CEOs Vs. Hedge Fund Managers: Who Gets Paid Better?

Wanna become a billionaire? Wanna run a company? Ever wondered if you’d get richer making it to CEO or as a money manager? Well, Benzinga’s got some pointers for you.

The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm, recently published a list of the 10 highest-paid CEOs for 2015. In addition, Institutional Investor's Alpha recently issued its own catalog of the globe’s 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers. So, without further a due, let’s take a look into both these rolls and try to draw some conclusions.

CEO Compensation

As per AP and Equilar’s data, the highest paid CEOs in 2015 were:

1. Expedia Inc EXPE’s Dara Khosrowshahi: $94.6 million, up 881 percent year-over-year. Expedia's stock gained 47 percent over fiscal 2015.
2. CBS Corporation CBS’s Leslie Moonves: $56.4 million, up 4 percent. CBS' stock lost 14 percent over fiscal 2015.
3. Viacom, Inc. VIA VIAB’s Philippe Dauman: $54.1 million, up 22 percent. Viacom's stock tumbled 42 percent over fiscal 2015.
4. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN’s Leonard Schleifer: $47.5 million, up 13 percent. Regeneron’s stock rose 32 percent over fiscal 2015.
5. Walt Disney Co DIS’s Robert Iger: $43.5 million, down less than 1 percent. Walt Disney's stock surged 17 percent over fiscal 2015.
6. General Growth Properties Inc GGP GGP’s Sandeep Mathrani: $39.2 million, up 702 percent. General Growth Properties' stock slipped 1 percent over fiscal 2015.
7. Comcast Corporation CMCSA CMCSK’s Brian Roberts: $36.2 million, up 10 percent. Comcast's stock also fell 1 percent over fiscal 2015.
8. Yahoo! Inc. YHOO’s Marissa Mayer: $36 million, down 15 percent. Yahoo's stock plummeted 34 percent over fiscal 2015.
9. Honeywell International Inc. HON’s David Cote: $33.8 million, up 43 percent. Honeywell’s stock returned 6 percent over fiscal 2015.
10. salesforce.com, inc. CRM’s Marc Benioff: $33.4 million, down 16 percent. Salesforce’s stock spiked up 21 percent over fiscal 2015.

Hedge Fund Manager Earnings

Below is a list of the top 10 earning hedge fund managers according to Institutional Investor's Alpha. The count includes each manager’s gains on capital in their funds and their share of the fees the firms charge. It should be noted that figures here are substantially higher than those for CEOs, with the number 25 in the list making $135 million.

• Citadel’s Ken Griffin: $1.7 billion
• Renaissance Technologies’ Jim Simons: $1.7 billion
• Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio: $1.4 billion
• Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper: $1.4 billion
• Millennium Management’s Israel (Izzy) Englander: $1.15 billion
• D.E. Shaw Group’s David Shaw: $750 million
• Two Sigma Investments’ John Overdeck: $500 million
• Two Sigma Investments’ David Siegel: $500 million
• Viking Global Investors’ 0le Andreas Halvorsen: $370 million
• The Children’s Investment Fund Management (U.K.)’s Christopher Hohn: $300 million
• Perceptive Advisors’ Joseph Edelman: $300 million

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.