RIM’s new CEO will earn $10.2 million this year, up from $1.9 million last year

RIM’s new president and CEO Thorsten Heins has a great deal of pressure on his shouylders. His task is to rejuvenate the once dominant smartphone manufacturer by capturing more market share and making their upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices more appealing. RIM is still on track to deliver the anticipated OS sometime during “the latter part of 2012,” but in the meantime their developer community is travelling the world promoting their BlackBerry 10 Jam sessions.

There’s still a few lingering issues that RIM is faced with. The upcoming Annual Meeting of Shareholders on July 10th will most likely get updated on their performance, plus potentially find out how JP Morgan and RBC plan to leverage “the BlackBerry platform.” In addition, we’ll probably be updated status on BlackBerry 10. In addition, this is where we’ll most likely hear about the rumoured loss of jobs, currently estimated to be as many as 6,000.

Amidst all these high expectations, the Globe is reporting various compensations of RIM execs. Overall pretty impressive numbers considering the past couple years have been a tough battle – stock price is now at $10.40/share. Past co-CEO’s and co-chairmen Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will receive a combined payout of around $12 million, plus still rack up approximately $3.9 million and 7.9 million this year. Karima Bawa, RIM’s Chief Legal Officer, recently announced her retirement but will earn $2,614,800 this year.

Finally there’s the new leader Thorsten Heins. In 2011, while he was COO, he earned $1.9 million, but this year he’ll skyrocket to $10.2 million. Apparently there’s an impressive clause in his contract that states he can be terminated “without cause or good reason,” but still receive his base salary plus other sorts of compensation for 2-years.

Of course, we hope nobody loses their job and that the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS and devices will be well received, thus putting RIM back in the drivers seat.

Source: Globe