Good morning. Executive pay packages are increasingly being reengineered around explicit, measurable performance targets, sometimes including stock price gains.
Take Christy Schwartz, who became Opendoor’s CFO on Jan. 1 after serving as interim CFO, chief accounting officer, and VP of corporate control. Her initial base salary is $1.2 million through May 15, then drops to $500,000 annually, plus a $100,000 sign-on bonus.
But the larger story lies in her long-term incentives. Schwartz received about 1.7 million performance-based stock units, which vest only if Opendoor shares reach $9, $13, $17, $21, $25, $29, or $33 over a 30-day period between April 2026 and October 2030, according to an SEC filing. This ties a substantial portion of her pay directly to the company’s stock performance over several years—a clear reflection of a broader trend toward performance-driven compensation across Opendoor’s leadership.
Riot bets on AI
Riot Platforms is taking a similar approach but with a focus on its evolving business model from a pure-play bitcoin miner into a broader power-and-infrastructure company focused on AI and high-performance computing data centers. There was an update in the pay program disclosed alongside the company’s Jan. 2 announcement that it promoted Jason Chung to CFO, effective March 1. Riot recalibrated its 2026 pay program to better align with the company’s strategic priorities, shifting away from bitcoin-centric compensation. SEC filings reveal that once Riot secures a data center tenant, executive incentives will focus on revenue and net operating income tied to those operations. Specifically, “Data Center Revenue” and “Data Center NOI” will each account for 15% of the annual incentive plan, with payouts ranging from zero to 200% depending on results. At the same time, the adjusted EBITDA metric will drop to 25% weighting. Riot didn’t respond to a request for a comment.
In connection with his promotion, Chung’s annual base salary rose to $550,000 from $500,000. Meanwhile, CEO Jason Les and Executive Chairman Benjamin Yi will see base salaries increase to $900,000 from $600,000, eliminating the portion previously paid in bitcoin. Their target bonus opportunities under the annual incentive plan also increased to 125% of base salary from 100%, and their employment agreements were extended through Jan. 10, 2031.
Shawn Cole, president and founding partner of executive search firm Cowen Partners, told me that Les’s base salary increase “functions as a buffer against variability in incentive compensation, particularly if performance-based payouts are reduced or less certain.” Aligning executive incentives with company performance and long-term shareholder value can be an effective approach, Cole said. However, he cautioned that it can also create unintended consequences in some cases. The same structures can encourage risk avoidance when missing targets carries immediate downside, while potential rewards are delayed or capped, he added. This is particularly relevant in evolving sectors such as AI, where strategic investments are becoming essential for sustainable growth, but accurately gauging how long they will take to generate financial returns is challenging. As Opendoor, Riot, and other companies recalibrate executive pay, the trend toward tying compensation to long-term performance is clear.
Sheryl Estrada [email protected]
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