Jason Pellegrino signs a sweet deal at Nick Falloon’s Domain

Domain executive chair Nick Falloon would be pleased to have finally — after six months — found a new chief executive in local media boss Jason Pellegrino to replace former golden child Antony Catalano.

The 42-year-old Google chief’s stocks are high in Falloon’s book, but not as high, we note, as The Cat’s when Domain was structurally separated from its parent Fairfax in November last year.

Father of four Pellegrino (The Cat tops that with eight children) will start at Domain at the end of August on a fixed annual pay of $1.2 million.

He’ll potentially get a short-term bonus of up to $960,000 and long-term incentives worth up to $1.44m-a-year for a maximum possible ongoing package of $3.6m.

That’s been boosted by a substantial “golden hello” from his chairman Falloon, comprising a $500,000 cash bonus that will be paid at the end of this calendar year, plus a $2m parcel of “engagement shares”, which Pellegrino will get if he’s still there in mid-2020.

So all up he’s cut a sweet a $6.1m deal.

Catalano, who stayed only about two months as boss after Domain debuted on the exchange as a stand-alone entity, was on the same $1.2m fixed pay and maximum short-term incentive of $960,000 as Pellegrino.

But the former boss’s real worth to Falloon at the property enterprise was reflected in an allocation of up to $5.04m in options at the time of the float for an all up spin-off deal of $7.02m.

Catalano is now working with and a shareholder in Domain’s biggest client Tomorrow, a real estate advertising buyer, which will see the old and new bosses face-to-face across the negotiating table.

Awkward.

Wollongong-born Pellegrino, before his decade at Google worked for millionaire contemporary art collector Danny Goldberg at his Dakota Corporation family office.

Pellegrino, with his British-born wife Helen, knows something of local real estate. In recent years as his career blossomed, he’s climbed Sydney’s ladder of opportunity from southeastern Kensington to become part of the eastern suburbs set.

At the end of 2015, he lashed out $5.75m for a five-bedder mansion in Bellevue Hill, complete with pool and harbour views.

Wonder if he first found it on Domain?