from an article in the latest issue of fortune magazine - another example of egregious insider deals at CHK.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/04/news/companies/director_compensation.fortune/index.htm
Of the 10 companies, Chesapeake Energy (a competitor of XTO's) exhibits the most bizarre set of circumstances. In the first place, the high earner among Chesapeake's eight nonemployee directors in 2008 -- all of them classified as "independent" -- was Breene Kerr, a cousin of CEO Aubrey Kerr McClendon. Kerr (who, having turned 80, left the board this year) received $784,687. Second, all eight of the company's outside directors were paid richly in 2008, averaging $670,000. Third, they drew notorious attention because of their benevolent treatment of a reeling McClendon.
Bad judgment had done him in. An indefatigable bull on Chesapeake's (CHK, Fortune 500) stock through mid-2008, McClendon, now 50, bought heavily on margin, amassing a stake that at Chesapeake's July high of $72 a share exceeded $2 billion. In December the stock plunged to $10 as the credit crisis flared and petroleum prices plummeted. Two months earlier, margin calls had forced McClendon to sell almost all of his position, at prices between $13.60 and $24 a share. The sales clobbered his net worth.
Racing to the rescue like corporate first-responders, the Chesapeake board awarded McClendon a $75 million special bonus for 2008. Other compensation raised his total to $100 million, one of the highest figures in the land. Chesapeake's compensation committee issued a "rationale" for the bonus that stressed the board's wish to keep McClendon as CEO.
Asked by Fortune why Chesapeake pays its directors so much, McClendon said, "We have a very large and complex company, and we value our directors' time."