That's all well and good, but I think the reduction should be put in the proper context. From the article: > Nadella received $79.1 million for the fiscal year

That's all well and good, but I think the reduction should be put in the proper context. From the article: > Nadella received $79.1 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, up from $48.5 million in the prior year, according to a proxy filing Thursday. Most of his pay is in the form of stock. The board’s compensation committee said Nadella asked that the cash incentive portion reflect the security issues... It was originally supposed to be $10.66 million, but the full board approved a $5.2 million cash incentive instead. I personally do believe effective executives are often easily worth their salaries. Not moral worth of course but pure economics. For instance, consider when Nike hired CEO John Donahoe, their stock jumped 10% which was around $16bn. Now either Nike shareholders are stupid (maybe), or the strategic move to appoint Donahoe was worth billions even above his salary of ~$30 million.