Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol won’t be required to relocate to the company’s headquarters in Seattle when he joins the coffee giant next month.
Instead, Starbucks says Niccol can live in his home in Newport Beach, California and commute to Starbucks’ head office 1,000 miles away on a corporate jet, according to the new CEO’s offer letter, which was made public in an SEC filing last week.
In his new role, Niccol, 50, will be paid a base salary of $1.6 million annually and has the opportunity to earn an annual cash bonus that could range from $3.6 million to $7.2 million depending on his performance. He will also be eligible for annual equity awards worth up to $23 million.
A few questions here:
Jets aren’t even remotely cheap to run. They cost millions, they cost tens of thousands to operate, and that doesn’t include personnel costs or costs regarding runway rental or the kind of shit a CEO would need while in the air.
Also, how many million tonnes of CO2 will this dump into the high atmosphere every year?
This is an unfortunately normal perk for c-level execs at major corporations. I’d be surprised if Starbucks only had one. He also most certainly has a driver (likely with military experience), and an apartment at the Ritz or similar in Seattle - all covered by the company.
For the reasons you mentioned I would hope this just means chartering flights. Owning a jet seems like the entire purpose is to flaunt how much money you can spend frivolously.
Guess what C-level execs like to do?
There was a real estate group I was interviewing with a while ago that was not particularly big and they owned a jet. Obviously not a 737 or anything but Bombardier makes jets that are smaller. Still expensive to run but C-level execs have convinced idiot boards members (who also ride around on the keys) that they are totally necessary.