Industry hunter's pay goes up in down year.

• Position: Eastern

A 58% increase in pay for a chief executive can raise a few eyebrows, even in a good year. In a bad one, it's bound to raise questions--especially when peers at larger organizations earn less. But Wilmington Industrial Development Inc. is providing few answers about why Scott Satterfield got such a huge pay increase in fiscal 2007-08, a year the nonprofit ran a $43,325 deficit.

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Company filings with the Internal Revenue Service show Satterfield's pay jumped from $191,708 in 2006-07 to $303,669 the following fiscal year. His counterpart at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance in North Charleston, S.C., made $186,000 in fiscal 2007-08--though the Charleston group has nearly twice the budget and ended the year in the black.

Wilmington Industrial Development Chairman William King says retention incentives negotiated in 2001 boosted Satterfield's pay for 2007-08. His compensation dropped the following year, King says, but he would not give details. He also wouldn't confirm reports that Satterfield's annual salary is now about $205,000. "That's something that's confidential," says King, who runs the Wilmington operation of Invista S.a.r.l LLC, a Wichita, Kan.-based maker of synthetic fiber. Satterfield, who joined the nonprofit in 1993 and became CEO in 1995, did not respond to a telephone message requesting comment.

The four-person staff handles industry recruiting for New Hanover and...