Directors of tanker owner International Seaways were the best paid among US-domiciled cargo shipping outfits last year.
Public filings indicate that average director pay of $222,000 at the New York outfit was about 37% higher than the most generous company in 2017 — the $162,000 average paid by Seaways’ former affiliate Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG).
International Seaways also featured the highest remuneration for an individual director: the $376,000 handed to chairman Douglas Wheat.
Seacor Marine Holdings was runner-up for 2018 with average compensation of $199,000, which included the second-biggest total paid to an individual director — the $277,000 awarded to chairman Charles Fabrikant. As TradeWinds reports, Fabrikant was also the highest-compensated officer of a US-domiciled shipowner in 2018, with total pay of $4.4m.
All averages take into account cash payments for duties such as basic membership and serving as a chair or member of various committees within the board.
They include stock grants where applicable, with estimated values calculated under accounting protocol. The averages do not include directors who worked only part of the year and thus received partial pay.
International Seaways and Seacor Marine Holdings were not the only companies to beat the previous year’s highest payments.
OSG directors averaged $195,000. Wheat, who also chairs that board, pulled in a further $272,000 there.
International Seaways was spun off from OSG as a separate company in December 2016 to run its foreign fleet, while OSG became a US-flag pure play. The two owners continued to hold some directors and shareholders in common.
Genco fourth
Fourth on the pay list was Genco Shipping & Trading with a $194,000 average, which was topped by a $232,000 cheque to James Dolphin, a partner in New York merchant banker AMA Capital Partners.
Seacor Holdings, the parent of Seacor Marine Holdings, came next with a $154,000 average, led by a $168,000 total for David Schizer.
Once again, Connecticut-based Eagle Bulk Shipping took the title for restraint in boardroom compensation, averaging $114,000, with top pay to chairman Paul Leand of $208,000. Leand is also a partner in AMA.
Still, the Eagle Bulk figure was a step up from 2017, when it paid an $87,500 average.
The company has a sensitive history of director compensation under previous ownership and management. Scrutiny of shipping directors’ pay peaked in 2013 when Eagle Bulk shareholders alleged in a class action that there was a “quid pro quo” arrangement between company management and directors to mutually inflate compensation.
Former Eagle Bulk chief executive Sophocles Zoullas had perennially been among shipping’s biggest earners, particularly in 2007, when he pulled in $20m at the height of the dry bulk market.
The Eagle Bulk board took home an average of $432,000 in 2011 — 57% more than directors of financial giant JPMorgan Chase that year, and 75% more than those at mammoth package delivery outfit United Parcel Service.
Although no improper correlation was proved, Eagle Bulk agreed to an unprecedented settlement without admitting wrongdoing.
