Executive compensation foCEO John Clendening, who joined Blucora on April 4, 2016, received $5.4 million in compensation for the year ended Dec. 31, 2017, an increase of 13.3 percent from $4.8 million for 2016.
A big part of the change was the $1.2 million in non-equity incentive compensation for 2017 as he received nothing in that category for 2016. Clendening also was granted $2.6 million in options last year, an 86.3-percent rise from $1.4 million the prior year. That was countered by a drop in stock grants to $1.1 million, off 54.5 percent from $2.5 million in 2016.
Former CFO Eric Emans received $1.2 million in 2017. He left in November rather than move to Washington when the company relocated its headquarters so that amount was down sharply from $2.7 million in 2016. John Palmer, principal financial and accounting officer, went onto the list instead with $398,494 in pay because he was the principal accounting officer at a time when there was no CFO. Davinder Athwal, hired as CFO in February this year, will appear on the roster of named executives for 2018 compensation when the proxy is published next year.
The company also had new leaders for its two subsidiaries. Hired in February 2017, Robert Oros, CEO of H.D. Vest, was given $2.2 million in compensation in 2017. Option grants of slightly more than a million were a major part of that. Sanjay Baskaran, president of TaxAct who joined in January 2017, was given $2.3 million last year. That was more evenly split with $749,98 in stock grants and $741,528 in options grants.
Amy Bruder, who became chief legal officer and secretary in June, was paid $1.4 million. The company also noted it named Mathieu Stevenson as the Blucora’s chief marketing officer in October 2016.
