From an SEC filing we recently learned that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse earned $14.2 Million dollars in 2008 from his position at Sprint. Keep in mind, this is during the same period of time that Sprint posted a $2.8 billion dollar LOSS and 4.6 million customers LEFT. How exactly did he make this money?

—A base salary of $1.2 million, plus a performance-based bonus of $2.7 million.

—Stock and options that were valued at the time they were awarded at $10.1 million, with $7.8 million in shares, and the rest in options. But the value of Hesse’s shares—have fallen 36 percent, while the options are basically worthless, since Sprint’s stock is trading below the exercise price of the options.

—Additional corporate perks valued at $287,228, including a $173,801 contribution to his 401(k); $91,462 for security; and $21,965 for other expenses that included use of the corporate jet.

Other than the weatherman, who gets paid to be wrong 50% of the time, I can’t think of a situation where salary/pay and performance were so polarized. Oh wait, AIG? Auto industry? Nevermind. Plus, perhaps Dan Hesse’s WORK in 2008 wouldn’t pay off until 2009.

My question is what role do you think Dan Hesse played in attracting Palm to make the Pre an exclusive Sprint offering? If he played an active role, he very well could have earned that $14.2 Million with this one deal as it is SURE to lure a whole lot of customers and revenue to Sprint. Of course I was never a big fan of those “everyday guy, black and white” commercials but they’ve since stopped. And don’t forget Hesse got the Instinct deal done as well.

I think we can all agree on one thing… if you’re a Sprint customer who wants a Palm Pre, chances are you think Dan Hesse is doing a spectacular job as CEO. And to us, that’s mostly all that matters. That being said, it will be interesting to see how the Palm Pre effects subscriber and revenue numbers for 2009.

By the way I love the picture in this article, which I found on MocoNews. Makes me think that Dan Hesse would have been a stellar character on The Wonder Years.

[Yahoo!News via Moconews]