Where CIOs are best paid in America?

Hewlett-Packard's CIO Randy Mott, who completed a sweeping transformation of HP's IT operations that flipped the ratio of IT spending on maintenance/innovation from 80/20 to 30/70, became a leader topping a list of five best-paid CIOs at public companies in the U.S., leaving behind Best Buy, State Street Corp., American Express, and JC Penney.

As it was estimated, according to a BusinessWeek article based on a report from compensation firm Equilar. Mott earned $24.65 million in total compensation for 2008, getting a total compensation package consisted of a base salary of $690,000; a bonus of $7.07 million; non-equity incentive plan of $16.07 million; stock awards of $638,820; and other compensation of $185,418. 

As for the other top five CIOs, Best Buy's Robert Willett, received $9.88 million in total occupying the second position. Joseph C. Antonellis CIO of State Street totaled $8.82 million taking the third position. American Express CIO Stephen Squeri got $4.69 million and JC Penney executive vice president and CIO Thomas M. Nealon earned $3.6 million occupying fourth and fifth positions respectively.