Outgoing Rowan CEO Gets $4.6M Pay Package In 2008

In 2007, McNease received total compensation valued at $4.5 million, including a stock award of $2.7 million.

The AP formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executives compensation in the previous fiscal year.

Rowan rewarded McNease generously for his three-plus decades with the company, which provides contract drilling services to the oil and gas industry.

Upon retirement in January 2009, McNease has a consulting agreement with the company that will pay him $50,000 a month for two years, according to the proxy. Also in January, as part of a severance package, he was to receive an initial cash payment of $80,000, followed by 23 monthly cash payments of $50,000, the proxy says.