Lazard recently hosted a director forum – which also featured SEC Commissioner Rob Jackson and representatives from Whitegate Partners, Wellington and CalSTRS – to discuss the complex pressures that boards are facing right now. According to this blog, here’s what the speakers had to say about executive pay:
Executive compensation has the potential to further escalate as a “lightning rod” issue for shareholders
– Shareholders expect directors to devise a tailored compensation program that clearly incentivizes the achievement of well-defined strategic priorities
– Investors view a board’s decisions about executive compensation as a window into directors’ thinking on important issues of strategy, culture, succession planning and talent retention
– As the complexity of compensation programs and disclosure has increased, shareholders have become more prone to opposing say-on-pay, particularly when the absolute quantum of compensation appears excessive
– The historical practice of deferring to outside compensation consultants may cease to pass muster as an appropriate way to design a compensation program
-Liz Dunshee, TheCompensationStandards.com September 9, 2019
