Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., is the highest-paid executive among Houston-area public companies.

CenterPoint Energy CEO Jason Wells concede he is compensated based on shareholder return, not keeping the lights on.

One of the enduring business mysteries is how chief executive officers can keep demanding higher compensation when research shows bigger paydays do not correlate to better total returns for shareholders.

Celebrity executives want you to believe they deserve 200 or even 300 times more money than their median employee, but if you care about a well-run company, hiring someone who is hungry is a better choice, research shows.

Finding a chief executive who will prioritize the company’s future and shareholder profits rather than maximize personal gain is depressingly difficult. Structuring the CEO’s compensation is one of the most important puzzles a corporate board of directors will tackle.

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The typical CEO pay package includes a salary, cash bonuses, stock options and long-term incentives, usually restricted stock options. While proportions vary by industry, the bulk of CEO pay comes in stock, called equity compensation, to align the CEO's incentives with shareholders’ interest.

Jason Wells, CEO of CenterPoint Energy, acknowledged........

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