Lloyd C. Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on January 13, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Olivier Douliery /Abaca Press/MCT)
Associated Press | The government has accused Goldman Sachs & Co. of defrauding
investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in subprime
investments it sold as the housing market was collapsing.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint Friday
that Goldman failed to disclose that one of its clients helped create
– and then bet against — subprime mortgage securities that Goldman
sold to other investors.
Two European banks that bought the mortgage securities lost nearly $1
billion, the SEC said. The agency is seeking to recoup profits reaped
on the deal
The government has accused Goldman Sachs & Co. of defrauding
investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage
investments it sold as the housing market was faltering.
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Tribune staff report | Baxter International today named Ludwig
Hantson president of its international operation and a corporate vice
presidentl. Hantson, 47, most recently was chief executive officer of
Pharma North America at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
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April 14, 2010 at 11:52 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives,
Economy,
Education
JPMorgan CEO
Jamie Dimon, left, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in 2009. (Nancy Stone/Chicago
Tribune)
From Syracuse.com | A group of students at Syracuse University in New York has created a “Take Back Commencement” group on Facebook to protest the university’s graduation speaker, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “We…are against
using the 2010 commencement to restore the public image of the banking
industry and validate the anti-environmental and anti-humanitarian
interests of JP Morgan Chase,” reads the petition. It has gathered 860 signatures so far.
Get the full story: syracuse.com.
April 13, 2010 at 4:57 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Investing,
Litigation
Associated Press | The former president of a Chicago-based private equity firm has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud, admitting he misspent millions of dollars in investor money.
Steven Byers, the former head of WexTrust Capital, entered the guilty plea in federal court in Manhattan Tuesday. He agreed that millions of dollars raised from investors since at least 2003 was not used as promised.
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April 13, 2010 at 1:52 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives,
Management
By Becky Yerak
| Richard Rieser is back on the scene at MB Financial Inc.
In 2006 he sold First Oak Brook Bancshares Inc., which amassed a notable fine art collection, to MB. Rieser stayed on as an MB director, vice chairman and chief marketing strategist but left in 2007. His severance pact stipulated that MB pay for his farewell bash, “with the arrangements to be made by the executive.”
Now Rieser, who owns 360,163 MB shares, has introduced a shareholder proposal asking MB to reimburse expenses in contested elections for directors.
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April 13, 2010 at 1:04 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Pharmaceuticals,
Retail
Tribune staff report | Walgreen Co. named Ginger Graham to its board of directors Tuesday. Graham will become the 10th member of drugstore chain’s board on May 1.
Graham is the president and CEO of Two Trees Consulting and a senior lecturer of business administration at Harvard Business School. She’s also the former president and CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and has also worked at heart device maker Guidant Corp. and drugmaker Eli Lilly.
April 9, 2010 at 1:25 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Food,
Restaurants
By Becky Yerak | McDonald’s
Corp. Chief Executive James Skinner saw his pay jump 29 percent jump
in 2009 to $17.6 million, according to a proxy filed Friday with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Most of the increase came in the form of annual and long-term cash
incentive compensation, which jumped from a total of $4.6 million in
2008 to $11.5 million in 2009. Executives earn those bonuses based on
the company’s performance during the past three years.
Skinner’s salary rose 4 percent to $1.4 million. Stock and option awards fell 45 percent to $3.9 million in 2009.
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April 9, 2010 at 12:11 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Media
Tribune staff report | Playboy Enterprises Chief Executive Scott Flanders earned $3.25 million in his first year on job, according to the Chicago-based media company’s proxy materials filed today.
Flanders, who was appointed in June 2009, earned a salary of $430,769 and a bonus of $400,000. He was awarded $406,500 in Playboy stock and more than $2 million in stock options. He was also compensated $732 for protection services, the company said.
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April 9, 2010 at 5:40 a.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Manufacturing
Tribune staff report | Solo Cup Co. announced the appointment of R. James Alexy to fill a vacancy on its board of directors. Alexy, 69, recently retired as chairman of Network Services Co.
April 8, 2010 at 11:44 a.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Stock activity
By Becky Yerak | Joe Mansueto, the chairman and chief executive of Morningstar Inc., took
a 6 percent pay cut in 2009, taking home only $100,020 in total
compensation.
But he does own 25.6 million shares, or 52 percent of the Chicago-based
investment research provider. That’s worth $1.2 billion based on the
$46.94 trading price mid-Thursday afternoon. Morningstar’s 52-week trading range is $31 to $54.75.
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April 6, 2010 at 12:34 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Housing,
Real estate
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Publishing heiress Linda Johnson Rice, who is the chairwoman and chief
executive officer of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing, has just listed
her four-bedroom, 35th-floor condominium unit on Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast for $2.9 million.
Johnson Rice, 52, placed the 5,393-square-foot double unit on the
market on Monday. Her late father, John H. Johnson, founded Johnson
Publishing, which publishes Ebony and Jet magazines, in 1942. Johnson
Rice became the company’s chief executive in 2002 and took on the added
position of chairwoman after her father died in 2005.
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April 6, 2010 at 8:35 a.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Retail
By Becky Yerak | The interim chief executive of Sears Holdings Corp. was paid $1.5 million in 2009, down from $1.9 million in 2008.
Bruce Johnson, 58, who has held the post at the Hoffman Estates-based
retailer since February 2008, saw the value of his stock awards drop
from $999,918 to $663,400, according to the proxy filed Tuesday morning
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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April 2, 2010 at 6:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Investing,
Retail
From the Chicago Sun-Times | After an absence of five years, Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Edward S. Lampert has returned to the list of top hedge fund industry earners, sharing the No. 6 spot with Carl Ichan.
The recent boost in Sears stock helped Lampert pull in $1.3 billion in 2009 from fees and from his 53 percent stake in the company, according to an estimate by, AR Magazine, a New York-based publication that covers the hedge-fund industry.
Get the full story: suntimes.com
April 1, 2010 at 5:48 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Earnings,
Insurance
Thomas J. Wilson, chairman and CEO of Allstate Insurance. (Kevin G. Hall/McClatchy Tribune)
Dow Jones Newswires | Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Thomas J. Wilson received total compensation valued at $10.4 million in 2009, up about 30% from a year earlier.
The $10.4 million in total compensation includes a base salary of $1.1 million and $1.7 million in cash payments arising from Allstate’s nonequity incentive compensation plan, the company said Thursday in a Securities and Exchange Commission proxy filing. Wilson made nearly $8 million in 2008 and $10.8 million in 2007, the filing said.
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April 1, 2010 at 2:04 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives
By Julie Wernau | The highest paid executive officers at Acco Brands, the
Lincolnshire-based supplier of office products, saw salary cuts and went
without their typical bonuses and stock option grants in 2009 due to
the company’s poor and uncertain financial performance in 2009,
according to a proxy statement filed Thursday.
As the financial condition of the company deteriorated, all non-union
U.S. employees at the company took salary reductions of 20 percent
during one four-month period and an additional 33 percent during another
two-month period.
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