Welltower CFO Tim McHugh received a $167 million pay package in 2025, making him the highest-paid finance chief among major U.S. companies, according to a Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute analysis of data from public-company data provider MyLogIQ. The package, primarily consisting of stock awards valued at about $164 million, dwarfs the compensation of his CFO peers and outpaces many CEOs.
McHugh’s pay at Welltower, a real-estate investment trust focused on rental housing for seniors, surpasses the $139 million compensation package that Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja received in 2024. It places him more than $135 million above Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi, who ranked second in 2025 with total reported pay of $31.3 million.
The corporate retreat from nine-figure pay packages reversed in 2025, as McHugh was one of three finance chiefs to breach that threshold. Summit Therapeutics’ Manmeet Soni, who also serves as the company’s chief operating officer, received more than $249 million in 2025, though the company is not in the S&P 500 and much of that amount reflects a modification of stock options awarded in a previous year, Summit said in a securities filing. Former Fermi CFO Miles Everson saw compensation top $134 million, the bulk of which was stock awards valued at over $132 million, according to a regulatory filing.
Only seven finance chiefs in and outside of the S&P 500 have received nine-figure pay packages in recent years, according to MyLogIQ. Three of them served as chief executive and chief financial officer simultaneously.
Overall, median CFO compensation in the S&P 500 reached $6 million in 2025, up from roughly $5.8 million a year earlier, the analysis found. Equity pay, including restricted stock and options often tied to company stock-price performance or financial targets, made up the bulk of finance chiefs’ compensation. Stock and option grants often vest over years and can shrink or balloon based on market performance. The pay increases came as U.S. stock markets have been on a winning streak and American companies’ profits have grown despite consumer anxiety and geopolitical conflict.
Around 270 CFOs received bigger pay packages in 2025 than a year earlier, based on equity values at the time of grant as calculated under SEC rules. The analysis covered 425 S&P 500 companies reporting pay through April 30 for fiscal years ending after June 30, 2025, and only included CFOs who were on the job for at least the full fiscal year.
U.S. leadership teams are navigating challenges including market volatility, inflationary pressures, geopolitical friction and tariffs, increasing finance chiefs’ responsibilities, said Bill Reilly, a managing director of compensation consulting firm Pearl Meyer. CFO turnover hit a multiyear high in 2025, he noted. “You should see that reflected in pay levels as compensation committees and boards struggle to be able to attract, retain and reward experienced talent,” Reilly said.
Still, he said, high pay or one-time awards may invite scrutiny from proxy advisory firms or shareholders. “It’s important to ensure that in those instances, there are sufficient performance criteria to help try to justify them.”
At Welltower, McHugh’s pay climbed to nearly $167 million in 2025 from $7.2 million in 2024. A new 10-year program adopted last year is designed to retain top executives and align their financial incentives with those of shareholders, according to Welltower’s latest proxy. Top executives received one-time grants of time- and performance-based awards that will begin to vest in five years. The awards are meant to represent the sole form of executives’ compensation for the next 10 years other than salary, the company said. Welltower’s 2025 total shareholder return was nearly 50%, according to Institutional Shareholder Services.
Other notable pay packages in 2025 included Kirsten Spears, who stepped down as Broadcom’s CFO this month, with pay climbing to $28.2 million from roughly $1.1 million a year earlier, driven by stock awards valued at $27 million. Emmanuel Babeau of Philip Morris International saw pay nearly triple to $26.9 million, largely because of a $16 million year-over-year increase in the value of his pension benefits, the company said in a securities filing. Babeau is stepping down as CFO in August.
The drop-off from McHugh among S&P 500 finance chiefs is stark: his nearest peers trail him by more than $100 million, according to the analysis.