Thermo chief's 2007 pay + options = $68 million

The CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. received total compensation valued at $3.3 million in 2007, down sharply from the nearly $20 million he earned in 2006, a year when he was granted large stock awards, a securities filing showed Thursday.

Despite the 83 percent drop from the previous year, Marijn Dekkers saw other gains in 2007 while leading the Waltham, Mass.-based maker of scientific instruments and laboratory supplies.

Separate from his annual compensation, Dekkers took in about $65 million last year from exercising stock options, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Dekkers, 50, exercised options on more than 2 million shares over 2007, the filing said. The transactions reflected the sharp rise in the company's stock before and after a November 2006 acquisition, which more than doubled the firm's size.

Shares traded at about $25 apiece in April 2005, and have climbed to within the $50 to $60 range most of the past 12 months. In some of the transactions, Dekkers exercised stock options for as low as $19.67 apiece, then sold shares the same day for prices as high as $57.14.

Thursday's filing shows Thermo Fisher Scientific gave Dekkers a base salary of $1.13 million last year, up from $1.04 million in 2006. Dekkers' 2007 bonus was $1.93 million, reflecting strong financial performance in a year when the company's net income rose to $761 million from $168.9 million in 2006.

Dekkers was not awarded any cash incentives last year, and was given $36,496 in "other" compensation -- a category that included a $12,500 car allowance, and $5,000 for medical expenses. Stock and options awards totaled $225,050 last year, in contrast with the $16.6 million he was awarded in 2006, when restricted stock units and options made up the bulk of his total $19.8 million in compensation.

Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.

Dekkers has been the company's chief executive and president since November 2002. One of his biggest tasks of late has been overseeing integration of the former Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific into a combined $10-billion-a-year company with 30,000 employees.

The $10.6 billion deal paired Waltham-based Thermo Electron with Hampton, N.H.-based Fisher Scientific. The company's customers include pharmaceutical companies, government research labs, hospitals and universities, both in the U.S. and overseas. (AP)