club and Walmart.

For 2020, Schmitt received a salary of $595,845, which was supplemented by a bonus of $600,000 for the year. Schmitt also received stock awards of $7.56 million, non-equity incentive plan compensation of $506,468, and compensation for relocation expenses and gross-up for taxes totaling $211,263. In total, Schmitt received total compensation for 2020 of $9.47 million.

Malcolm Frank, President, Cognizant Digital Business

Malcolm Frank, 55, has been a fixture at Cognizant for almost 16 years. He served as president of the company’s digital business from May of 2019 to January 2021, when he stepped up to the post of president of digital business and technology.

Frank received a 2020 salary of $650,000, which was unchanged from 2019, according to the Cognizant proxy statement. He also received stock awards of $6.51 million, non-equity incentive plan compensation of $552,500, and 401(k) matching contribution of $8000, giving him a total 2020 compensation of $7.72 million, up a hefty 74 percent over 2019’s compensation of $4.44 million.

Matthew Friedrich, Former General Counsel

Matthew Friedrich, 54, joined Cognizant in 2017 after serving as chief corporate counsel at Chevron for the three prior years. However, he recently left Cognizant to join UnitedHealth Group as executive vice president and chief legal officer as of Jan. 11 of this year.

Friedrich received a salary of $650,000 in 2020, stock awards of $4.97 million, non-equity incentive plan compensation of $552,500, and 401(k) matching contribution of $8,000, giving him a total 2020 compensation of $6.18 million.