CEOs of these Idaho companies make millions. See what they and their median workers get
Some CEOs at Idaho’s nine largest publicly traded companies took home hundreds of times more than their median workers earned in 2023, records reviewed by the Idaho Statesman show.
Most publicly traded companies are required to disclose their CEOs’ pay in annual proxy statements provided to shareholders and filed for public viewing online at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2018, under the Dodd-Frank banking regulation law, the companies also had to begin disclosing how much their CEOs are paid compared with the median employee – the worker closest to halfway between the highest- and lowest-paid, excluding the CEO.
The CEOs’ multimillion-dollar compensation packages typically include salary, bonuses, stocks, options and more. The nonsalary portions typically make up most of their pay and often rise or fall based on stock prices, performance-based awards and other factors, resulting in sometimes dramatic changes in total compensation from one year to the next.
Here’s how the top executives of Idaho’s publicly traded companies stack up in order from highest to lowest compensation in 2023, according to their disclosures.
Read through the list to see who has the highest-paid median employee and who has the lowest.
Note: Under the law, companies report median employee pay based not only on full-time U.S. employees, but also part-time and temporary workers. Most foreign workers are included, too – a significant factor for companies like Micron with large non-U.S. workforces.
Sandeep Sahai, Clearwater Analytics
Total compensation: $32,300,214
Median employee pay:N/A
Pay ratio: N/A
Were you expecting the CEO of Micron or Albertsons to notch the No. 1 spot? Not this time.
Sandeep Sahai was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded company in Idaho in 2023. He’s been CEO of the Boise software firm since 2018.
Sahai made $1,718,622 in 2022. The big bump in 2023 was due to an increase in his stock awards, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Clearwater Analytics is an investment accounting, reporting and analytics software company headquartered in a nine-story building adjoining the Grove Plaza at 777 W. Main St. in Boise. It has nearly 1,900 employees in 12 offices across eight countries, according to its website.
Founded by Doug Bates and brothers Dave and Michael Boren in 2004, the company went public in 2021. Its clients use the software to analyze and manage their investment portfolios. Clients include Starbucks, Yahoo, Zions Bank, Facebook, Netflix and J.P. Morgan.
The firm was classified as an emerging growth company through Dec. 31, 2023, which means it was exempt from certain disclosure requirements, including the pay ratio and the median employee wage, for that year, according to a spokesperson. It will have to report both for 2024.
Emerging growth companies are allowed to include less-extensive disclosures in their annual proxy statements than other reporting companies, particularly in the description of executive compensation, according to the SEC.
A company qualifies as an emerging growth company if its total annual gross revenues are less than $1.235 billion for its latest fiscal year and if it has not sold common equity securities under a registration statement, the SEC says.
Clearwater trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CWAN.
Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron
Total compensation: $25,276,953
Median employee pay: $54,570
Pay ratio: 463
Micron’s CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 2023 was much higher than the average for other companies of its stature. The Boise-based company – which is listed on the Standard and Poor’s 500 index, meaning it’s one of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. – had a CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 463-to-1.
The average pay ratio for companies listed on the S&P 500 index for the same year was 268-to-1, according to the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the country.
Still, Sanjay Mehrotra’s total compensation at Micron took a dip in 2023. In 2022, he made $28,840,809.
The company has made a big splash in the past few years. In December, the Biden administration announced that the U.S. Commerce Department would award the chipmaking company, headquartered in the City of Trees, billions of dollars in federal subsidies to help pay for its new plants under construction in Southeast Boise and upstate New York.
The subsidies, authorized by the bipartisan CHIPS Act, which former President Joe Biden signed in 2022, incentivized Micron and other chip manufacturers to expand domestically.
The company has said the two projects, rolled out over the next couple of decades, represent the largest investment in memory manufacturing in U.S. history. The fabs in Boise and Clay, New York, are estimated to create about 20,000 jobs and help the U.S. grow its share of advanced memory manufacturing from less than 2% today to about 10% by 2035.
Micron, Idaho’s largest for-profit employer, has between 5,000 and 5,999 employees in the state, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. The company has about 43,000 total employees, according to its 2023 proxy statement.
Mehrotra became CEO in 2017 after a long career at SanDisk, which he co-founded and led from its start in 1988 until its sale in 2016 as a Fortune 500 company.
He was born in India and came to the U.S. for higher education. He holds more than 70 patents, several of which laid the foundation for high-capacity flash memory, now a ubiquitous part of modern computing. He’s also a big proponent of artificial intelligence and never misses the chance to talk about the significance of memory products in the development of AI.
Micron trades on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker MU.
Tom Werner, Lamb Weston
Total compensation: $20,352,276
Median employee pay: $59,285
Pay ratio: 343
Tom Werner stepped down as CEO of Lamb Weston on Jan. 3 as the company faced significant pressure from an activist investor.
The Eagle-based french fry manufacturing giant was targeted in 2024 by Jana Partners, an investment firm with a 20-year record of leveraging its shares in various public companies to take over or force changes.
The activist has built a stake of more than 5% in Lamb Weston and has been pushing the company to change its board and leadership or explore a sale.
Lamb Weston is the largest producer of french fries in North America and is a major supplier to restaurants, grocery stores and fast-food chains, including McDonald’s. The company has been struggling due to reduced restaurant traffic. It reported in its latest quarterly earnings report that net sales had declined 8% year over year.
Werner’s total compensation in 2022 was $7,858,113, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Lamb Weston employs more than 10,000 people around the world in sales offices, manufacturing plants and corporate offices.
Werner announced during a call with investors in December that he would step down as CEO. He said Mike Smith, the company’s chief operating officer, would take over. He said the transition was the “culmination of a thoughtful, years-long succession-planning process” by the board. Smith became CEO on Jan. 3.
But the change in command wasn’t enough for Jana, which issued a strongly worded statement that railed against Lamb Weston’s “disastrous financial results” and called Werner’s replacement with Smith, who has worked at the company since 2007, “just the latest stick in the eye.”
Werner plans to serve in an advisory role at Lamb Weston until Aug. 31 to facilitate the transition, the company said in a news release.
He had been CEO since 2016, when he led Lamb Weston through a spin-off from its former parent company, Conagra Brands. Werner was president of commercial foods and interim president of private brands at Conagra, where he spent 17 years, when he joined Lamb Weston.
Lamb Weston, like Micron, is listed on the S&P 500 index. Its shares trade on the NYSE under the ticker LW.
Vivek Sankaran, Albertsons
Total compensation: $15,125,283
Median employee pay: $31,781
Pay ratio: 475
Vivek Sankaran has presided over Albertsons during a tumultuous time.
The company’s planned merger with rival grocer Kroger was halted by a pair of judges in December. Albertsons then announced that it was terminating the deal and suing Kroger for billions of dollars, accusing its former partner of having “buyer’s remorse.”
On the heels of its bitter breakup, Albertsons said it was turning its attention toward reducing general and administrative expenses, confirming that it was laying off corporate and division support employees across the country, the Statesman reported Jan. 15.
Sankaran had hinted at the possibility of layoffs last year when he testified in the case brought by the Federal Trade Commission. He said that without the merger with Kroger, he “would have to consider” job cuts, closures and abandoning some markets if the company cannot find other ways to lower costs.
The company released its third-quarter results Jan. 8, when Sankaran said Albertsons had delivered a solid financial performance.
Sankaran took a small pay cut in 2023, according to the company’s proxy statement. He made $16,103,130 in 2022.
The Boise-based supermarket chain is Idaho’s largest company and a Boise icon. It says it has $79 billion in yearly sales, 285,000 employees nationwide and more than 5,000 employees in Idaho, making it the Gem State’s fourth-largest employer, the Statesman reported.
Albertsons trades on the NYSE under the ticker ACI.
Nate Jorgensen, Boise Cascade
Total compensation: $7,676,740
Median employee pay: $60,220
Pay ratio: 128
Nate Jorgensen became CEO of Boise Cascade in 2020. In 2022, his compensation totaled $6,277,015.
He joined the Boise-based company in 2015 after 28 years with timber giant Weyerhaeuser.
Boise Cascade manufactures and distributes wood products like lumber and paper. It was formed in 1957 through the merging of Boise Payette Lumber Co. in Boise and Cascade Lumber Co. in Yakima. The original Boise Cascade Corp. broke up in 2004, and this surviving portion was privately held until it went public in 2013. It is headquartered in the Boise Plaza building at 11th and Jefferson streets.
Boise Cascade is a Fortune 1000 company with $6.8 billion in annual revenue, according to its website.
The company’s median employee compensation excludes its employees in Canada, because they account for less than 5% of its workforce, according to its proxy statement. As of December 2023, Boise Cascade had 7,340 employees, including 7,234 in the U.S. and 106 in Canada.
Biden said during a visit to the Gem State in 2021 that he once interviewed for a job at Boise Cascade, though the company later said it had no record of his application, the Statesman previously reported.
The company trades on the NYSE under the ticker BCC.
Lisa Grow, Idacorp
Total compensation: $7,372,970
Median employee pay: $111,892
Pay ratio:43
Idacorp, the parent company of Idaho Power, its primary subsidiary, reported the highest median employee earnings among the companies on this list by far.
The company’s median employee base wage in 2023 was $111,892, which already topped all the others, but benefits included in the total compensation, like incentives, overtime, pensions and 401k matches, brought the total to $174,873. Publicly traded companies can include benefits in the total annual compensation of their median employee, but are not required to.
CEO Lisa Grow’s base salary was $920,000, but incentives, benefits and other awards brought her pay to well over $7 million. In 2022, Grow made $4,441,045, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Idaho Power, based in Boise, is the state’s largest public electric utility. It serves more than 630,000 customers in Idaho and a portion of eastern Oregon. The company had 2,100 employees as of December 2023.
Grow, an engineer, rose through the ranks over her three decades at Idacorp and eventually succeeded former CEO Darrel Anderson in 2020.
On Jan. 1, Idaho Power won approval from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to raise its base rates by 3.73%, for an annual revenue increase of $50.6 million. The rate hike comes just a year after the company got its last base-rate hike.
Idacorp trades on the NYSE under the ticker IDA.
Phillips Baker Jr., Hecla Mining
Total compensation:$6,013,471
Median employee pay:$100,579
Pay ratio: 60
Hecla Mining, based in Coeur d’Alene, is the largest silver producer in the country. It has mines in Idaho, Alaska and Quebec, Canada, and is building another in Yukon, Canada.
Phillips Baker Jr., the company’s longtime CEO, retired in May 2024 after more than two decades at the company. Rob Krcmarov was named CEO on Nov. 4, according to a news release.
Baker’s compensation in 2022 was $4,579,866.
A coalition of tribes and environmental groups that had sued the company and accused Baker of being a “bad actor” for unreclaimed mining disasters in Montana voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit after his sudden departure from the company, according to a news release from Hecla.
He left with nearly 1% of the company’s stock, worth about $30 million, according to the Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund.
As of December 2023, the company had about 1,775 employees, including 990 in the U.S., 765 in Canada and 20 in Mexico, according to its proxy statement. Most are full time but some are part time.
Hecla trades on the NYSE under the ticker HL. The company rang the Closing Bell on Nov. 21 to commemorate its 60 years on the stock exchange.
Brent Guerisoli, The Pennant Group
Total compensation: $1,868,520
Median employee pay:$31,970
Pay ratio: 58
The Pennant Group, based in Eagle, is a little-known holding company of independently operated subsidiaries that provide health care services around the country. It was founded in 2019.
The subsidiaries include 89 home health and hospice agencies and 48 senior living communities across Idaho and 13 other states, according to the company’s website.
Brent Guerisoli became CEO in 2022 after serving as the company’s president in 2021. He’s been with the company since 2012. In 2022, his total compensation was $1,559,281, according to a proxy statement.
The health care group finalized a deal on Jan. 1 to acquire Signature Healthcare at Home’s hospice and home health assets for $80 million, according to a report from Hospice News. Signature Healthcare at Home provides home, hospice and palliative care in Oregon and Washington.
The Pennant Group has about 5,679 employees, with about 32% working part time.
The company trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker PNTG.
Laurel Sayer, Perpetua Resources
Total compensation: $1,007,894
Median employee pay:N/A
Pay rato:N/A
Laurel Sayer, the CEO of Perpetua Resources for seven years, stepped down in March 2024, according to a news release from the company. Jon Cherry, the former CEO of PolyMet Mining, succeeded her.
Sayer is staying on as a senior adviser until she retires in April. In 2022, her total compensation was $1,060,147, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Perpetua Resources is set to resurrect an old gold mine in Central Idaho that would supply the Pentagon with weapons-grade antimony. The mine received final approval from the U.S. Forest Service following a lengthy environmental review and objections from conservation groups and the Nez Perce Tribe, the Statesman reported Jan. 7.
Perpetua is exempt from the SEC’s pay ratio requirement since it is both an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, according to a spokesperson for the company. So it did not have to disclose its pay ratio or its median employee compensation for 2023.
The company is headquartered in Donnelly and has offices in Boise. It trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker PPTA.