IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s total compensation drops by a million to $16.5 million in 2022

IBM chairman & CEO Arvind Krishna’s total compensation accounted for $16.5 million in 2022, stated the company in a regulatory filing.

The compensation, which stood at $17.5 million in 2021, has declined by $1 million.

The CEO’s basic (base) salary stood at $1.5 million which was the same as the previous year. A sum of $8.9 million was available with him through stock awards and $2 million in options.


According to the filing, the ratio of the CEO’s annual total compensation to that of the median employee’s annual total compensation is 271:1. The compensation for the median employee was nearly $61,242.

Krishna’s base salary or target annual incentive, which was just below the median target cash compensation of the 2023 benchmark group (of CEOs in similar companies), was not changed by the board.

“He was granted an annual long-term incentive award valued at $17 million, which is the first increase since Mr Krishna became CEO in 2020, and in line with the median of the 2023 benchmark group...For 2023, 77% of Mr Krishna’s annual total target compensation is at risk and subject to attainment of rigorous performance goals and IBM’s stock price performance,” the regulatory filing stated.

In 2022, IBM grew 11% to $60.5 billion in revenue, and generated $10.4 billion cash from operations. Its software revenue grew 12% year-on-year, while its hybrid platform and solutions grew 9%, including RedHat at 17%. Consulting revenue grew 15%.

“In the past year, we took decisive steps to build a stronger IBM and helped our clients turn business challenges into opportunities. The market recognises hybrid cloud and AI as the two most transformational technologies of our time and, for clients, they serve as fundamental sources of competitive advantage. Our consulting teams have brought these technologies to life for our clients to accelerate their digital transformations and enterprise automation journeys. We also continued a steady pace of acquisitions to bolster our portfolio, delivered innovations in infrastructure, strengthened our software portfolio, streamlined our go-to-market strategy, and expanded our ecosystem of partners,” TOI quoted Krishna as saying in a letter to shareholders.

(With inputs from TOI)