Mr Denniston, who earned just under $1.6 million with a bonus of around $9.3 million, topped the 2013 Corporate Counsel’s GC Compensation Survey with a cash package of nearly $11 million and stock options of $2 million. 

Bonus boost

Pipped at the post and settling for second place is Louis Briskman from CBS, ranked at number one in 2012’s survey. Mr Briskman was paid around $1.3 million with a $5.2 million bonus. He also was awarded  $18.3 million stock options bringing the total package to $24,862,448, and also the highest bonus for the second year in a row at $5.2 million.

Top five

In third place is Gary Lynch of Bank of America Corporation with a salary of $850,000 and a bonus of $4.2 million with a further $1.2 million in stock options. Paul T. Cappuccio of Time Warner came fourth with a salary and bonus of $4.8 whilst fifth was Alan Braverman of Walt Disney with a cash package of around $11 million. The average total cash received across-the-board saw a 6.7 per cent rise to $1,853,671, the highest figure seen since the year 2000.