Stonecipher's resignation won't affect pension much

Harry Stonecipher's abrupt resignation yesterday won't crack his nest egg, but won't increase it much either.

Stonecipher, who departed Sunday at the request of the board, could receive up to $681,000 a year in retirement benefits, based on Boeing's public filings and an analysis by Robert Fields, a New York attorney who specializes in employment contracts and severance agreements.

That's up from the $631,000 retirement benefit he received in 2003, before he returned to take the CEO job just over 15 months ago. At that time, the company said his annual pension payment would rise by between $25,000 and $40,000 a year for every year of service.

Last year, Stonecipher received $1.5 million in base salary as chief executive, company spokeswoman Anne Eisele said. Under Boeing's compensation plan, executives also receive annual bonuses based on both their individual performance and that of the company as a whole; those bonuses, paid in cash and restricted stock, are expressed as a percentage of the executive's base pay.

Boeing has not disclosed the details of its 2004 executive bonus payments, but Eisele said "it's fair to say (Stonecipher's bonus) will be above 100 percent of salary." His 2003 bonus was 120 percent of base pay, prorated for the month he served as CEO.

According to Boeing, Stonecipher's sudden departure over an affair with a female Boeing executive won't affect his retirement package.

"He did resign and, in fact, that allows him to get the normal package that he would be entitled to," Boeing Chairman Lewis Platt said in a conference call yesterday. "There are no special considerations, nothing extra."

According to ownership reports filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stonecipher owns:

• 168,270 shares in a trust account;

• 15,415 "career shares," earned over the course of his employment but only distributed upon his retirement; and

• 3,897 shares in his 401(k) account.

Eisele said Stonecipher also owns 412,575 restricted stock units and options on 1,171,200 shares. Those will not be affected by his departure, she said: "Everything he earned as an employee, he takes with him."

According to an SEC filing dated March 1, Stonecipher also was granted 251,625 performance shares on Feb. 28; those shares vest only if Boeing stock hits certain price levels over the next five years.