The compensation information for Chairman and CEO Ishbia and other top executives is included in the Pontiac-based company’s annual proxy statement, filed Friday morning to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Like many other companies, a cooler mortgage market brought about by rising interest rates led to diminished total earnings in 2022 for UWM (NYSE: UWMC).
The proxy filing shows that Ishbia’s total compensation last year fell by just over 10 percent from 2021, to $7 million total. That includes a $600,000 salary, a bonus of $5.2 million, and just over $1.1 million in other compensation for security services and equipment.
About 93% of Ishbia’s compensation was “performance-based,” according to the filing.
The company’s other named executive officers (NEOs) also saw their total compensation decline year-over-year from 2021 to 2022. The filing notes that about 89% of those executives’ total pay was also performance-based.
“The core of our executive compensation philosophy is that our executives’ pay should be at risk and linked to the performance of those metrics that we believe will provide long-term growth for UWM,” reads the filing. “Accordingly, our executives’ compensation is heavily weighted toward compensation that is performance-based.”
- COO Melinda Wilner made $5.1 million last year off of a $388,000 salary, with a bonus of more than $4.66 million. That’s down from $5.8 million in total compensation in 2021.
- Chief Strategy Officer Alex Elezaj had total compensation in 2022 of about $5 million with a salary of $359,000 and a bonus of more than $4.6 million, down from $5.36 million the previous year.
- Chief People Officer Laura Lawson received total compensation in 2022 of about $1.94 million with a salary of $289,000 and a bonus of more than $1.6 million. She made about $2.5 million the prior year.
Former CFO Tim Forrester, who died of cancer last summer, earned $165,000 in 2022. Andrew Hubacker, who has stepped into the role, made $480,613 last year.
Mat Ishbia’s father, Jeff, serves as a board member for the company, as well as a paid employee of the company, serving as an advisor to his son. The filing shows he made a made a total of $1,050,800 last year. The company’s remaining board members — Justin Ishbia, Kelly Czubak, Isiah Thomas and Robert Verdun — were each paid $139,750 for their roles.
In addition to direct compensation from the company, Mat Ishbia, his brother Justin Ishbia and Jeff Ishbia, are all members of SFS Corp. The entity holds the family’s stock interest in the publicly-traded UWM, which pays a quarterly dividend to investors of 10 cents per share.
The SFS Corp. entity receives a quarterly distribution payment of approximately $150 million.
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