Zynga Loves its Allen & Co. CFO, IPO Documents Show

Zynga Chief Financil Officer David M. Wehner, a former managing director at investment banking firm Allen & Co., earned almost $18 million during 2010, documents show. The compensation consists of salary, bonuses and stock awards assigned to Wehner after he began working full time at the casual game maker in June.

Wehner’s package puts him near the top of the CFO pay pile, according to data recently compiled by the Wall Street Journal. The report found that only five CFOs in the S&P 500 were paid more than $20 million last year. The median pay for the work they did was $2.9 million.

Zynga tapped Allen & Co. to help underwrite its initial public offering, along with BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.

Wehner replaced Mark Vranesh, who became the casual game maker’s chief accounting officer and took home a package worth $1.5 million last year.

By way of comparison, LinkedIn CFO, Steven Sordello, took home $342,507 during 2010. He owned just north of 1 million shares prior to the LinkedIn IPO, thanks in part to four years of service to the company. Those shares would be worth more than $95 million if they were sold today.

Alexander Haislip is the author of Essentials of Venture Capital

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