When imagining the highest paid CEOs, one might guess Jensen Huang leading Nvidia’s breakout success, or Elon Musk helming his multiple tech successes. But the top executive taking home the bacon is the boss of Tasers.
The Axon leader has run the company since 1993, and became a billionaire last year after the company changed its CEO wage strategy. Smith said he was inspired to launch the company—which manufactures Tasers, and has expanded to security cameras, drones, and VR training largely for government agencies—after two of his high school friends were gunned down. He saw Taser devices as a less lethal way to help end gun violence. But family members of the victims have rejected his claims.
While Smith tops this year’s list of highest-paid CEOs, he made headlines last year for rising to billionaire status with a highly lucrative pay strategy.
This type of compensation is high-risk, but also high-reward—if Axon doesn’t meet its stock price, operations targets, and minimum service requirements for the years from 2024 to 2030, Smith doesn’t receive his full pay package.
An Axon spokesperson told Fortune that the $165 million pay package “does not represent realized pay, but rather the potential value of the award if all performance milestones are fully achieved over the life of the program.” The WSJ reported that two of Axon’s seven performance targets had been met by March, according to the company’s filings.
The main ethos of the $17 billion company is to save lives—Smith espouses Taser devices as a less lethal alternative to guns. He has repeatedly said he got the inspiration to found the company after two of his high school friends on his football team were shot and killed. But the validity of his tragic backstory has been called into question.
Whether or not the CEO was close friends with the shooting victims, a spokesperson from the company told Fortune it stands by his account that the tragic event inspired “him to dedicate his life to reducing violence through technology.”
“We’re proud of the mission-driven culture at Axon and remain focused on the work ahead,” a spokesperson said while taking aim at Reuters’ reporting, which they described as a”five-year crusade to falsely defame our company.”
