Infinera sales VP out-earns CEO in 2006

Scott Chandler earned more than four times what his boss did last year.

As vice president of worldwide sales for Infinera, the soon-to-be-publicly-held optical switch maker, Chandler was paid more than $1.2 million in 2006, while Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jagdeep Singh made $276,086.

More than 80% of Chandler’s earnings last year (nearly $985,000) came through sales commissions. (A small portion of it was contingent on goods not shipped until last month.) Added to that were his $225,000 base salary and $7,260 in stock option grants. Singh’s pay came from a $200,000 base salary, $43,560 in stock option grants and $32,526 in non-equity incentive pay.

Singh wasn’t compensated for his role as a director last year, but he owns 4.5% of the company’s total shares; Chandler owns less than 1%.

In regulatory filings made recently in preparation for an initial public stock offering, Infinera reported nearly $59 million in revenue for 2006, 60% of which (or more than $35 million) came from Level 3 Communications, which began deploying Infinera’s optical switch in the second half of 2005.

The vendor’s revenue mushroomed in last year’s fourth quarter to more than $44 million, a 476% sequential increase and a 2142% increase from a year earlier.

Infinera now claims to have 25 customers worldwide, including Global Crossing, Qwest Communications and XO Communications. Domestic customers contributed 86% of its total revenue last year.

Infinera also reported a net loss of more than $89 million last year, a 38% wider loss than it saw in 2005.

Chandler came to Infinera in 2003. Before that he was vice president of strategic markets at Sonus Networks and, before that, a six-year veteran of Cisco Systems.