Biden defense pick earns $350K on Raytheon’s board
Raytheon Technologies has a backlog of defense orders valued at $72 billion
Lloyd Austin, the retired Army general chosen to serve as President-elect Joe Biden's secretary of defense, earned more than $350,000 last year as a member of military contractor Raytheon's board of directors, according to company filings.
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| RTX | RTX CORP. | 119.14 | +0.18 | +0.16% |
The figure, in line with compensation for the other 12 other members of the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company's board, included $204,000 in stock awards and $141,000 in fees.
If Austin is confirmed by the Senate, his appointment would continue a pattern among both Democratic and Republican presidents of choosing Cabinet members from the highest echelons of Corporate America.
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President Trump's transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, for instance, previously served on the board of embattled lender Wells Fargo. Robert Gates, defense chief under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, previously chaired the independent trustees of The Fidelity Funds, the nation's largest mutual fund company, and Henry Paulson, the last treasury secretary under Bush was the former CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs. And Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon Mobil, held a brief stint as President Trump's Secretary of State.
Past Cabinet members have traditionally given up directorships and adjusted financial holdings to comply with ethics rules, and Biden has pledged to hold his administration to strict accountability standards.
He won't take office until Jan. 20, however, much less submit nominees to the Senate for confirmation and Austin's plans in the interim were unclear.
A Raytheon spokesman told FOX Business on Wednesday that the company had no announcements on Austin's directorship at present. A board member since 2016, Austin served in the military for 41 years, including 10 as head of U.S. Central Command.
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Raytheon garnered $14.7 billion in sales in the three months through September, according to a statement, and its outstanding defense orders were valued at $70.2 billion, a little less than half of a $152.3 billion backlog.
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| THC | TENET HEALTHCARE CORP. | 151.82 | -1.45 | -0.95% |
| NUE | NUCOR CORP. | 148.21 | +3.54 | +2.45% |
Austin also serves on the boards of Tenet Healthcare, drawing $302,502 in compensation in 2019, and steel company Nucor, earning $275,000, according to regulatory filings.