Not represented in this story and image is Medalist Diversified REIT, which is publicly traded but does not technically have executives on its payroll.
| CEO/Highest Paid Exec. | Company | 2021 Total Comp. | 2020 Total Comp. | Percent Change |
| Michael Bor | CarLotz (LOTZ) | $16,378,887.00 | $382,989.00 | 4176.59% |
| William Nash | CarMax (KMX) | $13,689,123.00 | $9,891,893.00 | 38.39% |
| William Gifford Jr. | Altria (MO) | $12,626,972.00 | $12,238,397.00 | 3.18% |
| Douglas Pertz | Brink’s (BCO) | $11,405,920.00 | $13,901,789.00 | -17.95% |
| Theodore Hanson | ASGN (ASGN) | $9,546,278.00 | $6,606,311.00 | 44.50% |
| Thomas McInerney | Genworth Financial (GNW) | $8,499,379.00 | $7,357,588.00 | 15.52% |
| George Holm | Performance Food Group (PFGC) | $8,228,550.00 | $6,166,626.00 | 33.44% |
| Robert Blue | Dominion Energy (D) | $8,161,083.00 | $7,912,643.00 | 3.14% |
| Edward Pesicka | Owens & Minor (OMI) | $7,680,578.00 | $7,628,179.00 | 0.69% |
| Arie Kotler | ARKO (ARKO) | $6,375,923.00 | $2,078,493.00 | 206.76% |
| Justin Knight | Apple Hospitality REIT (APLE) | $6,092,030.00 | $3,914,027.00 | 55.65% |
| George Freeman III | Universal Corp. (UVV) | $5,171,861.00 | $4,567,741.00 | 13.23% |
| Thomas Gayner | Markel (MKL) | $4,624,603.00 | $4,183,420.00 | 10.55% |
| Byron Boston | Dynex Capital (DX) | $4,476,138.00 | $3,875,179.00 | 15.51% |
| John Steitz | Tredegar (TG) | $3,673,092.00 | $5,031,163.00 | -26.99% |
| John Asbury | Atlantic Union Bankshares (AUB) | $3,265,938.00 | $2,948,051.00 | 10.78% |
| Gregory Trepp | Hamilton Beach Brands (HBB) | $2,698,811.00 | $3,119,154.00 | -13.48% |
| Thomas Gottwald | NewMarket (NEU) | $2,469,929.00 | $3,149,426.00 | -21.58% |
| Michael Kehoe | Kinsale Capital (KNSL) | $3,028,861.00 | $2,210,343.00 | 37.03% |
| Charles Tyson | LL Flooring (LL) | $2,174,088.00 | $2,513,465.00 | -13.50% |
| Thomas Cherry | C&F Financial (CFFI) | $1,157,133.00 | $977,599.00 | 18.36% |
| James Hendricks, Jr. | Village Bank and Trust Financial (VBFC) | $635,539.00 | $476,341.00 | 33.42% |
There’s a noteworthy twist in the latest rankings of local public company CEO compensation: the top spot is filled by an executive who is no longer in that post.
Michael Bor, the founding and now-former CEO of Scott’s Addition-based used vehicle retailer CarLotz, received the richest pay package of any executive at the region’s 22 publicly traded firms in 2021.
Michael Bor
The figures, which have all been disclosed in the companies’ proxy statements over the last few months, show Bor took in a compensation package valued at $16.4 million, nearly $3 million more than his next closest peer.
That top ranking is mainly the result of a windfall Bor reaped on paper after the closing of the SPAC merger that took CarLotz public in early 2021.
For shepherding the company through that deal, Bor was rewarded with a $450,000 cash bonus, $2 million in stock awards and $13.3 million in stock options that vested upon the closing of the SPAC merger. All of that was on top of his $577,000 base salary and $52,000 for a company car.
But the SPAC deal hasn’t worked out so well and the value of those options hasn’t held up as planned. The company’s stock has plummeted about 95 percent in the 18 months since going public and these days trades at around 42 cents a share.
Bor was consequently replaced as CEO in March of this year, and has since been unloading his shares by the millions.
If you include Bor’s huge jump in pay in 2021, the average increase of local public company CEO compensation packages was 210 percent last year. Without including Bor’s asterisk of a year, the rest of the CEOs on the list saw their pay jump by an average of 21 percent.
The 23 executives on the list earned a combined $142 million, an average of $6.5 million. The average increase from the previous period, 2019-2020, was 28 percent.
Wiliam Nash
Second to Bor was CarMax CEO William Nash, whose pay jumped nearly 39 percent to $13.7 million in the used car giant’s most recent fiscal year.
Beyond his $1.2 million base salary, Nash’s increase was fueled by $2.6 million in stock awards and $3.6 million in cash incentives. His total also included $161,000 worth of personal use on the CarMax private jet.
Third on the list was William Gifford Jr., CEO of tobacco giant Altria. His $12.6 million total for 2021 was up 3 percent from 2020, and included a $1.3 million base salary, $6 million in stock awards and $2.8 million in cash incentive payouts.
Base salary typically makes up a smaller percentage of public CEO’s total pay packages, compared to larger categories such as stock awards and non-equity incentive cash payouts.
Up next was Douglas Pertz, head of Henrico-based armored car giant Brink’s. Pertz was tops among his local peers for pay in 2020 with $13.9 million but saw his total in 2021 drop nearly 18 percent to $11.4 million. He had a base salary of $1 million, incentive payments of $1.2 million and stock awards of $8.9 million.
Rounding out the top five was Theodore Hanson, head of Innsbrook-based IT services giant ASGN. Hanson’s total pay was up 45 percent to $9.5 million in 2021.
Other notable stats from this year’s list was the 206 percent pay increase for Arie Kotler, head of convenience store giant ARKO. His total pay package leapt from $2 million in 2020 to $6.4 million last year.
In addition to Pertz, four other local CEOs saw their total pay drop in 2021, including John Steitz at Tredegar (27 percent); Gregory Trepp at Hamilton Beach (13 percent); NewMarket’s Thomas Gottwald (21 percent); and LL Flooring’s Charles Tyson (13 percent).
Another point of note, this list has two fewer companies than last year, as Community Bankers Trust was acquired and Synalloy Corp. relocated its corporate headquarters to another state.
• BizSense reporter Jack Jacobs contributed to this story.
Not represented in this story and image is Medalist Diversified REIT, which is publicly traded but does not technically have executives on its payroll.
| CEO/Highest Paid Exec. | Company | 2021 Total Comp. | 2020 Total Comp. | Percent Change |
| Michael Bor | CarLotz (LOTZ) | $16,378,887.00 | $382,989.00 | 4176.59% |
| William Nash | CarMax (KMX) | $13,689,123.00 | $9,891,893.00 | 38.39% |
| William Gifford Jr. | Altria (MO) | $12,626,972.00 | $12,238,397.00 | 3.18% |
| Douglas Pertz | Brink’s (BCO) | $11,405,920.00 | $13,901,789.00 | -17.95% |
| Theodore Hanson | ASGN (ASGN) | $9,546,278.00 | $6,606,311.00 | 44.50% |
| Thomas McInerney | Genworth Financial (GNW) | $8,499,379.00 | $7,357,588.00 | 15.52% |
| George Holm | Performance Food Group (PFGC) | $8,228,550.00 | $6,166,626.00 | 33.44% |
| Robert Blue | Dominion Energy (D) | $8,161,083.00 | $7,912,643.00 | 3.14% |
| Edward Pesicka | Owens & Minor (OMI) | $7,680,578.00 | $7,628,179.00 | 0.69% |
| Arie Kotler | ARKO (ARKO) | $6,375,923.00 | $2,078,493.00 | 206.76% |
| Justin Knight | Apple Hospitality REIT (APLE) | $6,092,030.00 | $3,914,027.00 | 55.65% |
| George Freeman III | Universal Corp. (UVV) | $5,171,861.00 | $4,567,741.00 | 13.23% |
| Thomas Gayner | Markel (MKL) | $4,624,603.00 | $4,183,420.00 | 10.55% |
| Byron Boston | Dynex Capital (DX) | $4,476,138.00 | $3,875,179.00 | 15.51% |
| John Steitz | Tredegar (TG) | $3,673,092.00 | $5,031,163.00 | -26.99% |
| John Asbury | Atlantic Union Bankshares (AUB) | $3,265,938.00 | $2,948,051.00 | 10.78% |
| Gregory Trepp | Hamilton Beach Brands (HBB) | $2,698,811.00 | $3,119,154.00 | -13.48% |
| Thomas Gottwald | NewMarket (NEU) | $2,469,929.00 | $3,149,426.00 | -21.58% |
| Michael Kehoe | Kinsale Capital (KNSL) | $3,028,861.00 | $2,210,343.00 | 37.03% |
| Charles Tyson | LL Flooring (LL) | $2,174,088.00 | $2,513,465.00 | -13.50% |
| Thomas Cherry | C&F Financial (CFFI) | $1,157,133.00 | $977,599.00 | 18.36% |
| James Hendricks, Jr. | Village Bank and Trust Financial (VBFC) | $635,539.00 | $476,341.00 | 33.42% |
There’s a noteworthy twist in the latest rankings of local public company CEO compensation: the top spot is filled by an executive who is no longer in that post.
Michael Bor, the founding and now-former CEO of Scott’s Addition-based used vehicle retailer CarLotz, received the richest pay package of any executive at the region’s 22 publicly traded firms in 2021.
Michael Bor
The figures, which have all been disclosed in the companies’ proxy statements over the last few months, show Bor took in a compensation package valued at $16.4 million, nearly $3 million more than his next closest peer.
That top ranking is mainly the result of a windfall Bor reaped on paper after the closing of the SPAC merger that took CarLotz public in early 2021.
For shepherding the company through that deal, Bor was rewarded with a $450,000 cash bonus, $2 million in stock awards and $13.3 million in stock options that vested upon the closing of the SPAC merger. All of that was on top of his $577,000 base salary and $52,000 for a company car.
But the SPAC deal hasn’t worked out so well and the value of those options hasn’t held up as planned. The company’s stock has plummeted about 95 percent in the 18 months since going public and these days trades at around 42 cents a share.
Bor was consequently replaced as CEO in March of this year, and has since been unloading his shares by the millions.
If you include Bor’s huge jump in pay in 2021, the average increase of local public company CEO compensation packages was 210 percent last year. Without including Bor’s asterisk of a year, the rest of the CEOs on the list saw their pay jump by an average of 21 percent.
The 23 executives on the list earned a combined $142 million, an average of $6.5 million. The average increase from the previous period, 2019-2020, was 28 percent.
Wiliam Nash
Second to Bor was CarMax CEO William Nash, whose pay jumped nearly 39 percent to $13.7 million in the used car giant’s most recent fiscal year.
Beyond his $1.2 million base salary, Nash’s increase was fueled by $2.6 million in stock awards and $3.6 million in cash incentives. His total also included $161,000 worth of personal use on the CarMax private jet.
Third on the list was William Gifford Jr., CEO of tobacco giant Altria. His $12.6 million total for 2021 was up 3 percent from 2020, and included a $1.3 million base salary, $6 million in stock awards and $2.8 million in cash incentive payouts.
Base salary typically makes up a smaller percentage of public CEO’s total pay packages, compared to larger categories such as stock awards and non-equity incentive cash payouts.
Up next was Douglas Pertz, head of Henrico-based armored car giant Brink’s. Pertz was tops among his local peers for pay in 2020 with $13.9 million but saw his total in 2021 drop nearly 18 percent to $11.4 million. He had a base salary of $1 million, incentive payments of $1.2 million and stock awards of $8.9 million.
Rounding out the top five was Theodore Hanson, head of Innsbrook-based IT services giant ASGN. Hanson’s total pay was up 45 percent to $9.5 million in 2021.
Other notable stats from this year’s list was the 206 percent pay increase for Arie Kotler, head of convenience store giant ARKO. His total pay package leapt from $2 million in 2020 to $6.4 million last year.
In addition to Pertz, four other local CEOs saw their total pay drop in 2021, including John Steitz at Tredegar (27 percent); Gregory Trepp at Hamilton Beach (13 percent); NewMarket’s Thomas Gottwald (21 percent); and LL Flooring’s Charles Tyson (13 percent).
Another point of note, this list has two fewer companies than last year, as Community Bankers Trust was acquired and Synalloy Corp. relocated its corporate headquarters to another state.
• BizSense reporter Jack Jacobs contributed to this story.
Lol on Carlotz – what a sham that was
A company’s CEO makes $16 million while the company stock drops 95%. Are there any more companies like this that are currently hiring for executive positions?
Seriously, cooking the numbers and security fraud. Funny you average Joe and get over paid in error by payroll they will claw it back but you commit securities violations, deceive investors and leave the company headed for bankruptcy, you top the list of corporate salaries for the year.
Not a single woman in that list…
You can share your identity politics elsewhere. Your comment is not germane to this article.
Go back to OAN
Shameful there is ONly one minority black male and even more shameful is there are NO females on the list. Let’s not say none qualified. Like myself, there are many qualified women.
This was the 1st thought I had when glancing at the list. You’d think there would be at least 1 out of the 40!
Such diversity!
diversity is perversity. “e pluribus unum” is the American Way.
Meritocracy should be the way in business.
“Meritocracy” as in picking the right parents