However, board general manager of finance and funding Robert Mackway-Jones would not say whether that person was a neurosurgeon.
Gross earnings figures released by the board to the Otago Daily Times show that chief executive Brian Rousseau received the next highest remuneration - between $510,000 and $520,000.
This amount is higher than previously reported in the annual report of the State Services Commission.
Mr Mackway-Jones confirmed earlier statements that there had been no change in Mr Rousseau's salary.
Confusion over this was related to the fact an extra fortnightly pay fell in the past financial year and his non-taxable allowance was included.
If adjustments were made for this, his salary would fall into the $490,000 to $500,000 band.
Personnel costs are the biggest single item on the board's $808.4 million budget, at an estimated $298.05 million this financial year.
After Mr Rousseau, the next-highest-paid person last year was in the $490,000 to $500,000 bracket.
In the year to June 30, 2009, there was one person with remuneration higher than Mr Rousseau, someone in the $540,000 to $550,000 bracket.
The information also shows that 121 staff received amounts of more than $200,000, up 16 on the previous year.
Mr Mackway-Jones said the extra pay period and the inclusion of allowances, which were non-taxable and reimbursable, could involve about $10,000 for some staff, pushing them into another bracket.
Remuneration figures provided are not just the basic salary, but include such things as amounts paid for accrued leave taken, which can also distort the figures.
The tables give some indication that in hard-to-staff areas, the board is having to pay extra to attract staff.
Mr Mackway-Jones said the numbers of staff paid more than $200,000 increased in 2009, mainly because of new medical staff and where they were placed on salary scales.
The same thing had happened in the previous financial year, but a lot of the increase related to the distortion caused by the timing of the pay period.
The information did not show how many employees were medical and dental and how many were management and administration.
Staff numbers were highest in the year ended June 2008, when 5181 people were on the payroll, compared with 5127 in 2009 and 5049 last year, but Mr Mackway-Jones said the number of full-time equivalent staff was roughly the same.
Many of the board's staff are part-time employees, including a large proportion of nurses.
More than half of the total staff receive annual remuneration of $50,000 or less.
The highest number of employees in any one band last year was those earning $40,000-$50,000, followed by 693 people earning $30,000-$40,000, and 630 earning $50,000-$60,000.
Mr Mackway-Jones explained that the information in the tables did not include all of the people who might be described as locums.
Some locums were contractors rather than employees, either contracting their services directly or through an agency.
These people would not feature on the list.
