Named Executive Officer (NEO)

A named executive officer, or NEO, is one of the small group of officers whose individual compensation a company is required to disclose by name in the Summary Compensation Table under SEC rules: the chief executive, the chief financial officer, and typically the three other most highly compensated executive officers serving at the end of the fiscal year.

The roster can change year to year — a promotion, departure, or a shift in who earned the most among non-CEO/CFO officers can add or drop a name — so the same title at the same company is not guaranteed to appear as an NEO in every proxy.

Everything downstream of the Summary Compensation Table — equity grants, outstanding awards, employment agreement terms — is typically disclosed at the individual level only for this same small group, which is why NEO status is what determines whose pay a reader can actually see by name.

Tim Cook, Apple's Chief Executive Officer, is one of the named executive officers in the company's fiscal 2025 proxy — the small group whose individual pay the Summary Compensation Table discloses by name.