Zoom’s Most Highly Compensated Executives in Fiscal 2023

The video collaboration giant this year cut 15 percent of its staff and will reduce C-suite salaries and bonuses, but in fiscal year 2023, total compensation for the company’s top executives ballooned, with some payouts rising from the thousands to millions and CEO Eric Yuan’s compensation swelling to more than $75 million from $1.16 million in FY 2022.

Zoom Video Communications at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago quickly emerged as a leader in the videoconferencing and collaboration market as businesses all over the globe transitioned to accommodate remote and housebound employees. It meant that the company has had to staff up during the pandemic to build out its platform, up its security, and manage the influx in global demand.

San Jose, Calif.-based Zoom said that within 24 months, the company grew three times in size. Salaries and bonuses significantly increased at the same time, especially for Zoom’s top executives. For example, Zoom’s CFO’s total compensation for the 2023 fiscal year went from $393,694 in FY 2022 to $36.75 million, and the company’s founder and CEO Eric Yuan’s total compensation went from $1.16 million in FY 2022 to a whopping $75.96 million in FY 2023.

Zoom’s 2023 fiscal year ended on January 31.

By February, Zoom announced that would reduce its staff by 1,300 employees, or about 15 percent of its staff, which would impact every organization within the company. As a result, CEO Yuan said he would reduce his salary for the coming fiscal year by 98 percent and forego his FY23 corporate bonus. Members of Zoom’s executive leadership team will also reduce their base salaries by 20 percent for the 2024 fiscal year while also forfeiting their FY23 corporate bonuses.

Here’s a breakdown of the 2022 total compensation of Zoom Video Communications’ top five executives as reported in its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing and ranked from lowest to highest compensation.

5. Greg Tomb, Former President

Greg Tomb came to Zoom from Google and earlier, SAP, and joined the company as president in June 2022. Nine months later, the executive was terminated “without cause,” according to the videoconferencing giant. One of the company’s highest-paid executives during the fiscal 2023 year, Zoom said in the proxy that Tomb’s employment was terminated in March 2023.

Tomb’s salary for the 2023 fiscal year was $264,615. He also received stock awards totaling $50.81 million, no non-equity incentive plan compensation and no “other compensation,” which brought his total compensation for the year to $51.07 million.

4 . Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering

A tech veteran who spent more than nine years at VMware leading cloud services development and operations prior to his current role, Sankarlingam joined Zoom in 2020. He reports directly to CEO Yuan and oversees the company’s engineering, product and DevOps teams.

Sankarlingam’s salary for the 2023 fiscal year was $451,731. He also received stock awards totaling $13.76 million, no non-equity incentive plan compensation and no “other compensation,” which brought his total compensation for the year to $14.21 million, up from $314,955 in 2022.

3 . Aparna Bawa, COO and Interim Chief Legal Officer

Formerly Zoom’s Chief legal Officer before her promotion to COO, Bawa, a longtime tech lawyer is picking up the legal mantle again. Most recently before Zoom, Bawa served as senior vice president, general counsel for Magento Commerce, which was acquired by Adobe in 2018. Prior to Magento, she was vice president, general counsel for Nimble Storage.

Bawa’s salary for the 2023 fiscal year was $426,923. She also received stock awards totaling $27.61 million, no non-equity incentive plan compensation and no “other compensation,” which brought her total compensation for the year to $28.04 million, up from $419,940 the year earlier.

2. Kelly Steckelberg, CFO

Steckelberg was sitting in Zoom’s CFO seat years before the pandemic would turn the company into a video collaboration leader. She joined as CFO in 2017 after leading online dating company Zoosk as its CEO for more than six years. Prior to that, she served as consumer segment finance director for Cisco Systems.

Steckelberg’s salary for the 2023 fiscal year was $426,196. She also received stock awards totaling $36.32 million, no non-equity incentive plan compensation and no “other compensation,” which brought her total compensation for the year to $36.75 million, up from $393,694 in 2022.

1 . Eric Yuan, President and CEO

As CEO and founder of Zoom, Yuan has shepherded the videoconferencing leader since its start in 2011. In an effort to be accountable for mistakes made during the company’s time of high growth during the pandemic, Yuan in February said he would reduce his salary for the coming fiscal year by 98 percent and forego his FY23 corporate bonus.

Yuan’s salary for the 2023 fiscal year was $402,962. He also received stock awards totaling $74.31 million, no non-equity incentive plan compensation and $1.25 million in “other compensation,” which the company said represented ground transportation, personal and residential security services for Yuan. That brought his total compensation for the year to $75.96 million, up from $1.16 million the year earlier.