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Coca-Cola CEO Granted $20.9 Million in 2006 Compensation
 
By HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press
March 9, 2007

ATLANTA - The chief executive of The Coca-Cola Co., Neville Isdell, was granted $20.9 million in total compensation last year as valued by the company, according to an analysis of a regulatory filing issued by the world's largest beverage maker Friday.

The Associated Press calculations of total compensation include salary, bonus, incentives, perks, any above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

Isdell's compensation includes a salary of $1.5 million. The fair value of stock and option awards he was granted last year totaled $13.34 million. Non-equity incentive plan compensation totaled $5.5 million. All other compensation, which included travel and other benefits, totaled $545,407.

The proxy filing says that Isdell did not receive above-market or preferential earnings on his nonqualified deferred compensation accounts.

For security purposes, Isdell is required by the company's board to use company aircraft for all travel, both business and personal. Isdell, and his immediate family traveling with him, uses the company aircraft for some personal trips, the filing says. The personal trips are often scheduled in conjunction with a business trip. Isdell is reimbursed for the tax liability associated with the personal use of the company aircraft.

In 2006, personal use of the company aircraft by five senior executives, including Isdell, was less than 3 percent of the total legs flown.

The company paid for $172,298 in aircraft usage by Isdell and about $82,000 for the use of a car and driver in 2006.

During 2006, Isdell, Chief Operating Officer Muhtar Kent and Jose Octavio Reyes, the president of Coca-Cola's Latin America group, were each provided with a car and driver. The proxy says Reyes and his spouse were each provided with a specially equipped car and driver around the clock for security purposes in Mexico City. Kent and his spouse were provided with a car and driver in Istanbul for security purposes.

Reyes' car and driver for the year cost nearly $265,000, the filing shows.

The proxy says club memberships are provided to some senior executives. Monthly dues are paid by the company.

Coca-Cola provides a comprehensive security program and monitoring system for Isdell, including monitoring equipment at his homes and company-paid security personnel. Reyes, based in Mexico City, is provided with security personnel at his residence as well as monitoring of his car and his wife's car. Kent was provided with a comprehensive security system in Istanbul.

AP, after consultations with executive pay consulting firms and accounting experts, developed its own formula for interpreting the expanded disclosures U.S. public companies must make starting this year about what they pay their top executives.

Coca-Cola's annual shareholders meeting is set for April 18 in Wilmington, Del. The agenda includes the election of 11 directors to serve until 2008, a vote on a company performance incentive plan and a vote on five proposals submitted by shareholders.

The shareholder proposals include one that calls for the compensation of Coca-Cola's top five executives to be limited to $500,000 a year, plus any nominal perks. The proposal seeks that it be applied after any existing programs now in force for options, bonuses and other awards have been completed. It asks that severance contracts be discontinued.

The company's board has recommended that the proposal be rejected.

Another shareholder proposal seeks to allow shareholders an opportunity at each annual meeting to vote on an advisory resolution, to be proposed by company management, to ratify the compensation of Coca-Cola's top five executives. The proposal says the vote would be nonbinding.

Coca-Cola's board also has recommended that that proposal be rejected.

Some of the other shareholder proposals involve restricted stock awards for executives and water issues in India.

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