This Filipino-American CEO Earned More Than Apple's Tim Cook
Only a handful of American executives earn over $100 million per year. Some are expected, like the CEOs of Alphabet/Google (Sundar Pichai) and Hertz (Stephen Scherr). But one of the names of this exclusive list isn’t the CEO of a mega-conglomerate or tech empire. Kiwi Camara, at only 39 years old, is one of the highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. and he just so happens to be Filipino-American.
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Camara, the CEO of CS Disco, reportedly earned almost $110 million in 2022, which is higher than the salary of Apple’s Tim Cook. Camara’s $110 million earnings came from his $500,000 salary and $109 million in stock options, which he received in exchange for running the company. This is a huge jump from his 2021 salary of just $1 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Born in the Philippines to two Filipino physicians, Camara moved to the U.S. at an early age. A young prodigy, Clara wrote a medical paper when he was only 11 years old and skipped high school entirely. He graduated college at 16 years old in computer science from Hawaii Pacific University where he was summa cum laude. He then graduated Harvard Law School at only 19 years old, becoming the institution’s youngest graduate. However, a controversy around his use of a racial slur against Black people tainted his time as a law student and prevented him from landing jobs.
In 2009, Camara co-founded his own law firm, Camara & Sibley, which handled—and won—the first file-sharing copyright infringement lawsuit in the U.S. Brough by major record labels to be tried before a jury. A few years later, Camara founded the legal tech company CS Disco, where he is currently the CEO.
CS Disco combines Camara’s experience in law with the pioneering technology of AI. Which allows CS Disco to provide lawyers and law firms with AI and cloud computing tech. CS Disco debuted on the NYSE in 2021, but stocks have since fallen from $65.88 to $8.40 today. The company, which is reportedly valued at $500 million, generated $135.2 million in revenue in 2022, but reported $70.8 million net loss.
Despite the dip in stock price, Camara is still making over $100 million per year thanks to his stock options. The only other CEO making over $100 million per year are Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Live nation’s Michael Rapino, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Hertz’ Stephen Scherr, Peloton’s Barry Mccarthy, Sarepta Therapeutics’ Douglas Ingram, and Pinterest’s Bill Ready.
