Like many of their counterparts around the nation, numerous chief executives at some of Maryland's largest public companies saw their total compensation decline last year.

The median total compensation of chief executives of large companies nationally declined for the second consecutive year in 2009 from 2008, by 13 percent to $7.7 million, according to a study by Equilar.

Robert J. Stevens, CEO of Bethesda defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, was the highest paid among chief executives of public Maryland companies last year. Stevens pulled down $23.0 million last year in base salary, stock and options awards, incentive plans, bonuses, change in pension value and other compensation, according to Lockheed's latest proxy statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

But that was 10 percent less than the $25.6 million he made in 2008.

Lockheed executives called 2009 "a year of change" in the proxy.

"We saw significant impact to our business, including program cancellations and terminations," they said. "Our $78 billion backlog at year-end was outstanding but fell slightly from 2008 levels. We also experienced a decline in our stock price."

Stevens' base salary increased only slightly to $1.83 million from $1.77 million in 2008. The main change was in non-equity incentive plan compensation, in which Stevens received $5.2 million last year, compared with $8.6 million in 2008.

J.W. Marriott Jr., CEO of Bethesda hotelier Marriott International, saw his compensation last year drop by 81 percent to $1.6 million. The key difference was Marriott not receiving any stock options in 2009, compared with $5.8 million in stock options and awards in 2008.

James A.C. Kennedy, CEO of asset manager T. Rowe Price Group of Baltimore, saw his total compensation fall 17.5 percent to $4.7 million last year. He saw reductions in the market value of stock option awards compared with 2008 and a cut in his annual cash incentive.

On the flip side, W. Edward Walter, CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts of Bethesda, saw his compensation jump by 59 percent last year to $4.6 million. He received $3.2 million in stock options and awards in 2009, up from $1.5 million in 2008.

Equilar's study covered 199 public companies with revenues last year of at least $5.8 billion that filed annual proxy statements by March 26. Among the companies that had not filed proxies as of this week were Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore and Wal-Mart Stores of Bentonville, Ark., one of Maryland's top private employers.