Earning a Businessperson of the Year Award from the Business Journal draws the attention of larger firms and can add a big boost to a CEO’s salary, it appears.
The latest example: Boot Barn (NYSE: BOOT) CEO Jim Conroy, who last week was hired by Ross Stores (Nasdaq: ROST) to head the Dublin-based retailer that’s the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the U.S.
See Nancy Luna’s front-page story for more details on what the CEO move means for the Irvine-based Western apparel and footwear chain.
When we named Conroy a Businessperson of the Year at the start of 2019, Boot Barn was already seen as an outlier in the under-fire retail world, with solid sales growth, store expansion plans and a $500M market cap that was on the rise.
Boot Barn’s now valued closer to $4B, placing it in the top dozen or so public companies based in OC.
Conroy’s taking a big step up in size with Ross Stores, which has a valuation closer to $46B; only Newport Beach’s Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) has a larger market cap – about $77B – among local public cos.
Conroy’s move echoes that of former Chipotle boss Brian Niccol, who in September took over the top spot at Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), now valued at over $110B.
Niccol, who we named a Businessperson of the Year at the start of 2020, is set to receive a pay package that could top $110M in its first year, factoring in stock grants and various bonuses, according to a reading of his contract.
Conroy also will be well-compensated at Ross. His first-year pay could run close to $25M, and his “total maximum potential pay if he stays through March 2029 is valued at about $75.1 million, if he hits targets, stays employed and hits his bonus metrics every year,” noted a report last week in Fortune.
Recruiters take note: our next Businessperson of the Year edition runs in early January.
One area where Jim Conroy and Brian Niccol differ in their just-signed exec contracts: the expectation of relocation.
Filings indicate that Conroy is getting paid a bonus by Ross Stores to move, not to the company’s 414K SF HQ in Northern California, but rather to New York City, where the apparel co. owns a nearly 572K SF facility along Broadway Avenue that it refers to as its “buying office.”
Niccol made headlines by negotiating a deal to open a small Starbucks office in Newport Beach close to his home. He is expected to commute to the coffee co.’s HQ in Seattle a few times a week on the company’s private plane.
Starbucks’ return-to-office plans made headlines last week; corporate employees were told to “comply with requirements to work in the office three days a week,” or face a potential termination, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There’s reportedly about 4,000 Starbucks workers, occupying about 1M SF, at its HQ.
Brian Niccol will need to earn his salary: Starbucks on Oct. 22 reported global sales fell 7% year-over-year in the latest quarter, and it has suspended financial guidance for fiscal 2025.
“We need to fundamentally change our strategy so we can get back to growth,” Niccol said following the earnings announcement.
