This Lord Is Paid Like ABaron

RESTON, Va. - (05/29/06) – Albert Lord, the man whoengineered the privatization of student loan marketer Sallie Mae,announced Friday he plans to sell down some of the massiveownership stake he has amassed in the company. Lord, who steppeddown as CEO last year and continues to serve as chairman of theboard, disclosed Friday he plans to sell as many as 720,000 sharesvalued at $40 million over the next 12 months as part of apre-arranged stock trading plan. Known locally for an exclusiveprivate golf course he is building in suburban Virginia, Lordearned more than $100 million in compensation since 2000. Thatincludes $45 million in realized gains on options and more than $16million of restricted shares. Lord owns 1.5 million Sallie Maeshares valued at $82 million at Friday’s $54.63 closingprice, and 7.3 million options valued at $190 million, according toSallie Mae proxy statements filed with the Securities and ExchangeCommission. Under his compensation agreement as chairman of theboard, Lord received a grant for 300,000 options last year and willreceive a salary of $100,000. Lord transformed Sallie Mae from itsgovernment charter to provide a secondary market for student loansserving credit unions and banks, like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dofor the mortgage market. Since it was privatized, Sallie Mae hasgrown into a diversified financial services company that dominatesthe market for student loans, in direct competition with itsoriginal credit union and bank partners. The company claims arelationship with nine million student families and a student loanportfolio of $130 billion.