The New York Times has an excellent article on the growing allure of private equity for CEOs. Basically, top-notch corporate executives are seeing more opportunity for huge paydays running companies that have been bought out.

That was the case with David Calhoun, who was the vice chairman of GE. Last year, he took the post as CEO of VNU, which went private in a $11.1 billion transaction.

Why this shift toward privately owned companies? First of all, the regulations for running a public company are much more rigorous because of Sarbanes-Oxley. Also, a privately-run business has the advantage of not dealing with the quarter-by-quarter demands of Wall Street.

But probably the biggest reason is money. Keep in mind that a CEO can get about 5% to 10% of the equity in a company that is backed by private equity. And as the debt is paid down, the equity percentage will also increase.

In other words, there could be some massive paydays. Who knows, it may even make Home Depot's former CEO Robert L. Nardelli's pay package of $210 million look like chump change.

For example, Millard S. Drexler came on board J. Crew after its buyout. Because of its recent IPO, he now has a nest egg of more than $300 million.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.