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Chicago Exec on Top Paid Female CEOs List; Earns $16.3 M

By DNAinfo Staff | May 29, 2015 11:55am | Updated on May 29, 2015 11:56am
 Patricia Woertz of ADM
Patricia Woertz of ADM
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ADM

CHICAGO — A Chicago woman who was paid $16.3 million last year has made a new list of the top compensated female executives in the U.S..

Ranked No. 8 is Patricia Woertz who, until December, was CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness that moved its headquarters from Decatur to Chicago in 2014. The Equilar/Associated Press ranking noted that she was paid $501,560 for "relocation expenses."

Woertz was CEO for nearly nine years. She currently holds the position of chairman of the company.

The 61-year-old exec joined ADM in 2006 after 29 years at Chevron Corp. She was ranked No. 8 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list in 2014.

"I'm fairly certain that Archer Daniels Midland didn't hire me because I'm a woman. I think my background and performance mean more," she once said.

On the golf course with other executives, she does not tee off from the women's tees.

Born in Pittsburgh to a construction company exec and a librarian, Woertz reportedly spent summers as a child touring corporate and industrial America, according to a profile.

"My mother felt we'd be earning a living during our entire adult lives, and therefore believed we should spend summers in learning activities," Woertz told the Tribune . "Consequently, I got to see a plate glass factory in Pittsburgh, a U.S. Steel plant, and how Heinz made ketchup."

"I had a very pragmatic upbringing," she said.

Woertz holds degrees from Penn State and Columbia University.

Divorced before she started at ADM, she has three children. A 2010 Wall Street Journal story said she and her then-husband decided when she was a rising oil company executive that "her career would take priority." She reportedly worked 80-hour work weeks for years.

Topping the Equilar/AP list is Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, who made $42.1 million.

Overall, the median pay for women CEOs rose to $15.9 million, a 21 percent gain from a year earlier.

 

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