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Good hook but IMHO Matt Cutts is more like a PR puppet that can get replaced any time. Also he won't earn much unless he owns Google shares. They couldn't replace Amit Singhal easily or those really working on the algorithms in the background.
With how long Matt has been at Google (12 years), I can almost certainly guarantee he owns a few shares of stock :) I can also say from experience that companies don't give employees the kind of visibility Google has given Matt unless they are a lot more than a puppet. No organization wants to invest money into videos and educational series featuring an employee that's not going to be around. Amit is also a valued member of the team I'm sure, but you don't stay around Google 12 years unless they want you too...
Of course they didn't hire him back then for his good looks solely. Now that he gets recognized foremost as the angel of death of Google telling webmasters they will soon face bankruptcy beacuse of the next update he might soon become a too negative symbol and have to move on.
Well, first off you can check out Matt's personal disclosure: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/disclosure/ Based on his non-profit and investing it's pretty clear that Matt has a tidy amount of money from his time at Google. My sense is that Matt actually had a bit of convincing to do internally to have the level of dialog and transparency he does with the SEO community. At this point he's certainly won folks over on that point and is a true asset to the company, not only for his technical contributions (Matt's got his name on a number of patents) but his communication and public relations skills.
All great points AJ thanks!
I can't find the article now, but I thought that someone like BusinessInsider analyzed his net worth and found it to be in the $3-400mm range. His salary is almost certainly not $1mm+/year, and thus, salary is likely relatively meaningless. He probably still has large stock holdings in Google, as he clearly still has a strong, visible, psychological tie to the company.
Yeah, that's why Matt Cutts even defends such ridiculous user experience as the 18% organic search result SERPs by nitpicking saying they are 18% or maybe even a few more. Having so many stakes in the company has overshadowed his objectively completely. If I were him I would try to change the degenerating product before it goes completely broken instead.
Great comments by AJ and Rand. I think one of Google's real weaknesses is that they really don't seem to want to provide any real support or customer service outside of forums or large paying customers. This may be starting to change a bit. Not that they really need to but Google needs more effective public facing people or they risk further alienating people. Overall, Matt does a good job at that.
Agree 100%