Medtronic CEO's Pay Is Back to 'Normal'

Omar Ishrak's compensation has returned from the stratosphere--a year after a one-time $25 million excise tax compensation.

Chris Newmarker

Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak is no longer the most compensated medical device company CEO; the spot now belongs to J&J CEO Alex Gorsky.

Ishrak's total compensation was $15.3 million for the fiscal year ended April 29, according to Medtronic's recently filed proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The amount is only two-fifths the nearly $38.5 million Ishrak received a year before, when the company provided Ishrak roughly $25 million to compensate him for special excise taxes incurred from Medtronic's $50 billion merger with Covidien.

The company said at the time that the $25 million was justified because the special U.S. excise tax was meant to dissuade executives such as Ishrak from doing what made financial sense for the company: moving Medtronic's official headquarters overseas to Ireland through the deal.

The $15.3 million moves Ishrak down to fifth place among medical device industry CEOs when it comes to compensation, according to a Qmed analysis. J&J's Gorsky is now first place, with about $23.8 million in compensation for the company's most recent fiscal year. (Read Qmed's full list of medtech CEOs who made the most.)

Considering that Medtronic now rivals J&J as the largest medical device company in the world, Ishrak's compensation could be a good deal for the company.

Ishrak is often cited as a top CEO in the medical device industry. Qmed readers picked him as best medtech CEOin a survey last month. Over the past five years since he joined Medtronic as CEO and chairman, the company's stock value has roughly doubled, and is now trading at more than $80 per share.

Minus the excise tax compensation, Ishrak's $15.3 million was still up from $13.9 million for the previous fiscal year.

Ishrak's salary was $1.55 million, up slightly from $1.50 million.

Here is a full breakdown of how his compensation changed:

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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[Image courtesy of Medtronic]