Total GTAT exec compensation rises 15 percent in 2012

GT Advanced Technologies paid its top five executives $16.8 million in cash, equity and benefits for the 2012 fiscal year – a 15 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, according to a proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The board of the directors of the Merrimack-based company – which develops furnaces that make material for the solar, LED and other industries – paid itself about $1.5 million.

CEO Thomas Gutierrez led the way, with an executive compensation package of nearly $6.4 million, with about $4.5 million in stock awards, and a $1.1 cash bonus and incentives on top of his $719,000 salary. That's about $1.63 million (or about 34 percent) more than fiscal 2011.

Jeffrey J. Ford, vice president and general manager of Asia Photovoltaic and Sapphire Equipment, made $3.8 million, a 51 percent increase; David W. Keck, vice president and general manager, Polysilicon, got $2.6 million, a $135,000 decrease; CFO Richard Gaynor got almost $2.2 million, a 26 percent increase, and David Gray, chief strategy officer, received $1.8 million, a 38 percent cut.

GT made an annual profit of $183 million in fiscal 2012, topping the $175 million it made the previous year. It posted $996 million in revenues, almost $100 million above the previous year.

Shareholders will get to take an advisory vote on the executives' compensation, at the company's annual meeting, set for Aug. 22 in Boston.