September 30, 2015
Directorships: 2
Total director compensation, 2008–2012: $4,749,802
Average annual director compensation: $949,960
Average compensation per full year of service as director: $509,959
Michael J. Boskin is the T.M. Friedman professor of Economics at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the University’s Hoover Institution. He received his B.A. in economics with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, the same school where he would later receive his M.A. and Ph.D. In the past he has also held teaching position at Harvard and Yale.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Boskin was an economic advisor to President George H.W. Bush. From 1989 to 1993 he served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and as Chairman of the Congressional Advisory Commission on the Consumer Price Index from 1995 to 1996. He is a strong proponent of deep government spending cuts and reduced taxation and he has written hundreds of books and articles on the subject. In the past he has drawn criticism for his 2009 prediction that President Obama’s fiscal policy would lead to the collapse of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was then followed by four years of milestone highs for the Dow.
The two most prominent directorships that he holds are on the boards of Exxon Mobil and Oracle. He has been a member of the Exxon board since 1996 and of the Oracle board since 1994. In addition he sits on numerous boards for philanthropic organizations. He is also CEO and president of Boskin & Co, which is a small business management consulting firm founded by Mr. Boskin.
Between 2008 and 2012, Mr. Boskin made $4,749,802 in his capacity as director for Oracle and Exxon Mobil. This is more than what 99 percent of other directors made during this same time period. In 2012, CEOs for the two companies made an average of $68,213,599. This is the culmination of a four year span from 2008 to 2012 where CEO pay at the two companies increased by an average of $9,808,709. During this same period shares at Oracle increased by 48 percent, but shares of Exxon Mobil fell 8 percent.
