Long Island's Richest Revealed: Top CEO Nabs Staggering $17.2M Amidst 2025 Executive Pay Scandal

Executive compensation on Long Island has reached new heights, with Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. CEO Timothy Gokey leading the list of highest-paid public company executives in 2025. Gokey's compensation package was valued at an impressive $17.2 million, marking a 21% increase from his 2024 earnings. This significant pay package was propelled by Broadridge's stock price hitting an all-time high last year, positioning it as one of Long Island's largest employers with a market value of $26 billion and annual revenue of $7.5 billion.

The analysis by Newsday, based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings, revealed a substantial pay gap between top executives and the average Long Island worker. The median compensation for Long Island’s 10 highest-paid executives in 2025 stood at $6.9 million, a staggering 115 times the median salary of a typical Long Island worker. In contrast, the median Long Islander earned $60,204 last year, a modest 1.3% increase from 2024, which failed to keep pace with the metropolitan area's 3.4% inflation rate. Entry-level workers faced an even starker reality, earning an average of $39,735.

Beyond Gokey, several other executives secured compensation packages exceeding $10 million in 2025. Stanley Bergman, then chairman and CEO of Henry Schein Inc., a Melville-based healthcare products distributor, received $12 million. Ivan Kaufman, chairman, president, and CEO of Arbor Realty Trust Inc., a multifamily housing lender in Uniondale, ranked third with $11.8 million. Conor Flynn, CEO of Jericho-based Kimco Realty Corp., came in fourth with $11.6 million. The majority of these executive pay packages are structured with substantial components from restricted stock awards, stock options, and bonuses tied to operational goals and company stock performance, as exemplified by Gokey, whose $17.2 million included approximately $13.4 million from such equity-based compensation.

A notable highlight in 2025 was the breakthrough of Anesa Chaibi, CEO of Global Industrial Co., into the top 10 highest-paid executives. With a pay package of $4.4 million, Chaibi became the first woman in seven years and the first female CEO to achieve this distinction. This milestone reflects a broader, albeit slow, shift towards greater diversity in the C-suite of Long Island’s major companies. Following Chaibi's appointment, Martina McIsaac of MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc. was promoted to CEO in January (after serving as president and COO in 2025), and Frederick Lowery became the first Black executive to lead Henry Schein in March, succeeding Stanley Bergman. While progress is evident, challenges remain; only 15% of the 182 executives analyzed were women in 2025, a slight decrease from 16% in 2024. Nationally, women hold about 29% of C-suite positions.

The median compensation for all 182 highest-paid executives at 48 Long Island public companies in 2025 was $851,682, a slight decrease of 0.7% from 2024. This drop was influenced by the absence of several high-earning executives from the previous year's list and the unusually large options package received by Flagstar CEO Joseph Otting in 2024, which significantly skewed that year's figures. Otting's compensation, for example, dropped from $34.8 million in 2024 to $7.7 million in 2025.

Shareholder scrutiny over executive compensation remains a critical aspect of corporate governance. While most executive pay packages receive strong shareholder support, Arbor Realty CEO Ivan Kaufman’s $11.8 million package in 2025 faced significant opposition in the annual "say-on-pay" vote. This came amidst a challenging period for Arbor, with its stock plummeting 34% in 2025 and another 30% in the first half of the current year, reaching a six-year low. The company also reduced its dividend multiple times. With only 56% of shareholders supporting Kaufman’s compensation, this signaled "significant shareholder dissatisfaction," falling well below the typical 90% support level seen across most public companies and the 97% median for Long Island firms. Such low approval can be a red flag for corporate governance monitors.

The vast disparity in pay is further underscored by the CEO-to-median-employee compensation ratios mandated by the SEC. For instance, Broadridge CEO Timothy Gokey’s 2025 pay was 216 times that of the company's median global worker, who earned $79,503. This means a median Broadridge employee would need to work for 216 years to match Gokey's annual compensation. Nationally, the typical CEO earned 89 times the pay of their median employee last year. The national trend also highlights the rise of "moonshot" compensation packages, with 15 CEOs receiving at least $100 million in 2025, ten of whom topped $200 million. This phenomenon is becoming increasingly common, diverging significantly from the 1970s when CEOs typically earned about 25 times more than the median worker. The ultimate example of this extreme disparity is Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s reported $158 billion compensation in 2025, which would take a median Tesla employee 2.5 million years to earn.

For those interested in delving deeper into the specifics of executive pay, an interactive database provides detailed insights into the compensation of 182 executives at 48 Long Island public companies in 2025. This resource allows users to search by name or company, and sort by salaries, bonuses, or total compensation to identify top earners and observe changes in pay.