Is Oracle Corporation (ORCL)’s Ellison Overpaid? Catherine Jackson Thinks So

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) founder Larry Ellison is simply overpaid, Catherine Jackson, senior advisor at PGGM Responsible Investment, told Bloomberg Market Makers in an interview.

The comment comes from the investor as her firm and Railways Pension Trustee Company Limited have written a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaining about executive compensation and what they say is refusal from the company’s management to hold a dialogue over the years.

“[Larry Ellison should have been paid] less. I don’t have a number for you. It’s not a question of quantifying it outright, and what should he have been paid and what shouldn’t he have been paid. Our concern is that the Board is not representing our interest at this moment as it has been reflected over the last several years,” Jackson said.

PGGM and Railways Pension are saying in their letter than insider shareholders’ interests may be being put before the interests of the broader shareholder base by the Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) Board of Directors, Jackson said.

Ellison still owns 26% of all the shares of the company he founded. Over the last four years, Ellison, mostly through stock options, was paid nearly $400 million, Bloomberg pointed out.

Jackson said that when talking to portfolio managers, pay isn’t often considered a material issue in their reports. However, even if theoretically that is accepted by the groups who wrote the letter, Jackson said that there are other issues shareholders may have that the Board of the company is failing to address or is brushing aside.

Jackson said that in their view, even if PGGM and Railways Pension do not own a massive stake in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) between the both of them, they are representing the majority of shareholders in the company which may have these issues with the way the software company is run. She said that they could have partnered with other substantial shareholders, but PGGM and Railways Pension are the groups which have been consistently been bringing up these issues in the past years.

Jackson also said that they may elect to divest all their Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) shares if a time comes that they feel they cannot have a dialogue with the company, but they are in their view just doing their duty as responsible shareholders.

Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management owned about 33.94 million Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) shares by the end of September.