Facebook shares may have been on a roller coaster ride in the year since they made their debut on Wall Street, but they haven’t been too shabby for its top executives. Mark Zuckerberg exercised stock options worth $2.3 billion, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday â€" and sold about half, to cover his tax bill.
Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, retained her spot as the company’s best-paid executive for two consecutive years. She received total compensation of about $26 million in 2012, down slightly from nearly $31 million the year before.
Mike Schroepfer, the engineering chief of the company, had almost $21 million in compensation, while Mr. Zuckerberg claimed a far more modest package of just under $2 million last year.
The proxy statement reported that Mr. Zuckerberg had spent $1.2 million on chartered aircraft for his personal travel.
Ms. Sandberg had vested stocks worth over $820 million, while David A. Ebersman, who as chief financial officer led the company’s public offering in May, had vested options worth just over $100 million.
Facebook came out of the box in May at $38 a share, and its value sank sharply over the next several months. It closed on Friday at $26.85.
The company also announced that Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, an early investor who personally made more than $100 million from his sale of Facebook stock, was leaving the board. He was one of the most prescient venture capitalists to back Facebook and had served as a director since 2005. He was recently elected a fellow of the Harvard Corporation, a governing board of the university.
