About 38% more money was added to Miguel Martin’s pay
In the most recent fiscal year for Aurora Cannabis Inc., the CEO’s pay went up by about 38%, to $6.7 million, as the company’s stock dropped sharply and it cut costs quickly.
The Edmonton-based cannabis company’s financial filings show that Miguel Martin earned a base salary of about $590,500, about $3.8 million in options on shares, and almost $1.1 million in options-based awards.
About $815,000 of his earnings came from non-equity incentive plans, and $416,000 came from other sources.
During Aurora’s fiscal year of 2022, he made more than $4.8 million in pay, and in 2021, he made about $4.4 million.
Martin’s pay went up because the share price of Aurora fell by 52% over its fiscal year of 2023, which was three quarters long because the company changed when its fiscal year ended.
During most of Martin’s time as CEO, the cannabis industry has been hurt by a lack of demand, strict rules, and the strength of the black market. Aurora started a plan to change in order to keep up. This plan has saved at least $400 million over the last three years.
Even so, the industry has been in a slump for the past year, with Aurora Cannabis and Calgary-based SNDL both letting people go.
In 2022, Aurora Cannabis said it was cutting at least 12 per cent of its workforce and shutting down a facility in Edmonton.
Atlas Global announced in June it was laying off around 50 workers and shutting down a cannabis facility in the hamlet of Gunn, Alta.
SNDL, formerly Sundial Growers, announced in February it was cutting 85 jobs from its facility in Olds.
Michelle Lefler, Aurora’s vice-president of communications and public relations, said the company uses a “pay-for-performance approach” and most of Martin’s compensation is linked to Aurora’s share price and corporate performance metrics, which were either met or exceeded.
“It is important to make clear that long-term incentives granted to executive leadership are entirely linked to the company’s share performance,” Lefler said in an email.
“Today, the value of these rewards is much lower than the value at which they were originally granted.”