By Maxim Tamarov, News Staff
President Joseph E. Aoun was recently ranked the second highest paid private college president in the United States in 2011 – the most recent year for which data is available – according to a December report in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Aoun’s $3,121,864 was second only to Robert Zimmer of the University of Chicago, who topped the list at $3,358,723.
These figures were reported in the university’s 990 annual tax form from 2011, the last year data was available for.
“The majority of that number ($2 million) is deferred compensation,” said Renata Nyul, director of communications at Northeastern, “a retirement benefit that will not be paid out until his time at the university ends.
Both Zimmer and Aoun had been at their respective universities for five years at the time of the 2011 survey, the most recent compilation of such a compensation analysis. The third most compensated executive, Dennis Murray of Marist College, has been at his position for 32 years.
“Through President Aoun’s leadership, Northeastern has achieved levels of excellence that were unimaginable when he was appointed in 2006,” said Henry Nasella, chairman of the Northeastern University Board of Trustees, in a statement made in December. Among his list of merits for Aoun were the rise to 49th place in the annual US News & World Report rankings, the doubling of Northeastern’s research funding to $104.8 million and expanding the cooperative education program to 92 countries.
“The value of this success is felt every day by countless students, faculty, alumni and others who are touched by Northeastern’s enhanced education and research activities,” said Nasella.
The magnitude of this total compensation may be misleading, however.
“It is only because of current tax law that this benefit is characterized in the 990 report as compensation for the 2011 fiscal year,” Nyul said. According to the 990, Aoun still makes $2,526,307 more than the second-highest compensated employee at Northeastern in 2011, John McCarthy, the current senior advisor to the president.
