Sysco CEO Earns $3.2 Million In 2009 Fiscal Year

ASHLEY M. HEHER

CHICAGO (AP) — CEO William J. DeLaney at food distributor Sysco Corp. saw his total compensation dip 4 percent during the most recent fiscal year, even as he was promoted to the company's top post this spring, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing.

The 53-year-old, who succeeded Richard J. Schnieders in April, received compensation valued by the AP at $3.2 million in the company's 2009 fiscal year, which ended in June. That's slightly less than the $3.4 million he got the previous year.

DeLaney's base salary climbed nearly 11 percent to $620,375. But his performance-based cash bonuses slid more than 96 percent to $72,200, down from nearly $2.1 million last year, according to a filing made Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That $72,000 included cash performance units, or payouts with the same value of shares, issued in 2006, which covered the company's performance over a 3-year period. Sysco did not pay an annual bonus to DeLaney for 2009 because the company's profits didn't rise at least 4 percent.

Sysco, like others in corporate America, only partially offset sliding revenue with cost-cutting measures, such as job and pay cuts.