Despite a humble-for-a-tech-CEO salary of $1 million, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg racked up quite a tab in security costs for 2022.
According to Meta’s proxy statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Meta paid $27.1 million in 2022 for what the company refers to as “all other compensation” — a variety of costs related to Zuckerberg’s security expenses. This includes nearly $2.3 million for costs related to the use of his private jet last year.
“The costs of Mr. Zuckerberg’s security program vary from year to year depending on requisite security measures, his travel schedule, and other factors,” the company wrote in the filing. “The compensation, nominating & governance committee believes that these costs are appropriate and necessary in light of the threat landscape.”
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The massive security spend doesn’t come as a surprise considering Meta announced in a February SEC filing that it would be increasing Zuckerberg’s pre-tax security allowance from $10 million to $14 million. In both the February and April SEC filings, Meta references the importance to the company as well as his request to “only receive $1 million” in compensation as contributing factors to approving the security budget.
“Maintaining Mark’s safety while enabling him to go about his life with minimal disruption requires comprehensive and sophisticated resources,” a representative for Meta told Insider. “Given the important role Mark plays at Meta, we have security measures in place for him that are in the best interest of the company.”
The generous security budget comes amid Meta’s “year of efficiency” — as Zuckerberg called it — an initiative kicked off in Q1 that pledged to make the company “stronger” and “more profitable” in 2023. Just a month after the statement, Meta announced nearly 10,000 expected layoffs over the coming months.
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