Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella steered the tech giant to one of its best years ever, and he has been handsomely rewarded.

Between his salary, stock awards and cash bonuses Nadella brought home $25.84 million in total compensation in Microsoft’s 2018 fiscal year, which ended in June, according to an annual filing disclosed Tuesday. Nadella’s compensation rose by more than $5 million over last year, as several Microsoft businesses hit important milestones.

Here’s the breakdown of Nadella’s compensation as well as that of other Microsoft executives over the last couple years:

(Chart Via Microsoft)

Nadella’s compensation was revealed in Microsoft’s annual proxy statement.

In a year where Microsoft stock crossed $100 per share for the first time and it brought in a record $110 billion in revenue, perhaps the company’s biggest accomplishment was avoiding the controversy and scandal that has enveloped its fellow tech giants. In an era of data breaches, which have plagued a variety of companies, most notably Facebook, Microsoft has attempted to position itself as a defender against hackers. Ahead of the 2018 mid-terms, Microsoft recently began offering a new cybersecurity program to help political candidates and organizations protect themselves from hackers.

Nadella’s quest to overhaul Microsoft’s culture has been a top priority through the entirety of his four-year tenure as CEO. The evaluation notes that Thompson Reuters included Microsoft in its 2018 Diversity & Inclusion Index of the 100 most diverse organizations from among 7,000 publicly traded companies.

However, Microsoft is still dealing with diversity issues, and it is battling a gender discrimination lawsuit that dates back to 2015. In a post on LinkedIn tied to the proxy statement, Nadella detailed the company’s ongoing diversity efforts.

Over the past year, we have made progress in building a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone can do their best work. Since FY16, we have nearly doubled the number of women corporate vice presidents at Microsoft — both overall and in technical roles. We’ve increased African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino representation by 33 percent. And this past fiscal year more than half of our U.S. interns were women or African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino. We must keep pushing to do more, and representation is only one measure of progress. Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace at Microsoft is everyone’s job. And this year we increased our commitment, ensuring that every leader and employee prioritizes diversity and inclusion as part of our annual performance review process.

The document also shows for the first time how Nadella’s compensation compares to the median employee at Microsoft, thanks to new rules that require public companies to disclose CEO pay ratios.

The median Microsoft employee made $167,689 in compensation in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the document. That translates to a 154-to-1 ratio between Nadella and the median employee.

Shareholders will get the chance to have their say in an advisory vote on the compensation awarded to Nadella and other executives at the company’s annual shareholder meeting at 8 a.m. Nov. 28 in Bellevue, Wash., along with several other matters.

The proxy includes an evaluation of Nadella’s performance in 2018, and out of a possible 200 percent rating, Nadella scored a 130 percent grade. In this public evaluation, Nadella was lauded for the company’s commercial cloud business, which brought in $23 billion in revenue in 2018; for the gaming division hitting $10 billion in revenue; and for the acquisitions of LinkedIn and GitHub.

“Mr. Nadella’s strategy for LinkedIn integration has been successful, taking advantage of synergies while maintaining LinkedIn’s operating independence,” according to the document. “The Company’s strategic acquisition of GitHub, pending regulatory approval, represents an important new way to serve developers and contribute to long-term sustainable growth.”

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.