Putnam CEO Stays Out of Zero-Bonus Club

Lawrence Lasser, president and chief executive of Putnam Investments, brought home a $7 million bonus for 2002 after all, dismissing reports over the weekend he would join the zero-bonus club, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Lasser’s bonus is more than twice of the $3 million one of Jeffrey Greenberg, chairman and chief executive of Putnam’s parent company, Marsh & McLennan, according to a proxy statement the parent company filed Monday. A proxy filed Friday offered no information on bonuses, arousing speculation that Putnam was tightening the belt after investors pulled a total of $15.7 billion out of its funds in 2002.

Lasser also got $1 million in salary and 98,596 restricted Marsh & McLellan shares valued at about $4.2 million as of the close of trading Monday. Greenberg earned $1.2 million.

Although Lasser’s 2002 bonus is only a fraction of his $17 million bonus in 2001 and $33 million one in 2000, many executives at other companies got no bonus at all for 2002.

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