A new report by the Wall Street Journal Foreign revealed that senior executives working at Saudi Arabia’s $500bn Neom development project are being paid roughly $1.1m each, annually, as part of the oil-rich kingdom’s push to attract foreign talent.
The $1.1m average salary of Neom’s top executives was detailed in an internal Neom list of compensation for different positions, the report said.
Senior executives on Neom's leadership team, composed of roughly 20 Saudis and foreigners, are being paid about $1.1 million each annually, according to internal documents reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
According to the internal Neom document, the compensation, which doesn’t include bonuses, is well above the average salary of $830,000 in 2021 for chief executives of the 3,000 largest listed US companies. Chief financial officers at US firms make an average of $417,857, while the pay for a chief operating officer comes in at about $468,092.
The entire Neom leadership team listed on the company’s website is composed of non-Saudis. Other senior figures worked at prominent western companies. Tim Shorrocks, the chief marketing officer, was previously the director at Amazon Web while Joseph Bradley, who heads up technology and digital at Neom, is a former Cisco Systems Inc. executive.
Executive directors at Neom, a level below the senior executives, are paid an average salary of $660,000, according to the list of positions viewed by the WSJ. Directors are paid $270,000 a year, the list shows. Senior managers receive $193,000 and managers $130,000, according to the list, dated last year.
MBS Draining Saudi Resources
For its part, Bloomberg revealed that Neom appears to be one of the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)'s highest priorities, and the Saudi state is devoting immense resources to making it a reality.
The paper pointed out that Neom offered tax-free salaries of $700,000 to $900,000 for some senior expatriates, more than 20 times the income of the average Saudi, and a broad range of other perks.
Bloomberg went on charging that Neom has become something of a full-employment guarantee for international architects, futurists, and even Hollywood production designers, each taking a cut of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum riches in exchange for work that some strongly suspect will never be used and for designs that never see the light of day.
Salaries not enough!
A Twitter campaign was launched in Saudi Arabia called “the salary doesn’t meet my needs” has taken cyberspace by storm, with thousands of tweets went viral stating dissatisfaction with the country’s economy.
The Twitter activists pointed out that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman brought a $500m yacht, $300m French chateau, and a $450m Leonardo Da Vinci painting.
