According to proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis, Chief Executive Officer Jagdeep Singh could receive stock options worth up to $2.3 billion under the agreement if the company meets various milestones.
Shareholders of QuantumScape Corp., a solid-state battery startup that went public last year in a blank-check deal, approved a multimillion-dollar pay package for its top executive that one proxy adviser described as “staggering.”
According to proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis, Chief Executive Officer Jagdeep Singh could receive stock options worth up to $2.3 billion under the agreement if the company meets various milestones. The package was approved in a preliminary vote during a webcast of QuantumScape’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, and the company said a final tally would be available later.
In a recent report, Glass Lewis, which had urged stockholders to reject the package, wrote, “The disclosed dollar value cost of the grant is staggering.” Another advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, was also against it.
Large pay packages are becoming more common among fast-growing startups, especially since Tesla Inc.’s success unleashed a flood of cash in the electric vehicle market. Such agreements are similar to the one that helped Tesla CEO Elon Musk become the world’s richest person, according to Dayna Harris, a partner at executive compensation firm Farient Advisors. Last year, at least 15 corporate leaders received awards worth $100 million or more, a threefold increase from Musk’s award in 2018. As of 12:32 p.m. Wednesday in New York, the stock had fallen another 4.3 percent.
