The CEO of GE passes on his 2009 bonus

Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, passed on taking a cash bonus in 2009.  This marks the second straight year in which he has skipped his cash bonus.  Needless to say, I consider Immelt’s choice to be appropriate corporate behavior.  His total compensation increased 6.5% while the price of the stock was down 1.8% from December 31, 2008 to December 31, 2009.  While there is a disconnect between his compensation growth and GE’s stock market performance, I consider the gap to be mild.  In general, I consider GE’s corporate governance to be good and hope that other businesses eventually adopt the sorts of standards that General Electric uses.

Details of GE’s compensation can be found in their SEC filed proxy statements.  To find the company’s compensation practices, or any other company’s go to: www.sec.gov/EDGAR.  There you can perform a search for any SEC filed document.  The proxy statement is known as the DEF14A.  Take a look if you are curious, I think a little time spent there is well worth the effort if you are a shareholder of any common stock.

Have a good weekend!

Jason