CPKC CEO’s pay rises to $20M
CP Rail, Kansas City Southern merged in April
The head of Canada’s second-biggest railway enjoyed a big jump in compensation after a historic year for the company as it integrated a major acquisition.
Keith Creel, CEO of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., took in a total compensation boost of 38 per cent that reached $20.1 million last year, company financial filings show.
CPKC’s five top officers, including Creel, earned $63.5 million overall in 2023 compared with less than half that amount the previous year.
The pay bump for the entire C-suite stemmed largely from share-based awards and cash bonuses after Calgary-based Canadian Pacific merged its operations last April with Kansas City Southern.
The continent’s two smallest Class 1 railways joined forces after CP acquired KCS for $31 billion (U.S.) in December 2021. The move marked the continent’s first big rail merger in more than two decades, making the joint railway network the only one to stretch from Canada through the United States to Mexico.
A board committee opted to dole out a one-time “synergy” award in the form of performance shares, a type of stock compensation given in this case to senior executives excluding the CEO if the company meets certain performance criteria — around free cash flow and shareholder returns, for example.
The one-time equity allocation accounted for most of the rise in share-based awards, which added up to $36 million for the firm’s five highest-ranking executives. The awards, in turn, accounted for the vast majority of their overall compensation increase.
A jump of more than 460 per cent to $9 million in annual bonuses — including a more than 500 per cent leap to $3.8 million in cash for the CEO — made up much of the rest.
At rival Canadian National Railway Co., compensation moved in the other direction last year. Its six senior executives saw their total compensation decrease three per cent to $29.6 million, largely due to lower bonuses after the Montrealbased company fell short of performance targets.