By paycheck my company's CEO is worth 95 senior engineers and that's before stock options. With stock options he's worth 265 senior engineers! (Or 240 and 670 junior developers respectively)
He's so skilled he splits atoms with his mind. He probably should be president, except he's nowhere near the highest paid executive in the US. Probably not in the top 500.
Through hyperbole, you imply that he's overpaid by market forces. If he manages 20.000 people and increases productivity by just 10%, he'd be worth 2.000 "normal guy" salaries. So a 100 factor doesn't seem far fetched to me.
What strategy would you suggest to arrive at a better price for his work?
To calculate the market price you have to know about the competition. Is there someone else who could increase productivity by 9.99% but request only half the salary? That person could be better for the bottom line.
Officers are management, a lt col is similar to a director at a tech company.
If they're trying to modernize the strategy and direction of the organization before bringing in additional SMEs, this makes a lot of sense. Good leadership and a good direction really does matter.
After the overall direction and vision is in place, then they can bring in technical SMEs who are hopefully also direct commissioned in and not just contractors hired for a year or 2.
