…where did all these money come from?

CEO bonus: $7.6 million
Market cap: $54.6 billion (Canada rank: 3)

Scotiabank is Canada’s third-largest financial institution by market cap, so perhaps it’s fitting that CEO Richard Waugh is also the country’s third highest-paid bank executive. Trailing two men you’ll read about later on this list, Waugh was only out-earned by 18 chief execs in 2009. More than 85 per cent of Waugh’s total pay ($8.7 million) that year, including $1.3 million in cash and $6.3 million in company shares and stock options, was awarded in the form of a bonus.

CEO bonus: $7.9 million
Market cap: $63.4 billion (Canada rank: 2)

In defending his massive annual bonus, Gordon Nixon needn’t point anywhere but his company’s stock chart. The RBC CEO took over the bank’s top spot in April of 2001, when the company’s share value had stagnated to around $14.25 per unit. After a decade running the bank, Nixon oversaw RBC’s stock rocketing to nearly $63 a share; it has since sunk back to about $44 per unit, though that’s still a 209 per cent increase from the valuation Nixon inherited ten years earlier. With a 2009 bonus of $7.9 million, all of which was awarded to the bank boss in company shares and stock options, Nixon was that year’s eighth highest-paid CEO in Canada.

CEO bonus: $11.9 million
Market cap: $63.7 billion (Canada rank: 1)

Like Gordon Nixon, the RBC chief executive who runs Canada’s second-largest company by market cap, TD CEO Ed Clark has overseen a meteoric rise in his bank’s stock value since taking the company’s top spot. In December of 2002, when Clark was appointed Toronto Dominion’s boss, the bank’s share price was listed around $21.65 per unit. Now, after peaking at $86.63 in April 2011, TD stock is worth about $70 per share, a jump of some 225 per cent in less than ten years. Clark, Canada’s fourth-highest paid CEO in 2009, received total compensation of $13.3 million that year, including $1.5 million in a cash bonus and nearly $10.5 million in bank shares and stock options.

Japan deserves what it got…..God says so!

Pondexter tweets illustrate bigger issue

By Mechelle Voepel
ESPN.com
Archive

Japan is facing a potential nuclear catastrophe, on top of the killer earthquake and tsunami that already have destroyed so much. It’s impossible to comprehend how anyone could look at what’s happening there and express anything but empathetic solidarity with these suffering people.

Yet, as you’ve probably heard, the New York Liberty’s Cappie Pondexter wrote a series of messages on Twitter over the weekend suggesting God might have intentionally afflicted Japan with these disasters. Then she speculated about what reasons the Almighty could have had for orchestrating such horrors.

 

Ray Amati/NBAE/Getty ImagesCappie Pondexter’s remarks were only part of the problem. The lack of, well, anything from the Liberty or WNBA was equally disconcerting.

Along with mindboggling insensitivity, Pondexter’s tweets appeared to apply a negative stereotype to an entire nation. Thus, she opened a door to a Twitter backlash against her remarks that has turned extremely ugly.  Ah, yes, good old Twitter. Now that technology has provided a “voice” to everyone with Internet access, we’ve found out just how much we don’t want to know what everyone is thinking.

Most of us represent an entity beyond just ourselves and must be cognizant of how our public words and actions might affect the company or team or school, etc., with which we’re affiliated. This can be a problem for people no matter what line of work they’re in.  Pondexter embarrassed herself, her Liberty team, the WNBA and Rutgers, her alma mater, with her tweets. She’ll have to deal with what perception people now have of her.

Of course, it has brought up the Don Imus incident in 2007, when his remarks about Rutgers’ women’s basketball team prompted a national discussion about racism, misogyny and rap/hip-hop lyrics, among other topics.  Pondexter wasn’t on that team, having finished her Rutgers career in 2006, but she did release a statement back then condemning Imus. Now, those words have been unearthed and thrown back at her.

Pondexter apologized via Twitter, although people might find her apology not entirely adequate. I don’t know if Pondexter will learn a valuable lesson from this — think, think, think before you tweet — or whether she’ll somehow erroneously convince herself she’s being victimized for her beliefs.

There’s never going to be a shortage of public figures saying things that get them in trouble. Again, especially with today’s technology, that is a macro problem. But we also can look at this Pondexter fallout in a micro perspective.

Last year, there was some controversy and confusion about why Pondexter, a 2008 Olympian, ended up not playing with the U.S. national team at the world championship. She had missed national team practices to attend Fashion Week in New York, but there was no real explanation of what was going on from USA Basketball. They essentially said, “Ask Cappie.”

I tried to arrange an interview with her, which never happened. She “explained” via Twitter, eventually, that she was tired and needed a break, so she chose not to play in the world championship.

Pondexter does charitable work and is not some awful person. She faced difficult circumstances growing up in Chicago and has achieved a lot. But she’s also shown a propensity for not always weighing the consequences of her words or actions, and now that’s really stung her.

When a player brings the league negative publicity, yes, it is that player’s responsibility alone. But the WNBA’s response shouldn’t be, “Well, let’s just let her dig her own way out of this Twitter mess by saying she’s sorry on Twitter, too.” Or, “If we don’t say anything or do anything about it, it will just go away.”

That’s not leadership, which is something the WNBA and the Liberty sorely seem to need.

Th3UglyTruth?  Racism is alive and well…

Interesting to note how “orderly” the Japanese are in dealing with the disaster…no looting, no shooting, no killing one another for food or anything else.  Maybe it is them that has a higher spiritual sense….

Banking ombudsman receives more than 1,000 complaints

Banking ombudsman receives more than 1,000 complaints in 2010 for first time

The Canadian Press, On Thursday March 10, 2011, 5:18 pm EST

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The number of consumer complaints about the financial industry handled in a single year by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments has exceeded 1,000 for the first time since the office was established 15 years ago.

In its annual report for 2010 released Thursday, the ombudsman’s office said it opened 1,024 case files last year, an increase of 3.4 per cent over 2009.

That was a slower rate of growth than in 2009, when the number of cases filed grew by 48 per cent in the wake of the global financial crisis.

By sector, the number of banking cases opened in 2010 grew by 18.2 per cent to 462, while investment cases decreased by 6.2 per cent to 562.

“The fact that complaints have reached another new high demonstrates yet again that financial sector consumers need and deserve an impartial and effective alternative to the courts to consider complaints they have not been able to resolve with their firm,” said Ombudsman Doug Melville.

Complainants received compensation from their financial institution in 20 per cent of banking cases and 38 per cent of investment cases reviewed, for a total payout of $3.8 million.

Investment suitability, mortgage prepayment penalties, service issues and credit and debit card fraud were the most frequently cited complaint areas, the office said.

The ombudsman is an independent dispute resolution service for consumers and small businesses and deals with complaints they cannot get resolved in dealings with their bankers or investment firm.

Th3UglyTruth?  Guess who funds and pays the salary of this Office? Hmmmmmmm Follow the crumbs!

KOVALCHUK’s an Islander and other FREE AGENCY issues…

Isles say they’re after Kovalchuk; max contract offer?

By Sean Leahy

When the Free Agent Frenzy period began Thursday afternoon, the list of rumored favorites to land the signature of Ilya Kovalchuk(notes) was pretty much whittled down to the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils, much to no one’s surprise.

The Kings have the cap room and have been the popular prediction of many as the destination where the Russian sniper would land. New Jersey made the effort before the trade deadline to acquire Kovalchuk and weren’t going to waste the package sent the Atlanta Thrashers‘ way for a two and a half month rental.

Late Friday evening, word got out that New York Islanders showed interest. Yes, the New York Islanders.

TSN’s Darren Dreger broke the news, which ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun confirmed via GM Garth Snow, that the Islanders were in on the Kovalchuk sweepstakes and that a possible offer could be in the 10-year, $100 million range.

With the Islanders almost $9 million from the cap floor, Snow is trying to make a splash and some are speculating that landing a superstar like Kovalchuk could part of a grander plan to help the franchise finalize the stalled Lighthouse Project.

Chris Botta believes this isn’t just a PR ploy and that Snow and Islanders owner Charles Wang know better than to tug on the heartstrings of the fan base. Snow told Newsday’s Katie Strang (sub. required) that he made a preliminary call Friday night to Kovalchuk’s agent, Jay Grossman, to discuss salary and term, but according to what a source told Botta, the Islanders entered the discussions as soon as NHL free agency opened on Thursday.

Snow played down the reports as he told to Strang:

“I have to do my due diligence and look at all the options, it’s as simple as that,” Snow said when reached by phone late Friday.  “Over the last couple of days I’ve made maybe a hundred calls and explored options where, maybe it doesn’t come to fruition, but I’m not doing my job if I don’t make those calls.”

Due diligence or not, the idea of the Islanders confirming their interest in Kovalchuk benefits both sides here.

For Kovalchuk, one more party involved in the negotiations does nothing but help his cause. If he’s looking for max money and a long-term deal, well, it appears there’s one suitor that has no problem putting that offer in stone and isn’t located in the KHL.

For the Islanders, this is a call to the other free agents (and their fans) on the market that they’re serious about winning. They obviously have the cap room and the need to spend money, so why not land the big fish in the pond and watch the rest of the school change direction and possibly follow?

Plus, if they end up with him, they’ll have a big-ticket, offensive Russian superstar who may just resurrect the franchise. And maybe they won’t eventually have to buy this one out after he flops.

Th3UglyTruth when it comes to Russian superstars is…its ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!  Take your pick…gets paid half and maybe win the Stanley Cup or go max out and not win at all?  LeBron will go to another non-competitive team for max dollars; same goes with Amare.  DWade is a bit different as the guy seems to have fire in his eyes; Bosh will play “follow Dwade”…Wang will overpay again; remember DiPietro?

If ILYA goes to the Kings….for less money…I guess there is still hope in sanity! (I am not a Kings fan!).  BTW, did anyone hear or read Sutter’s reason for re-signing OLLIE?  Apparently Tanguay was the missing piece to make Ollie do better!