FX.co ★ Top 5 highest-paid CEOs in the world

1st place - Stephen Schwarzman

Stephen Schwarzman, a prominent American entrepreneur, is the chairman and CEO of Blackstone Group, a company originally founded as a mergers and acquisitions advisory boutique. Today, Blackstone is a major player in the commercial real estate market, and its head tops the list of the world's highest-paid top executives. Schwarzman has $253 million in annual compensation, which is even more than the head of IT giant Google.

2nd place - Sundararajan Pichai

Indian-born Sundararajan Pichai, better known as Sundar Pichai, took the helm at Google in 2015. Four years later, he also took over the top job at Alphabet, Google's parent company. Today, the annual salary of the IT executive is valued at $226 million, more than 800 times the median total compensation of Alphabet employees.

3rd place - Stephen Scherr

Stephen Scherr, who had served as chief financial officer at Goldman Sachs for three decades, took over Hertz Global Holdings last year. Today, this American company, which operates the Hertz, Dollar, and Thrifty car rental brands, is actively expanding its global presence, thus contributing to the growing wealth of its chief executive. According to estimates, Scherr takes home about $182 million a year.

4th place - Barry McCarthy

Barry McCarthy, former chief financial officer of such giants as Netflix and Spotify, now serves as CEO of Peloton, an American fitness equipment and media company. In this position, B. McCarthy earns nearly $170 million a year, which makes him one of the highest-paid top executives in the world.

5th place - Michael Rapino

Michael Rapino, an American-Canadian entrepreneur, heads Live Nation Entertainment, the world's leading venue operator engaged in the promotion and production of live music events and festivals such as Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo. According to the latest data, the company’s market capitalization exceeds $21 billion, and the annual compensation of its CEO is approximately $139 million.