V
Velarion™Intelligence
Sign InFree TrialBook a Walkthrough

Cogent Communications Holdings Executive Compensation (FY25)

CCOI · Washington, DC · Executive and director compensation, fiscal 2023 to 2025

The Cogent Communications Holdings brief, $1,500

Positioning against its disclosed peers, the governance read, incentive design, and the CD&A alignment analysis; the full peer table; a committee-ready PDF.
Both reports for $2,400.
Data as of September 7, 2026Latest filing (8-K): May 4, 2026
10 filings cited on this page
A report that fails to generate is refunded in full
Published by Velarion Company Intelligence
Cogent Communications Holdings brief$1,500Get the executive brief
216 figures on this page: 208 cited to the filing that reported them, 8 calculated from figures it prints. See the citations
Chief executive, fiscal 2025
◇
Dave Schaeffer
Median of the other named officers
$2,787,068
5 officers, excluding the chief executive
Latest say-on-pay support
=
May 1, 2026
Chief executive pay ratio
◇
To the median employee
What changed from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025
The figures that moved, and by how much. Analysis of these figures is part of the Velarion platform.
Chief executive total compensation — Dave Schaeffer: $9,226,177 → $25,372,519 (175.0% higher)
CEO pay ratio: 136:1 → 259:1 (90.4% higher)

Frequently asked questions

Answers drawn from the data on this page.
Who is Cogent Communications Holdings' chief executive and what were they paid?
Total compensation for Dave Schaeffer, Chief Executive Officer, came to $25,372,519 in fiscal 2025. Compared with the $9,226,177 reported for fiscal 2023, Schaeffer's total was 175.0% higher.
What was Cogent Communications Holdings' say-on-pay result?
For fiscal 2025, the say-on-pay proposal drew 67.2% support at the meeting held May 1, 2026.
Which companies are in Cogent Communications Holdings' peer group?
The disclosed peer group names Alarm.com, Blackbaud, Calix, CSG Systems International and Fastly, among others.
What is Cogent Communications Holdings' chief executive pay ratio?
The disclosed chief executive pay ratio for fiscal 2025 is 259:1, against median employee compensation of $98,111.

Executive compensation

Every element reported for each named executive officer, by fiscal year.
Fiscal 2023
OfficerSalaryBonusStock awardsOption awardsNon-equity incentivePension and deferred earningsAll other compensationTotal
Dave Schaeffer
Chief Executive Officer
——◇—◇—◇◇
Thaddeus Weed
Chief Financial Officer
◇◇◇———◇◇
Greg O Connor
Former Chief Operating Officer
Departed during or after this year
◇◇◇———◇◇
Jeffrey Danielson
Former Vice President of Infrastructure
Departed during or after this year
◇◇◇———◇◇
James Bubeck
Chief Revenue Officer
◇◇◇◇◇—◇◇
John Chang
Chief Legal Officer
◇◇◇———◇◇
Henry Kilmer
Vice President of Network Strategy
◇◇◇———◇◇
Fiscal 2025
OfficerSalaryBonusStock awardsOption awardsNon-equity incentivePension and deferred earningsAll other compensationTotal
Dave Schaeffer
Chief Executive Officer
——◇—◇—◇◇
Thaddeus Weed
Chief Financial Officer
◇◇◇◇◇—◇◇
John Chang
Chief Legal Officer
◇◇◇◇◇—◇◇
Mark Harris
Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President of Global Sales
◇—◇—◇——◇
Henry Kilmer
Vice President of Network Strategy
◇◇◇◇◇—◇◇
James Bubeck
Former Chief Revenue Officer and Vice President of Global Sales
Departed during or after this year
◇◇◇◇◇—◇◇
A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero. A negative change in pension value is shown but, as the company reports it, not included in the total.

Equity awards granted

Individual awards as disclosed: type, date, unit counts at each level, and grant date value.
Fiscal 2025
OfficerAwardGrant dateThreshold unitsTarget unitsUnits grantedMaximum unitsExercise priceGrant date fair value
Dave SchaefferPSU◇◇◇—◇—◇
Dave SchaefferPSU◇◇◇—◇—◇
Henry KilmerPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
Henry KilmerPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
James BubeckPSU◇◇◇—◇—◇
John ChangPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
John ChangPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
John ChangRSU◇——◇——◇
Mark HarrisRSU◇——◇——◇
Mark HarrisRSU◇——◇——◇
Mark HarrisRSU◇——◇——◇
Mark HarrisRSU◇——◇——◇
Thaddeus WeedPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
Thaddeus WeedRSU◇——◇——◇
Thaddeus WeedPSU◇—◇—◇—◇
Fiscal 2023 are included in the PDF.
A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero. Threshold, target and maximum apply only to performance awards and are never shown for time-based or option awards.

Outstanding awards

Awards still held at fiscal year end.
As disclosed at fiscal 2025 year end
OfficerAwardUnvested unitsMarket value of unvested unitsExercise priceExpires
Mark HarrisRSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
Thaddeus WeedPSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
Henry KilmerPSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
Dave SchaefferPSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
PSU◇◇——
PSU◇◇——
John ChangRSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
PSU◇◇——
RSU◇◇——
A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero.

Director compensation

What each non-employee director was paid.
Fiscal 2025
DirectorFees earned in cashStock awardsOption awardsNon-equity incentivePension and deferred earningsAll other compensationTotal
Marc Montagner
Lead independent director
——————◇
Sheryl Kennedy
——————◇
Deneen Howell
——————◇
Paul de Sa
——————◇
Eve Howard
——————◇
Steven Brooks
——————◇
Lewis Ferguson
——————◇
Dave Schaeffer served on the board in fiscal 2025 and received no compensation for board service. Executive directors are typically paid through their executive roles, shown above.
Earlier years are included in the PDF.
A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero.

Director fee schedule

The standing retainers and premiums the board pays, as published.
Board equity retainer◇
Total board retainer◇
Compensation committee member◇

Disclosed peer group

The companies this board named as its compensation comparison group. The list is disclosure; the comparison is analysis.
Fiscal 2025
  • Alarm.com ALRM
  • Blackbaud BLKB
  • Calix CALX
  • CSG Systems International CSGS
  • Fastly FSLY
  • Five9 FIVN
  • Gogo GOGO
  • InterDigital IDCC
  • Iridium Communications IRDM
  • Qualys QLYS
  • Rapid7 RPD
  • RingCentral RNG
  • Squarespace SQSP
  • Teradata TDC
  • Viasat VSAT
  • Viavi Solutions VIAV
  • Workiva WK

Say-on-pay history

Shareholder support for the compensation program, by year.
YearMeetingSupportVotes forVotes againstAbstentions
2025May 1, 2026=◇◇◇
2024May 7, 2025=◇◇◇
2023May 8, 2024=◇◇◇
2022May 3, 2023=◇◇◇
2021May 4, 2022=◇◇◇
2020April 28, 2021=◇◇◇
2019May 6, 2020=◇◇◇
2018May 1, 2019=◇◇◇

Chief executive pay ratio

As calculated and reported by the company.
Ratio
◇
Median employee compensation
◇
Chief executive total compensation
◇
Email me this page as a cited PDF
The same figures, the same citations, formatted to hand to a committee. Nothing is added that is not on this page.
Your address is used for this and nothing else. Unsubscribe in one click.
Tell me when Cogent Communications Holdings files
You get a note when this company’s compensation data changes.
Your address is used for this and nothing else. Unsubscribe in one click.

What this page does not include

Everything above is a fact Cogent Communications Holdings disclosed, and it is free. Everything below is our analysis of those facts, and it is not.
Peer benchmarking
Where Cogent Communications Holdings sits against its disclosed peers — percentile position by role and by pay element, and the ranking behind it. The disclosed peer group is free; comparisons across it are part of the Velarion platform.
Executive Compensation Report — $1,500
Written compensation analysis
A read of the pay program as designed and as paid: incentive structure, goal rigor, the alignment between the committee's stated philosophy and what the numbers show.
Executive Compensation Report — $1,500
Board and governance analysis
Committee composition, independence, director pay positioning, and the governance provisions read together rather than listed.
Board Governance Report — $1,200
Realizable pay
What the awards above are actually worth today against what they were valued at on grant, and what the gap says about the pay-for-performance link.
Velarion Intelligence
Say-on-pay responsiveness
Cogent Communications Holdings recorded a low support level. The responsiveness analysis covers what the company said it would do, what it did, and how that compares with the companies that recovered their vote.
Responsiveness analysis
Adviser switching and vote outcomes
Two datasets covering compensation-adviser changes and what followed a contested vote. Both are part of the Velarion platform.
Inquire about access
Multiple companies at once
Cross-company views, cohort screens, and data export across the industries we cover. This page is one company; the platform is all of them.
Velarion Intelligence
Join the list for a Velarion Pro seat
Full platform access for one person: every industry we cover, peer positioning, and the written analysis. We will email you when it opens.
Your address is used for this and nothing else. Unsubscribe in one click.
Join the list for Peer Group Review
Whether Cogent Communications Holdings' disclosed peer group is defensible, who names Cogent Communications Holdings back in their own benchmarking group, and how pay tracks performance across it. This is the analysis a compensation consultant delivers on the group above. We will email you when it opens.
Your address is used for this and nothing else. Unsubscribe in one click.

Citations

Every figure on this page is cited to the document that reported it. Select any figure to see its citation.
216 figures on this page: 208 cited to the filing that reported them, 8 calculated from figures it prints.
208 cited to the filing
8 calculated from the filing

Documents cited

  1. 0001104659-26-054817
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  2. 0001104659-26-032744
    2025 Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year End Table · 2025 Summary Compensation Table · CEO Pay Ratio · DIRECTOR COMPENSATION · and 3 more sections
  3. 0001104659-25-046003
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  4. 0001104659-24-058652
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  5. 0001104659-24-038424
    2023 Summary Compensation Table
  6. 0001104659-23-055930
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  7. 0001104659-22-055893
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  8. 0001104659-21-057430
  9. 0001104659-20-057358
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
  10. 0001104659-19-026078
    Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders
Cite this data
This page is free to cite. Attribution we ask for:
Velarion, “Cogent Communications Holdings executive compensation, FY2023–FY2025.” https://intel.velarion.ai/comp/CCOI (accessed 2026).
Short form: data: Velarion

The Cogent Communications Holdings brief, $1,500

Positioning against its disclosed peers, the governance read, incentive design, and the CD&A alignment analysis; the full peer table; a committee-ready PDF.
Both reports for $2,400.
Get the executive briefGet the board briefNo account needed.
10 filings cited on this page
Method: intel.velarion.ai/methodology
A report that fails to generate is refunded in full
Published by Velarion Company Intelligence
Embed this data
A small, cited view of this data for your own page or newsletter. Every embed carries a visible link back here, so the attribution travels with it.
The headline figures, each with its citation.
Connect an AI assistant
Ask your own assistant about Cogent Communications Holdings and roughly 3,000 other US public companies, and get back the same figures on this page with the same citations. Free read access, no account. Add this to your assistant's connector settings.
Setup guide and the full list of questions it answers

Peers Cogent Communications Holdings discloses

The companies named in CCOI's own disclosed peer group.

Alarm.comBlackbaudCalixCSG Systems InternationalFastlyFive9GogoInterDigitalIridium CommunicationsQualysRapid7RingCentralSquarespaceTeradataViasatViavi SolutionsWorkiva

Terms on this page

Say-on-Pay VoteCEO Pay RatioMedian Employee CompensationAll companies

Free to read and cite. Redistribution or bulk use of the dataset requires a data license. Talk to us about the data license.

Cite this data
APA
Velarion Company Intelligence. (2026). Velarion database: executive and board compensation data (Version 2026Q3) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22283854
BibTeX
@misc{velarionData2026,
  author = {{Velarion Company Intelligence}},
  title = {Velarion database: executive and board compensation data},
  year = {2026},
  version = {2026Q3},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22283854},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22283854}
}
For informational purposes only. Not investment, legal, or compensation advice.  All companies · The Pay Desk · Methodology · Terms · Privacy