Medline discloses executive pay and potential severance payouts

Medline CEO Jim Boyle was not the company’s top-paid executive in 2024. [Photo courtesy of Medline]

Medline Industries has disclosed its executive pay packages in the registration statement filed with the SEC ahead of the medical device manufacturer’s proposed initial public offering.

Unlike publicly traded companies, Northfield, Illinois–based Medline did not need to publicly report pay packages for its top leaders as a privately held company, owned by private equity firms Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman.

Now, Medline has reported not only how much it pays its senior executives, but also how much they would receive if terminated under several scenarios, including for one leader set to step down at the end of 2025.

However, Medline did not disclose pay for its median employee or compare it to the pay of its chief executive as required by the SEC of publicly traded companies because it has not yet gone public.

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.

With $25.5 billion in annual revenue in 2024, Medline is the world’s third-largest medical device company, according to the 2025 Medical Design & Outsourcing Medtech Big 100 ranking of device companies by revenue. The company intends to trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange with the ticker symbol MDLN.

Medtech Big 100: Read the Big 100 issue of MDO magazine, download our Big 100 Special Report and watch a replay of our webinar discussing the project and industry trends.

Medline executive pay

A photo of Medline Chief Human Resources Officer Christopher Shryock.

Medline Chief Human Resources Officer Christopher Shryock [Photo courtesy of Medline]

Medline CEO Jim Boyle received $4.3 million in total compensation for 2024. That included a $1.25 million salary (unchanged from the year before), $1.2 million worth of Management Incentive Plan (MIP) stock awards, a $1.85 million bonus under the Medline Industries Annual Incentive Plan (AIP) and $7,000 in 401(k) plan matches.

But Boyle wasn’t the highest paid employee at Medline Industries in 2024. Instead, that was Medline Chief Human Resources Officer Christopher Shryock, who joined the company in July 2024 from Sam’s Club and worked at PepsiCo before that.

Shryock’s total compensation from Medline for 2024 was $5.3 million, including $325,000 in salary (pro-rated at half of his $650,000 annual salary), $4.2 million worth of stock awards (including $4 million connected with the start of his employment), a $365,625 AIP bonus and a $130,000 sign-on bonus.

Shryock also received $284,043 worth of relocation expenses and tax gross-up for his move to the Chicago area.

A photo of Medline Chief Operating Officer Steve Miller.

Medline Chief Operating Officer Steve Miller [Photo courtesy of Medline]

The third-highest-paid Medline executive was Chief Operating Officer Steve Miller, who received $5.3 million in total compensation for 2025. Miller’s pay included a $724,000 salary (up 16%), $2.7 million in MIP stock awards, a $903,404 AIP bonus and $7,000 in 401(k) plan matches. Miller served as supply chain EVP in 2025 and became COO in January 2025.

The fourth-highest-paid Medline executive was President and former Chief Operating Officer Jim Pigott at $4 million. Pigott’s pay included a $1.1 million salary (unchanged from the year before), $1.2 million in MIP stock awards, a $1.6 million AIP bonus, and $7,000 in in 401(k) plan matches.

A photo of Medline President Jim Pigott.

Medline President Jim Pigott [Photo courtesy of Medline]

Pigott also received reimbursement of $23,644 for legal fees connected with the transition agreement for his retirement at the end of 2025. Under that agreement, he’ll receive severance worth more than $4.1 million, plus earned bonuses, accelerated stock vesting and other benefits. For example, had he left at the end of 2024, he would have received nearly $9 million in severance (more on executive severance payouts below).

Medline said the agreement “reaffirms Mr. Pigott’s obligation to comply with the restrictive covenants set forth in his employment agreement, including confidentiality of information, assignment of intellectual property, non-competition, employee no-hire, employee non-solicitation, client and customer non-solicitation, and mutual non-disparagement covenants.”

The non-competition and non-solicitation provisions will run for 18 months after his departure, the company said, while the confidentiality and mutual non-disparagement provisions will be in effect indefinitely.

A photo of Medline Chief Commercial Officer Doug Golwas.

Medline Chief Commercial Officer Doug Golwas [Photo courtesy of Medline]

The fifth-highest-paid Medline executive was Chief Commercial Officer Doug Golwas at nearly $2.8 million, including a $700,000 salary (unchanged from the year before), $957,407 in MIP stock awards, a $1.1 million AIP bonus and $7,000 in in 401(k) plan matches.

The sixth-highest-paid Medline executive in 2024 was Chief Financial Officer Mike Drazin at nearly $2.8 million, about $1,500 less than Golwas. Drazin’s compensation included an $810,000 salary (up 4.5%), $1 million in MIP stock awards, a $933,014 AIP bonus and $7,000 in in 401(k) plan matches.

A photo of Medline Chief Financial Officer Mike Drazin.

Medline Chief Financial Officer Mike Drazin [Photo courtesy of Medline]

“Our compensation plans and practices are designed by our compensation committee to promote achievement of short- and long-term financial and operational objectives while mitigating the possibility of encouraging excessive risk-taking behavior and the potential impact thereof,” Medline said in the filing. “The compensation committee annually evaluates the performance of our executive officers, establishes the annual salaries and annual cash incentive awards for our executive officers, and approves all equity awards.

“The compensation committee’s objective is to ensure that the total compensation paid to our named executive officers, as well as our other members of our senior leadership team, is fair, reasonable, and competitive,” the company continued. “Generally, the types of compensation and benefits provided to our named executive officers are similar to those provided to other senior members of our management team.”

Medline executive severance

Medline also detailed its severance benefits, which it said are needed “in order to be competitive in Medline’s executive attraction and retention efforts.”

Using the terms of the executive severance plan that was adopted in May 2025, Medline calculated the payouts top leaders would received if they were terminated as of Dec. 31, 2024 under different scenarios:

Boyle: $9.2 million for termination without cause or for good reason, $11.8 million for termination without cause or for good reason connected to a change in control (a merger or consolidation into a new entity), and $4.1 million for termination due to death or disability. He would also receive $20.4 million worth of accelerated time-vested units in the event of a company sale transaction.
Drazin: $3 million for termination without cause or for good reason or $3.8 million for termination without cause or for good reason connected to a change in control. He would also receive $10.5 million worth of accelerated time-vested units in the event of a company sale transaction.
Pigott: $9 million for termination without cause or for good reason unrelated to a change in control. He would receive $15.4 million worth of accelerated time-vested units in the event of a company sale transaction.
Shryock: $2.3 million for termination without cause or for good reason or $2.9 million for termination without cause or for good reason connected to a change in control.
Miller: $2.7 million for termination without cause or for good reason or $3.4 million for termination without cause or for good reason connected to a change in control.
Golwas: $3 million for termination without cause or for good reason or $3.7 million for termination without cause or for good reason connected to a change in control. He would also receive $7.3 million worth of accelerated time-vested units in the event of a company sale transaction.

More details are available in Medline’s Form S-1 Registration Statement filed with the SEC.