The better question is who established the salary? Again, I repeat, no one presiding over a public company should be given that much money because they’re NOT WORTH IT!
And what does your W-2 say for 2008, comrade? I guarantee you someone in Washington thinks you aren't worth it, either.
The board sets the salary.
Who establishes worth? If he is capable of making decisions that add a billion dollars to a company’s profits, then he’s certainly worth the expense.
Think about what a movie exec does. He gets a pile of hundred and twenty pieces of paper with words on it and decides whether or not to spend $50 to $100 million dollars or more to turn the paper into a very, very long piece of plastic with pictures on it.