Stephen Avera, general counsel, Flowers Foods Inc. (Courtesy photo)

Rounding out the Top 10 is Flowers Foods Inc.'s chief legal counsel Stephen Avera, who will retire from his role at the end of the year after more than three decades at some iteration of the Thomasville-based packaged baked goods company. Last year, Avera took home $571,004 in total cash. That's a $484,230 salary combined with $86,774 in nonequity incentives.

Avera has been with Flowers, whose top brands include Nature's Own and Wonder, since 1986. Up until 1998, he was associate GC and assistant GC at Flowers Industries. He then served as VP and GC at Flowers Bakeries from 1998 to 2002. Following that, he held in-house roles of increasing responsibility at Flowers Foods, culminating with his appointment as chief legal counsel in May 2017.

Avera's experience with acquisitions has grown along with the company. In 2008, he oversaw Flowers' two separate purchases of Holsum Bakery Inc. of Phoenix for $150 million and ButterKrust Bakery of Lakeland, Florida, for $90 million. And in 2013, he was there for the purchase of Hostess Brands for $355 million.

Before joining Flowers, Avera, a Tallahassee, Florida, native, spent four years, one in Korea and three in Germany, as a captain in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps.