Meet the Best Paid Execs of the Decade

Maybe those giant executive pay packages weren’t such great ideas after all. Of the eleven highest paid executives of the last decade, five presided over companies that lost their shareholders money, the Wall Street Journal reveals today, breaking down the numbers to reveal who the decade was most generous to. Among them? Richard Fuld (No. 11, $457 million), who presided over the downfall of Lehman Brothers.

Top on the list was Larry Ellison of Oracle, who presided over a tripling of Oracle’s market value. But right behind him was Barry Diller, who piloted IAC/InterActive to a losing record. Rounding out the top five were Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum Corp, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Richard Fairbank of Capital One, which also lost market value. The numbers are “pretty depressing,” says one law professor, and “suggest there’s a fair amount of pay without performance.” (More Larry Ellison stories.)