Second Act At First Data Reaps HugeWindfall For Ric Duques

DENVER - (07/03/06) – Who says there are no secondacts in America? Henry ‘Ric’ Duques, who helped spinoff First Data Corp. from American Express in 1989, might disagree.Duques, who returned to take the helm at the payments processor in2005, reaped $15 million after exercising First Data options lastyear, then topped that off by earning more than $100 million byexercising almost four million options–in just the firstquarter of this year. Some of those options were exercised for aslittle as $13.75 a share, while most where exercised in themid-$20's. Then Duques turned around and sold the shares forbetween $45 and $47.75 each, according to a filing with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. When he came back to head thecompany last year, the 62-year-old Duques received a salary of$250,000 a year and 850,000 stock options valued at more than $11million, and immediately exercisable, according to a filing withthe Securities and Exchange Commission. Duques was not the onlyhigh-roller at First Data last year, as Edward Labry, who headedConcord EFS until it was acquired by First Data in 2004, earnedalmost $40 million by cashing in 1.45 million First Dataoptions.