Altria CEO Gets $11.6M In Compensation In 2008

VINNEE TONG

NEW YORK (AP) — The chief executive of the nation's biggest cigarette maker received compensation of $11.6 million in 2008 as he took charge of Altria after it had spun off its bigger international unit.

Michael Szymanczyk replaced Louis Camilleri as CEO of Altria Group Inc. as it spun off Philip Morris International at the end of March 2008. Camilleri became CEO of Philip Morris International Inc., the spinoff company that is the world's biggest nongovernmental cigarette maker.

Szymanczyk's 2008 pay was roughly half what Camilleri was given in 2007, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing made Thursday. It was also up 29 percent from 2007, when Szymanczyk's total compensation was about $9 million.

Richmond, Va.-based Altria makes Marlboros for the U.S. as well as Parliament and Virginia Slims cigarettes. It also owns a stake in the brewer SABMiller PLC.

Camilleri was CEO of Altria when it began a multi-year restructuring that first led to the spinoff of Kraft Foods Inc. then the separation of the two cigarette makers. Before the spinoff, Szymanczyk was CEO of Philip Morris USA.