AbbVie’s CEO Robert Michael is emerging from his sophomore year at the helm with $32.5 million in 2025 compensation, marking a hefty 75% spike from his first-year pay and solidifying the rising chief as one of the highest-paid executives in the biopharma industry.
Only the second CEO to grace the helm at AbbVie, Michael took the top spot at the Illinois drugmaker after Richard Gonzalez’s 11-year CEO tenure ended in 2024. The longtime AbbVie executive quickly picked off where Gonzalez left off in recentering the company’s leading immunology portfolio on growth drivers Skyrizi and Rinvoq following the 2023 loss of exclusivity for longtime top seller Humira.
In 2025, Skyrizi and Rinvoq led the charge to a record-breaking $61.1 billion in annual sales for AbbVie, up 8.6% from 2024 and surpassing its previous peak revenue of $58 billion in 2022. That’s despite nearly $16 billion of U.S. Humira erosion that has encroached since then, Michael said on the company’s February earnings conference call.
In turn, AbbVie awarded its leader with his own record-breaking compensation package. While Gonzalez was handsomely rewarded with $25.7 million in total pay for his last year as CEO, a decline from his $26.3 million boon over the prior year, Michael is reaping the rewards of the company’s come-up with $32.5 million in total compensation.
The CEO’s pay breakdown includes a $1.7 million salary, $16.5 million in stock and option awards and $5.2 million in cash bonus, the company laid out in its 2025 proxy statement.
Michael’s compensation also reflects $8.6 million attributed to “change in pension value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings,” versus $2 million a year ago. The increase was due in part to a pay adjustment from his new CEO role, as well as a one-time increase in the value of his early retirement benefits, which is tied to his turning age 55 in 2025.
The next biggest change in his pay package is $13.3 million in stock awards, which rose from $7.9 million in 2024. During his first year as CEO, the newly minted chief took home $18.5 million in total compensation, a raise from the $14.4 million he earned for his work as president and chief operating officer in 2023.
AbbVie justified his hefty pay package by laying out his strategic and leadership goals for 2025, which the CEO “achieved or exceeded.” Those benchmarks include delivering value to stockholders, building investor confidence, advancing pipeline assets and progressing the company’s “transformation to a biopharmaceutical culture,” to name a few.
AbbVie bumped up the pay for the rest of its C-suite as well. Chief Financial Officer Scott Reents collected a $2 million pay bump to $12.3 million, while Chief Operations Officer Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, Ph.D., and Chief Commercial Officer Jeffrey Stewart took home higher compensations of $10.7 million and $15.4 million, respectively. Chief Scientific Officer and R&D head Roopal Thakkar, meanwhile, earned $9.9 million in 2025.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez still came away with $17 million in 2025, since the former CEO remained in the executive chairman seat until Michael took over that role as well in July 2025.
While Michael’s $18.5 million 2024 package narrowly missed the mark for inclusion on Fierce’s yearly ranking of the top 10 highest-paid CEOs that year, his latest haul puts him firmly in the ranks of the industry’s most handsomely paid executives. Eli Lilly’s David Ricks took home $36.7 million in 2025, while GSK’s Emma Walmsley was awarded 15.7 million pounds sterling ($21 million) for her last year on the job.