The Executive Board is the governing body of SAP. Subject to the requirements of stock corporation law, the Executive Board is committed to SAP's interests and bound by SAP company policy. It provides the Supervisory Board with regular, prompt, and comprehensive reports about all essential issues of business, corporate strategy, and potential risks.
Under German stock corporation law, the Executive Board may comprise one or several members, regardless of the company's size. The Supervisory Board appoints Executive Board members for a maximum of five years, but members can be reappointed.
The compensation of the Executive Board members has four elements: a fixed annual salary, a variable short-term incentive (STI) plan to reward performance in the plan year, a variable mid-term incentive (MTI) plan to reward performance in the plan year and the two subsequent years, and a share-based long-term incentive (LTI) plan tied to the price of SAP stock. In fiscal year 2011, total Executive Board remuneration amounted to €24,191,200, of which €5,742,800 consisted of fixed elements, and €14,432,700 of performance-related compensation as well as €4,015,700 of regular long-term incentive element.
The SAP Compensation Report contains detailed information about individual Executive Board members' remuneration. Further, please refer to note 28 of the Notes to the Financial Statements in the Annual Report, which explains the stock-based compensation plans.