NerdWallet CEO received $5.4 million in compensation in 2021

Personal finance news site NerdWallet, which went public in 2021, paid chief executive officer Tim Chen total compensation of $5.4 million last year, according to the company’s first proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chen received $4.8 million in stock options and a base salary of $535,261 last year. His base salary rose 18.9 percent from $450,000 in 2020.

He is the founder of the company and controls 90 percent of the voting stock.

Chief product officer John Caine, who joined the company in December 2021, received $2.5 million in stock awards and slightly more than $2 million in stock options. His base salary will be $525,000.

Chief marketing officer Kelly Gillease received total compensation of $2.77 million in 2021, which included $1.8 million in stock awards and $448,492 in options. Her base salary was $466,250.

In the filing, NerdWallet said it has more than 100 staffers on its editorial team, including former staffers from Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal.

“They maintain editorial independence from our business teams and do not recommend products based on business relationships,” according to the filing.

The filing can be found here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.