Kansas City, Mo. ? Sprint Corp. on Thursday defended how much it paid top executive Gary Forsee last year, responding to criticisms of his compensation by an influential investor adviser.

Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy voting firm that advises major investors, said last week it was unhappy with the compensation committee of Sprint’s board of directors, and urged shareholders to withhold their votes from the only Sprint board member seeking re-election this year, Linda Koch Lorimer, vice president and secretary of Yale University.

Votes will be tallied at Sprint’s annual meeting Tuesday in Overland Park.

In a report released earlier this month, ISS said it had concerns about the board’s effectiveness and the judgment of the compensation committee. It pointed to Forsee’s “extravagant pay package,” which ISS said was given to him before he “could demonstrate his performance on the job.”

In a letter to shareholders dated Thursday, Claudia Toussaint, Sprint’s vice president of corporate governance and ethics, defended Forsee’s 2003 compensation, which was $29.2 million — more than the heads of Qwest Communications International Inc., AT&T Corp., AT&T Wireless and Alltel Corp., according to ISS.

Toussaint said Forsee’s compensation was “rigorously reviewed by our Compensation Committee.”

In the letter, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Toussaint also pointed out that Forsee’s 2003 compensation “reflected one-time awards” he received to make up for money he lost in leaving BellSouth Corp.

In its report, ISS said so-called “make-whole” stock option grants that Forsee received to join Sprint exceeded in value the stock grants from BellSouth that he forfeited. But in her letter, Toussaint claims that analysis of Forsee’s compensation ignored that in joining Sprint, he undertook the role of CEO.