Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun reported total compensation of $3,045,428 for Fiscal Year 2025, placing him as the highest-paid college president in Massachusetts by a wide margin. New records also show how his pay jumped in recent years, driven
When Joseph Aoun walks into the job as president of Northeastern University, he does so with a pay package that now clearly sits at the top of Massachusetts higher education.
Aoun reported total compensation of $3,045,428 for Fiscal Year 2025, according to records cited by the Boston Business Journal. It’s more than $3 million—and it widens a gap that has already made him stand out for years.
Aoun stepped into the presidency in 2006. and the latest figures show how steadily his earnings have stayed in the highest tier statewide. From FY21 to FY22, his total compensation jumped sharply—from $1.27 million to $2.7 million, a 113 percent increase. The change was tied primarily to Aoun collecting roughly $700. 000 in previously deferred compensation and $550. 000 in bonus and incentive pay. according to The Huntington News. Northeastern’s independent student newspaper.
The way Aoun’s compensation has been structured also echoes earlier years. The Huntington News reported that a deferred compensation package helped produce similarly high compensation in FY2012, when Aoun reported $3,027,684.
In Fiscal Year 2025, Aoun’s earnings outpaced the next highest-paid college president by nearly $1 million. Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported total compensation of $2,151,788 for FY25.
Only Aoun and Kornbluth were reported as having total compensations exceeding $2 million in FY25, but several other presidents cleared the $1 million mark. The Boston Business Journal listed the following reported compensations for FY2025:
Melissa Gilliam, Boston University: $1,704,300
Alan Garber, Harvard University: $1,642,838
Sunil Kumar, Tufts University: $1,356,483
Paula Johnson, Wellesley College: $1,364,215
Chris Hopey, Merrimack College: $1,231,390
E. LaBrent Chrite, Bentley University: $1,148,725
Jay Bernhardt, Emerson College: $1,050,166
Beyond that group. Maud Mandel of Williams College. Marisa Kelly of Suffolk University. Mark Thompson of Wentworth Institute of Technology. and Lynn Perry Wooten of Simmons University also reported notably high compensations. For FY2025, they earned $992,690, $964,487, $825,775, and $657,025, respectively, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Northeastern University Joseph Aoun compensation Fiscal Year 2025 MIT Sally Kornbluth Massachusetts college presidents Boston Business Journal The Huntington News
3 million for doing what exactly? Meanwhile tuition keeps going up lol.
Wait I thought college presidents don’t even make that much? Or maybe this is like bonuses and backpay stuff. Either way it’s insane that it’s #1 in MA.
So he got deferred compensation from like 2012?? That means he already earned it before 2025, right? But the article makes it sound like it all happened recently. Kinda confusing. Also if MIT is 2.1 mil then why are they shocked when universities keep paying these people.
I don’t care what the breakdown is, it’s still over 3 million dollars. Students are struggling to afford books and rent and then some guy is raking it in. Northeastern’s probably spending that money on like another building or something, not actual help for people.