Former Baxter International Chair, President and CEO José Almeida [Photo courtesy of Baxter]
That’s according to a new compensation disclosure that also included a big increase in the company’s median employee pay.
Recruiting and retaining top talent — both at the executive and engineering level — is crucial in the medtech industry, but employee compensation is kept secret in most cases. Medical Design & Outsourcing tracks and analyzes these pay figures when disclosed by major device developers and manufacturers.
Baxter is the world’s 10th-largest medical device company, according to our 2024 Medtech Big 100 ranking by revenue. That ranking was based on Baxter’s 2023 sales of $14.81 billion.
The company reported $10.64 billion in sales for 2024, which doesn’t include the kidney care business (now called Vantive) that it sold to private equity firm Carlyle Group for $3.8 billion. Baxter announced the completion of that deal and the immediate retirement of Almeida on the same day this February.
Baxter executive pay
Baxter EVP, Chief Operating Officer and Interim Medical Products & Therapies Group President Heather Knight [Photo courtesy of Baxter]
Almeida’s 2024 pay increased 31% from $13.8 million the year before.
Baxter’s second-highest-paid executive in 2024 was former EVP and Kidney Care Group President Christopher Toth at $7.6 million, including a $1 million salary, $5.1 million in stock awards, a $1.4 million bonus and $78,224 in other compensation. His 2024 pay decreased 21% from the year before. Toth is now the CEO at Vantive.
Baxter’s third-highest-paid executive in 2024 was EVP, Chief Operating Officer and Interim Medical Products & Therapies Group President Heather Knight at $6.6 million, including a $883,333 salary, $4.6 million in stock awards, a $1 million bonus and $66,505 in other compensation. Her 2024 pay increased 36% from the year before. Knight was promoted to COO upon Almeida’s departure.
Baxter’s fourth-highest-paid executive in 2024 was EVP and CFO Joel Grade at $6.5 million, including a $810,000 salary, $500,000 sign-on bonus (on top of a $3.2 million sign-on bonus the year before), $4.3 million in stock awards, an $839,608 bonus and $62,238 in other compensation. His 2024 pay increased 33% from the year before.
Baxter’s fifth-highest-paid executive in 2024 was EVP and Pharmaceuticals Group President Alok Sonig at $5.3 million, including a $787,500 salary, $3.6 million in stock awards, a $904,000 bonus and $70,961 in other compensation. His 2024 pay increased 38% from the year before.
Brent Shafer has served as Baxter’s chair and interim CEO since February. The company said it paid him $386,986 in 2024 for serving on the company’s board.
Baxter said it “designed its executive compensation program to attract, motivate, reward and retain the executive talent required to help achieve its corporate and strategic objectives and increase stockholder value.”
“Pay-for-performance is the most significant structural element of Baxter’s executive compensation program, where the majority of executive pay is at risk and is only delivered if specific annual or long-term performance requirements are met,” the company said in the disclosure. “In addition, Baxter has adopted policies, like its stock ownership guidelines and its clawback policies, to promote the long-term focus of, and appropriate levels of risk-taking by, its executive officers.”
Baxter median worker pay and CEO pay ratio
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to calculate the gap between CEO compensation and pay for its median employee.
Baxter calculated its median employee wage at $70,331, up 45% from $48,566 the year before.
The latest median employee pay figure put Baxter’s CEO pay at 257 times more than its median employee’s pay in 2024. That pay gap narrowed from 284:1 the year before,
Baxter used the same employee for both years, identified them only as a full-time worker based outside the U.S.
At other medtech companies that offer more details about their median workers than required by the SEC pay disclosure rules, those median medtech workers often hold technical roles such as device design or engineering.
Baxter shareholders will cast advisory “say-on-pay” votes on the company’s executive compensation practices at the May 6 annual meeting. Shareholders overwhelmingly voted in support of the company’s executive pay the year before.
More medtech compensation analysis for CEOs, top-paid executives and median workers
- GE HealthCare executive compensation plunges after one-time spinoff awards
- Zimmer Biomet discloses pay packages for top executives and its median employee
- Stryker increases pay for top execs, reports slightly lower wage for median employee
- Solventum paid CEO Bryan Hanson $40M in spinoff’s first year
- Intuitive Surgical discloses pay for execs and median workers while urging votes against shareholder proposals
- Boston Scientific CEO pay breaks $20 million for the first time since Ray Elliott
- Abbott’s device leader got a big pay bump as sales surged
- Cardinal Health CEO pay climbs to $25M; Median worker pay dropped
- Johnson & Johnson discloses executive pay and new security measures
- Medtronic CEO pay jumps 30%, employment and median worker pay drop
- No bonuses for Penumbra execs despite growing sales 25% to $1B
- Integer discloses executive pay, including separation payments for ex-EVPs
- Outset Medical investors target executive pay after recalls and warning letter
- BD limits executive severance after ‘golden parachute’ shareholder proposal overcomes board opposition
- Zimmer Biomet changes executive pay plans after shareholder vote
