When Graham Walker agreed to sell Fibrebond Corp., the Louisiana manufacturing company his father founded, he made sure the business would transform the lives of its 540 full-time employees as much as it did his own. As reported Wall Street JournalThe 46-year-old CEO took out a roughly $240 million bonus from the $1.7 billion sale to energy management giant Eaton, which works out to an average of $443,000 per worker.
Walker insisted that 15 percent of the proceeds of the sale be reserved for the employees, even though they own no stock, making the condition non-negotiable for any buyer. Eaton eventually agreed, with a spokesperson later saying the acquisition “honors their commitments to both their employees and the community.” However, the bonuses, which began rolling out in mid-2025, are not all awarded at once.
To make sure employees cashed in every dollar, Walker structured the deal so they had to stay on the job for another five years, turning the profit into one of the biggest and stickiest retention packages in recent memory. Fibrebond’s surprise reflects a broader pattern of founders cutting employees in big exits, a trend that goes some way to countering the increasingly extreme CEO pay gap that persists into the 21st century.
Without the condition requiring staff to remain, Walker believed the factory would have emptied immediately. “I don’t think we’d have many employees on day two,” Walker said Diary. He wanted to ensure a smooth transition at Eaton, protecting the business that had been the economic engine of Minden, a small town of about 12,000 people.
When the envelopes detailing the surprise payments arrived, reactions at the factory ranged from disbelief to tears, with some workers initially assuming it was a prank or a camera trick. Longtime employee Lesia Key, who started at Fibrebond in 1995 at $5.35 an hour, told diary that she used her bonus to pay off her mortgage and open a clothing boutique after years of living paycheck to paycheck. Others have cleared credit card balances, paid tuition or boosted retirement savings, even as many were surprised to see taxes claim nearly a third of their paychecks and realized that quitting early would mean giving up hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, the five-year requirement has caused some friction. Several employees “grumbled” that the annual payment structure made it difficult to quit if they wanted to, and others were surprised by the heavy tax burden that claimed nearly a third of their paychecks. Walker created a crucial exception to the five-year rule: employees over 65 were exempt.