Best Buy recently hired its new CEO Hubert Joly away from privately-held hospitality company Carlson. His signing bonus is $20 million.

He left a good gig to go to Best Buy, and there's a lot of uncertainty swirling as founder Richard Schulze tries to buy back the company, creating significant career risk for Joly.

Not only that, but Joly is a French citizen. He's not starting his job at the consumer electronics retailer until September, once he gets work authorization.

So, there are a pair of big money contingency plans that have been set up for Joly.

What if, for some reason, he doesn't get authorized by the U.S. government (a very unlikely scenario, since he's the CEO of a massive retailer)?

From the SEC filing:

In such event, and only if Mr. Joly's employment with his prior employer has been terminated and he had incurred a forfeiture of compensation as a result of such termination, Mr. Joly is entitled to receive a payment of $6.25 million from the registrant.

Or what if Schulze succeeds in his attempted takeover and, as would be expected, installs his own handpicked CEO?

Mr. Joly would be entitled to the benefits provided in the registrant's Severance Plan, except that he will be entitled to receive cash severance in an amount equal to two times the sum of his base salary plus target bonus, and he will be entitled to a pro rata annual bonus for the fiscal year in which such termination occurs determined based on actual performance in accordance with the STI Plan for such year.

Two times his base salary is $2.35 million.