Top brass making big-time salaries
Agency hemorrhages money as employees rake in dough
Massport’s top brass continue to haul in big-time salaries as the agency has to slash budgets and rely heavily on federal aid.
Top Massport boss Lisa Wieland, in her first year newly minted as CEO, is making a salary of $360,000 this year, according to data from the state comptroller’s office.
Edward Freni, director of aviation, is budgeted to haul in $357,000. And Houssam Sleiman, director of capital programs and environmental affairs, is due to make $325,500.
John Pranckevicius, the agency’s head of administration and finance, is slated to make $311,825.
The fifth-highest employee is Harold “Hank” Shaw, who retired from leading the FBI’s Boston office in 2018; he now makes $285,000 a year as Massport’s chief security officer.
Massport owns and operates Logan International Airport, the Conley Terminal, the Flynn Cruiseport and the Worcester and Hanscom airports.
Last year, 40 Massport employees made more than $200,000. Currently, 22 employees are budgeted to take home that amount of money as a salary this calendar year, with cuts to overtime amid the pandemic appearing to account for the difference.
Massport’s annual budget has been crushed by the pandemic, dropping from a budgeted $907 million last year to $600 million this year as air traffic out of Logan plummeted in March and remains low. A spokeswoman this week said that the organization has had to balance the budget for this new fiscal year through a combination of cuts and federal aid. Massport hasn’t implemented pay cuts, layoffs or furloughs, and says it has no plans to, though plans remain “flexible.”
Wieland, who was the organization’s port director for the first half of 2019, moved up to the top job halfway through last year. Massport’s board chose her after a nationwide search done largely behind closed doors following the retirement of legendary Massport chief Tom Glynn in 2018.