Rounding out the top five is Stephen Avera, CLO at Thomasville-based Flowers Foods Inc. Last year, Avera took home $744,658 in total cash. That’s a $475,000 salary combined with $269,658 in nonequity incentives.

It’s a big raise for Avera, who made 18 percent more last year than in the previous year. In 2017, Avera also received nearly $680,000 in stock awards—a figure that also was slightly up from the previous year’s $637,870 in stock.