Universal Executive Compensation (FY26)

Name: Universal (UVV) executive compensation
Creator: Velarion
License: https://intel.velarion.ai/terms

UVV · Richmond, VA · Executive and director compensation, fiscal 2023 to 2026

The paid brief on Universal

Positioning against its disclosed peers, the governance read, incentive design, and the CD&A alignment analysis; the full peer table; a committee-ready PDF.

$1,500 for the Executive Compensation Report. Both reports for $2,400.

Get the executive brief Get the board briefNo account needed.

Data as of September 19, 2026Latest filing (8-K): August 5, 2026

15 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

Universal brief$1,500Get the executive brief

365 figures on this page: 353 cited to the filing that reported them, 12 calculated from figures it prints. See the citations

Chief executive, fiscal 2026

◇

Preston Wigner

Latest say-on-pay support

August 4, 2026

Chief executive pay ratio

◇

To the median employee

Frequently asked questions

Answers drawn from the data on this page.

Who is Universal's chief executive and what were they paid?

Preston Wigner was paid $3,179,995 in total compensation as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer for fiscal 2026. Wigner's total was 28.3% lower than the $4,433,544 reported for fiscal 2025.

What was Universal's say-on-pay result?

Shareholders supported the say-on-pay proposal with 98.5% of votes cast for or against in favor at the meeting held August 4, 2026 for fiscal 2026.

Which companies are in Universal's peer group?

Companies named in the disclosed peer group include B&G Foods, Inc., Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., Darling Ingredients, Inc., Flowers Foods, Inc. and Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., among others.

What is Universal's chief executive pay ratio?

The disclosed chief executive pay ratio for fiscal 2026 is 995:1, against median employee compensation of $3,197.

Executive compensation

Every element reported for each named executive officer, by fiscal year.

Fiscal 2023

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
George C. Freeman, III Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Airton Hentschke Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Johan Kroner Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Theodore G. Broome Executive Vice President and Sales Director, Universal Leaf	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Preston D. Wigner Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇

Fiscal 2024

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
George Freeman Former Chairman President and Chief Executive Officer Departed during or after this year	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Airton Hentschke Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	— not reconciled
Johan Kroner Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	— not reconciled
Chairman Preston D. Wigner	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Preston Wigner Chairman President and Chief Executive Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	— not reconciled
Catherine Claiborne Vice President General Counsel, and Secretary	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
J. Patrick O'Keefe Senior Vice President, Universal Global Ventures, Inc.	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Senior Inc	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇

Fiscal 2025

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
George Freeman, III Former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Departed during or after this year	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Chairman Preston D. Wigner	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Preston Wigner Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Airton Hentschke Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Johan Kroner Former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Vice Catherine H. Claiborne	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Catherine Claiborne Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Senior Inc	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
J. Patrick O'Keefe Senior Vice President, Universal Global Ventures, Inc.	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇

Fiscal 2026

Officer	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Airton Hentschke Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Preston Wigner Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Johan Kroner Former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Departed during or after this year	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
Catherine Claiborne Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇
J. Patrick O'Keefe Senior Vice President, Universal Ingredients, Inc.	◇	—	◇	—	◇	◇	◇	◇

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 2026

Officer	Award	Grant date	Threshold units	Target units	Units granted	Maximum units	Exercise price	Grant date fair value
Airton L. Hentschke	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Airton L. Hentschke	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Catherine H. Claiborne	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Catherine H. Claiborne	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Johan C. Kroner	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Johan C. Kroner	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Johan C. Kroner	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Patrick O Keefe	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇	—	◇
Patrick O Keefe	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Patrick O Keefe	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Preston D. Wigner	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇
Preston D. Wigner	OPTION	◇	—	—	◇	—	◇	◇

Fiscal 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 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 2026 year end

Officer	Award	Unvested units	Market value of unvested units	Exercise price	Expires
Catherine Claiborne	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
Johan Kroner	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
Preston Wigner	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
Airton Hentschke	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—
	PSU	◇	◇	—	—

A dash means the company reported no figure in that column. $0 is shown only where the filing prints a zero.

Severance and change in control

The terms as written in the agreements.

Airton Hentschke

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer · Terms as described in the company’s compensation discussion · citing a 2025 filing

Change-in-control multiple	◇
Benefits continuation on change in control	◇
Excise tax treatment	◇

Catherine Claiborne

Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary · Terms as described in the company’s compensation discussion · citing a 2025 filing

Change-in-control multiple	◇
Benefits continuation on change in control	◇
Excise tax treatment	◇

J. Patrick O'Keefe

Senior Vice President, Universal Ingredients, Inc. · Terms as described in the company’s compensation discussion · citing a 2025 filing

Change-in-control multiple	◇
Benefits continuation on change in control	◇
Excise tax treatment	◇

Johan Kroner

Former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · Terms as described in the company’s compensation discussion · citing a 2025 filing

Change-in-control multiple	◇
Equity acceleration on change in control	◇
Benefits continuation on change in control	◇
Excise tax treatment	◇

Preston Wigner

Chief Executive Officer · Terms as described in the company’s compensation discussion · citing a 2025 filing

Change-in-control multiple	◇
Benefits continuation on change in control	◇
Benefits continuation	◇
Excise tax treatment	◇

Director compensation

What each non-employee director was paid.

Fiscal 2026

Director	Fees earned in cash	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive	Pension and deferred earnings	All other compensation	Total
Thomas H. Johnson	◇	◇	—	—	—	◇	◇
Diana F. Cantor	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Lennart R. Freeman	◇	◇	—	—	—	◇	◇
Robert C. Sledd	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Jacqueline T. Williams	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Fotini E. Manolios	◇	◇	—	—	—	—	◇
Gregory A. Trojan	◇	—	—	—	—	—	◇

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 cash retainer	◇
Board equity retainer	◇
Total board retainer	◇
Board chair premium	◇
Lead independent director premium	◇
Audit committee chair	◇
Compensation committee chair	◇
Nominating and governance chair	◇

Disclosed peer group

The companies this board named as its compensation comparison group. The list is disclosure; the comparison is analysis.

Fiscal 2026

B&G Foods, Inc. BGS
Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM
Darling Ingredients, Inc. DAR
Flowers Foods, Inc. FLO
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. FDP
Hain Celestial Group, Inc. HAIN
J&J Snack Foods Corp. JJSF
John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. JBSS
Pyxus International, Inc. PYYX
Seneca Foods Corporation SENEA
The Marzetti Company LANC
TreeHouse Foods, Inc. THS

Say-on-pay history

Shareholder support for the compensation program, by year.

Year	Meeting	Support	Votes for	Votes against	Abstentions
2026	August 4, 2026	=	◇	◇	◇
2025	August 5, 2025	=	◇	◇	◇
2024	August 6, 2024	=	◇	◇	◇
2023	August 6, 2024	=	◇	◇	◇
2022	August 1, 2023	=	◇	◇	◇
2021	August 2, 2022	=	◇	◇	◇
2020	August 3, 2021	=	◇	◇	◇
2019	August 4, 2020	=	◇	◇	◇
2018	August 28, 2019	=	◇	◇	◇
2017	August 2, 2018	=	◇	◇	◇
2016	August 3, 2017	=	◇	◇	◇
2015	August 4, 2016	=	◇	◇	◇

Chief executive pay ratio

As calculated and reported by the company.

Ratio

◇

Median employee compensation

◇

Chief executive total compensation

◇

What this page does not include

Everything above is a fact Universal disclosed, and it is free. Everything below is our analysis of those facts, and it is not.

Peer benchmarking

Where Universal 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

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

Citations

Every figure on this page is cited to the document that reported it. Select any figure to see its citation.

365 figures on this page: 353 cited to the filing that reported them, 12 calculated from figures it prints.

353 cited to the filing

12 calculated from the filing

Documents cited

8-K, filed August 5, 2026
0001628280-26-053392
Proposal 2 - Approval of a non-binding advisory resolution approving the compensation of the Company’s named executive officers.
DEF 14A, filed July 1, 2026
0001628280-26-046310
CEO PAY RATIO · EQUITY COMPENSATION INFORMATION · Grants of Plan-Based Awards · OUTSTANDING EQUITY AWARDS AT 2026 FISCAL YEAR END · and 1 more section
8-K, filed August 6, 2025
0000102037-25-000052
Proposal 2 - Approval of a non-binding advisory resolution approving the compensation of the Company’s named executive officers.
8-K, filed August 7, 2024
0000102037-24-000030
DEF 14A, filed July 1, 2024
0000102037-24-000022
SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE · Summary Compensation Table
DEF 14A, filed July 1, 2024
0000102037-25-000038
Compensation Discussion and Analysis · SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE · Summary Compensation Table
8-K, filed August 2, 2023
0000102037-23-000050
DEF 14A, filed June 23, 2023
0000102037-23-000039
SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE
8-K, filed August 3, 2022
0000102037-22-000026
8-K, filed August 4, 2021
0000102037-21-000027
8-K, filed August 5, 2020
0000102037-20-000037
8-K, filed September 3, 2019
0000102037-19-000045
8-K, filed August 3, 2018
0000102037-18-000021
8-K, filed August 8, 2017
0000102037-17-000049
8-K, filed August 4, 2016
0000102037-16-000058

Cite this data

This page is free to cite. Attribution we ask for:

Velarion, “Universal executive compensation, FY2023–FY2026.” https://intel.velarion.ai/comp/UVV (accessed 2026).

Short form: data: Velarion

The paid brief for Universal

Positioning against its disclosed peers, the governance read, incentive design, and the CD&A alignment analysis; the full peer table; a committee-ready PDF.

$1,500 for the Executive Compensation Report. Both reports for $2,400.

Get the executive brief Get the board briefNo account needed.

15 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.

<iframe src="https://intel.velarion.ai/comp/UVV/embed" width="560" height="480" style="border:1px solid #d8dee8;border-radius:10px" loading="lazy" title="Universal executive compensation, from Velarion"></iframe>

Connect an AI assistant

Ask your own assistant about Universal 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.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "velarion": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.velarion.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Setup guide and the full list of questions it answers

Peers Universal discloses

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

B&G Foods, Inc.Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.Darling Ingredients, Inc.Flowers Foods, Inc.Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc.Hain Celestial Group, Inc.J&J Snack Foods Corp.Seneca Foods Corporation TreeHouse Foods, Inc.

Terms on this page

Say-on-Pay Vote CEO Pay Ratio Median Employee Compensation All 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}
}

More on Universal

Frequently asked questions

Executive compensation

Equity awards granted

Outstanding awards

Severance and change in control

Director compensation

Director fee schedule

Disclosed peer group

Say-on-pay history

Chief executive pay ratio

What this page does not include

Citations

Documents cited

The paid brief for Universal

Peers Universal discloses

Terms on this page