What would you say, if you get to know of a CEO who spent just about a day on his job, resigned and walked away with a cool $ 44 million as severance package ? Cool, isn’t it.
That’s the story of Bill Johnson, now the ex CEO of Duke Energy Corp. Bill was the CEO of Progress Energy, that got merged with Duke. The decision on the merger was taken some time last year, where in the two companies agreed that Bill would take on the CEO’s role for the merged entity. Bill recently signed a 3 year contract agreeing to be the CEO of the merged entity, and as a result took charge as the CEO on 2nd July 2012.
However surprisingly, on July 3, he resigned. His exit, could also be a firing in guise of a resignation – because of certain reasons not known to us. Any ways, post his exit – he is entitled to a severance package , bonus, and stock options valued at around $ 44 million.
CEO’s severance packages never fail to amaze, however the interesting aspect of this one is extremely short-lived tenure, and the fact that the severance part of the contract was applicable and would possibly be honored even for this short stint.