US-listed floating regasification specialist Excelerate Energy more than doubled the pay of its president and chief executive Steven Kobos in 2022.
The company’s executive compensation table in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing details that Kobos was paid $2.9m in 2022.
Kobos earned over $1.44m in 2021 and $1.38m in 2020.
The document shows that while Kobos’ basic salary of $900,000 was unchanged over the three-year period from 2020 to 2022, he earned a cash retention bonus of $68,250 last year along with stock options amounting to over $1.2m and $42,806 in other compensation.
On top of this Kobus was awarded a short-term incentive payment (STIP) of $689,130.
His STIP was increased from 50% to 65% of his base salary in April 2022 in conjunction with the company’s IPO that month.
In February 2023, Excelerate’s Compensation Committee determined his STIP payment for 2022 to be 118% of the April target.
But his base salary will be reduced to $850,000 in 2023 in a move that will see his pay more heavily weighted to incentive and equity-based elements.
Following Excelerate’s IPO in April 2022, the company’s Compensation Committee of its board of directors took on the administration of its executive compensation programme and was the body which approved reductions in Kobos and executive vice president and chief commercial officer Daniel Bustos’ base salaries for 2023.
Excelerate also engaged management consultants Korn Ferry to help set up its initial public-company compensation programme and established a peer group of similar size, industry and business model companies to benchmark pay levels and incentive plan design for its top executives.
The documentation revealed that Kobus, who has been a director of the company since September 2021, owns just over 1% of Excelerate’s Class A stock and holds options to purchase additional shares.
The George Kaiser Family Foundation, the holding vehicle for Excelerate’s founding shareholder US oil and gas magnate George Kaiser, holds 29.92%.
Kobos, a lawyer by training, was catapulted to the top job at Excelerate on 1 March 2018 in a shock move.
He was initially appointed as managing director with the then privately owned and run company announcing it had “eliminated” the position of president and chief executive — a role held by Rob Bryngelson for 11 years.
Prior to this, Kobos had worked for 11 years as an attorney for Frederic Dorwart Law, where he focused on Excelerate’s operational, development and contractual transactions.
Today Excelerate operates an existing fleet of 10 floating storage and regasification units. It has one FSRU newbuilding on order and recently concluded its first purchase of LNG volumes.
