Kyndryl’s 5 Most Highly Compensated Executives In 2021

First Look At Full Kyndryl Exec Compensation Since Split From IBM

When Kyndryl, the global services business resulting from IBM’s 2020 decision to spin out its managed infrastructure services business, became independent, it instantly became what it calls the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider. It is now a company with annual revenue of about $19 billion, over 4,000 customers, nearly 89,000 employees in 63 countries, and global strategic alliances with the likes of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft, VMware, Dell, Nokia, and NetApp.

Kyndryl was officially spun out of IBM last November and became a publicly listed company with the stock ticker symbol “KD.“

After becoming a public company, it disclosed its complete financial picture for the first time in May. At that time, Kyndryl reported revenue for the extended quarter, which ended March 31, fell about 8 percent year-over-year to $4.4 billion and its GAAP net loss of $229 million was significantly less than its $494 million loss the year before.

Another task as a public company Kyndryl needed to complete was the need to file a string of SEC filings covering everything investors need to know. Among the things that needed to be reported on was the compensation of the company’s top named executive officers, or “NEOs,” in investor-speak. And while Kyndryl published preliminary executive compensation in October, the actual official compensation for its full fiscal year 2021 was published this week (June 14) in the company’s SEC Schedule 14A.

Unlike the typical executive compensation reports, with Kyndryl for fiscal 2021, there is no exact comparison with prior years given that the company was spun out of IBM only seven months ago. Kyndryl initially inherited a compensation system defined by IBM management and designed to meet IBM’s global business objectives, according to Jana Schreuder, chair of Kyndryl’s compensation committee.

Schreuder, in the SEC filing, said the company within a few months had to make long-term equity incentive awards to certain individuals to retain its top talent while developing its fiscal 2023 equity incentive program. Note that, because of the timing of the spin-out from IBM, Kyndryl is not reporting a fiscal 2022, but instead went directly from fiscal 2021 to 2023.

Part of the executive compensation for fiscal 2021 is based on compensation from IBM before the spin-out, including a transaction bonus given to stay on through the completion of the spin-out and equity performance provided for accepting employment at Kyndryl after the spinout.

For executive compensation details, click through our slideshow.