It’s tough at the top of big US corporations with the ferocious competition, the constant demands of the stock market for higher earnings and the need to drive your staff to new peaks of endeavor without losing their loyalty. But there are compensations – of a financial kind. A survey by Pearl Meyer & Partners showed that chief executives of the largest US companies held an average of $57.8m of their company’s stock on the last day of 1997. By comparison, when the last study was conducted in 1995 of all American households, the median value – including house and cars – was $45,630.
