Originally posted October 2009 There has been much written about the challenges and problems associated with conflicted executive compensation consultants. The SEC has proposed wide disclosure of most services provided to fees paid by publicly traded companies for consulting services in the hopes that this transparency will limit both real and apparent conflicts of interest...
Originally posted December 2009 What is missing in the December 7, 2008 opinion piece in Financial Week authored by Gregg D. Polsky, professor of law at the Florida State University College of Law is an understanding of time. Stock options for most organizations’ executives fully vest over 3, 4, or 5 years. In fact almost...
Originally posted March 2010 In his March 4, 2010 article for the Wall Street Journal (How Much Does Pay Matter?) author Alan Murray concludes his article by saying: “The bottom line is this: Incentive pay is an effective tool in situations where performance can be fairly measured and where it is based largely on individual effort....
Originally posted September 2010 Graham Browley writes in his August 21, 2010 article for the New York Times(In Striking Shift, Small Investors Flee Stock Market) that “The notion that stocks tend to be safe and profitable investments over time seems to have been dented in much the same way that a decline in home values...
The September 17, 2010 article in Financial Times (CEO/employee pay ratios) again addresses the nagging question of the seemingly outrageous difference between CEO pay and that of the average worker but raises the question as to whether a larger or smaller differential is “better”. The author writes: “Would you work harder if the ratio [between the...
Originally posted December 2010 Rory Cellan-Jones’ November 14, 2010 article for the BBC (Can brain scans tell us who makes a good chief executive? Brain scans could reveal leadership ability) got our editorial board thinking about what we have seen as important characteristics of effective leaders. Cellan-Jones writes: “Neuroscientists and psychologists believe they can make...
Originally posted April 2010 Reporters Nelson D. Schwartz and Louise Story tell us in the March 31, 2010 article for the New York Times, “Pay of Hedge Fund Managers Roared Back Last Year” that: “… top hedge fund managers rode the 2009 stock market rally to record gains, with the highest-paid 25 earning a collective $25.3...
Originally posted November 2010 For companies facing bankruptcy, there is usually plenty of blame to go around and plenty of individuals on whom it should be smeared. The Tribune Company, however, seems to have more than its share of reprehensible characters in its executive ranks, coupled with a Board of Directors that seems unwilling or...
Originally posted May 2013 According to a March 31, 2013 article in the New York Times by Susanne Craig: “Since the financial crisis, compensation for the directors of the nation’s biggest banks has continued to rise even as the banks themselves, facing difficult markets and regulatory pressures, are reining in bonuses and pay.” Well, “reining in”...
