Bahram Akradi's salary last year was $50,000; Life Time also forgave a $17.7M loan

CEO Pay Watch: Bahram Akradi, chairman and CEO of Life Time Group Holdings Inc., took home a salary of only $50,000 last year. But the company also forgave him a $17.7 million loan.

Note: Life Time completed its initial public offering of stock in early October, returning to the public markets after six years as a private company during which the company did not need to report executive compensation.

Life Time's offering was downsized in the days leading up to the pricing on Oct. 7 but still raised $702 million by selling 39 million shares at $18 a share.

In conjunction with the new offering and to comply with New York Stock Exchange listing standards against loans to officers, the company forgave a $17,673,042 loan Akradi had taken in 2018. Akradi was responsible for income and withholding taxes connected to the loan forgiveness.

The board also forgave the loan in conjunction with Akradi signing a new employment agreement with the company as CEO and to recognize some of the sacrifices he made during the first two years of the pandemic.

In March 2020, in response to COVID-19, and the need for the company to preserve cash, Akradi cut his $1 million annual salary to zero for the remainder of the year. He also agreed not to take any annual bonus he might have earned. For 2021 he agreed to cut all but $50,000 of his annual salary and not take a bonus or an additional equity award tied to the IPO in 2021.

For 2021, in lieu of the salary and bonus opportunity, the compensation committee agreed to grant Akradi 500,000 shares of preferred stock and 525,714 time-based restricted stock units. Those equity awards had a grant date value of $23.9 million.

The board, the company said, felt the deal was warranted because a low salary for Akradi preserved cash and allowed Life Time to make investments to weather the pandemic. Equity awards also align Akradi's long-term interests with those of shareholders.

Akradi will again receive $1.5 million in salary this year and will be eligible for an annual performance bonus of twice his annual salary.