CEOs of public companies are in the business of extracting wealth from that company. The ruling caste of equity lords all work towards this goal together by creating closed network systems of board members and executives; an executive Dave in Company A will get paid by board member Steve while Dave in turn sits on the board for Company B and assures payment for Steve who is an executive there. The selection process for an executive position is based on who is next in line in the network. I don't see any market forces at work here.