Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has topped the ranks of highly-paid chief executives, earning $1.84 billion almost entirely from his company's increasing value over the last ten years according to the Wall Street Journal.
The next big earner in Silicon Valley was Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who came in fifth with a reported $749 million.
Though while their fortunes rose with those of the company and investors, Dell CEO Michael Dell took home $454 million over the decade even as his company's value in the market dropped 66 percent.
It gets richer -- the former CEOs of Lehman Brothers and Countrywide Financial, two firms destroyed by the failure of the mortgage market, both made the top 25.
Jackson West does not believe banking is a meritocracy.
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