Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, awarded $67.5 million each to its co-presidents, Gary D. Cohn and Jon Winkelried, increasing their pay 27 percent as the company evaded the mortgage losses spreading through the economy.
Mr. Cohn, 47, and Mr. Winkelried, 48, received 40 percent of their compensation in cash and 60 percent in restricted stock and options, Goldman said Friday in a proxy filing
The awards “are not doing anything to take the focus off executive compensation,” said Laura G. Thatcher, head of the executive pay practice at the Alston & Bird law firm in Atlanta. “Those numbers innately are high.”
Goldman set a record for Wall Street executive pay in December when it granted its chairman and chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, $68.5 million in salary and bonuses for 2007, topping the previous year’s $54 million award. Goldman’s profit increase of 22 percent and share-price gain of 7.9 percent last year outpaced Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, which ousted their chief executives after posting losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.
Goldman, in its filing on Friday, said the awards were based on the company’s record earnings.
The firm’s proxy also showed that the chief financial officer, David A. Viniar, received $57.5 million and that Edward C. Forst, who oversees investment management, received $44 million.
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