America’s Highest-Paid Marketing Executives

While many would argue that marketing executives are invaluable growth drivers for their companies, their paychecks don’t always reflect that.

“Senior marketing leaders are the voice of the customer and serve as both the champion and guardian of the company’s brands,” says Andrew Hayes, a managing director with CMO and CEO recruitment firm Russell Reynolds Associates. “They align their organizations around a clear, compelling and differentiated brand positioning, and ensure consistency of messaging and experience at every single customer touch point.”

Hayes says most marketing execs are “underpaid” and “undervalued,” but as it turns out, a lucky handful make millions on the job.

The executive compensation data firm Equilar did analysis exclusively for Forbes on salaries for all executives with “marketing” in their title (at all publicly traded U.S. companies).

The compensation information is from the most recently disclosed fiscal year. Due to the timing of the information being filed, we may not have the most recent pay figures for some of the individuals included on the list. We excluded executives that weren’t working for their current employer at the end of the fiscal year.

Equilar calculated total pay to include base salary, discretionary and performance based bonuses, the grant date value of stock and option awards made during the year, and other compensation which typically includes benefits and perquisites.

They found that the top-earning marketing exec on our list pulls in about $9.7 million a year. That might sounds like a lot—but it pales in comparison to the salary of the highest-paid CEO in the U.S., who earned $131 million in 2011.

In Pictures: The 10 Highest-Paid Marketing Executives

Topping the list as the highest-earning marketing executive is Jeremy Burton. His official title is Executive Vice President, Product Operations and Marketing at

EMC
, the global data storage firm headquartered in Hopkinton, Mass.

According to the EMC website, Burton, who is based in the Santa Clara, Calif. office, is responsible for “cross business unit product operations, corporate go-to-market functions, OEM and volume channel initiatives as well as Global Marketing.” Burton joined EMC as CMO in March 2010, responsible for the global structure, strategy, and execution of all aspects of the firm’s marketing efforts. He now focuses on extending EMC’s presence and relevance worldwide, “building and guiding EMC’s global reputation and brand, and further enabling the success of the company’s sales teams and partner ecosystem.”

Prior to joining EMC, the 20-year veteran of the IT industry served as Serena Software’s president and CEO; was a group president at

Symantec
; served as an executive vice president and CMO at Veritas; and spent nearly a decade at

Oracle
as the senior vice president of product and services marketing.

Based on information disclosed in the company’s most recent proxy filing, Burton earned $9,696,243 last year.

Close behind in the No. 2 spot is

Assurant
’s top marketing executive, Alan Colberg. His official title is Executive Vice President, Marketing and Business Development.

In 2011, after holding several executive roles at Procter and Gamble, and then a 22-year career at Bain & Company where he founded and headed its Atlanta office, Colberg joined Assurant.

He raked in $9,468,705 in 2011 (the most recently proxy filing), in base pay, stocks, bonuses and all other compensation.

Rounding out the top three is Steven Chambers of

Nuance Communications
. As president of worldwide sales and marketing at the Burlington, Mass.-based computer software tech firm, Chambers made $7,581,172 last year in stocks, bonuses and all other compensation.

Chambers has held several executive roles since joining the company in 2003. According to the Nuance website, Chambers has repeatedly been voted as one of the “Top Influencers in the Speech Industry” and is a well-known industry spokesperson and presenter. Previously, he held CMO roles at SpeechWorks, Arbortext, and start-up VDOnet; and was senior VP and CMO for PictureTel Corp.

Not all marketing executives pull in such hefty paychecks, though. “On the whole, I do think senior marketing leaders are underpaid and they do indeed deserve to make more,” Hayes says. “Marketing execs have a very direct impact on shaping business strategy, driving growth and fueling commercial success. They are the architects that shape the company’s brand and the conductor that ensures all functions and employees are aligned around the delivery of a consistent and differentiated brand experience.  Today, it is very easy to see the commercial impact the top marketing executive has on the business,” he adds. “They drive sales and help maximize profits.  The companies that figure this out and value the CMO role accordingly will attract and retain the stars. The rest will get what’s left.”

In Pictures: The 10 Highest-Paid Marketing Executives

This is an update of a piece that ran previously.

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