The action-packed life of GoPro's Nick Woodman, the highest-paid CEO of 2014

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nick woodman gopro

REUTERS/Mike Segar

Nick Woodman, CEO of GOPro.

Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of sports camera company GoPro, was the highest paid U.S. chief executive of 2014, Bloomberg recently reported.

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Woodman was granted 4.5 million restricted stock units valued at $284.5 million at the end of 2014, earning him the top spot on Bloomberg's list. In 2013, he earned a salary of $800,000 in addition to a bonus of $1 million.

Woodman's financial success is more than a decade in the making. He founded GoPro in 2004, initially just making wrist straps for small cameras and then eventually branching out into building the hardware itself.

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Woodman came up with the idea for GoPro before leaving town for a surfing trip, when he realized he needed some kind of device that would make taking action shots easier. When he returned from the trip, he used his mom's sewing machine to start work on GoPro's first camera strap.

Woodman's life hasn't slowed down since - he's an adrenaline junkie, Red Bull addict, snowboarder, mountain biker, race-car driver, and an avid surfer.

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