Pearl Meyer Unscripted

Although ESG-related metrics have been around for decades, the rapid adoption of certain metrics into incentive plans is a relatively recent phenomenon. The adoption has in turn led to certain challenges – both with respect to the (often politicized) question of whether to include such metrics in incentive plans in the first place, and how to assess their relative impact. In this episode, Mark and...

Succession planning is increasingly prevalent on the compensation committee agenda. In this episode, Mark and Aalap are joined by their colleague (and leadership expert) Susan Sandlund to discuss the evolving role of the CEO, why CEO burnout and turnover have been increasing, what good succession planning looks like, and why boards should be thinking about succession well beyond the CEO role.

In this episode, Mark and Aalap are joined by Steve Van Putten to discuss how compensation committees are thinking about performance-based equity awards and other long-term incentive plan design trends, in light of the current macro-economic environment. Among other aspects, they touch on relative TSR, the impact of proxy advisors, and how shifts in LTI design are affecting broader equity strategi...

In the first episode of season 2 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted , co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah speak with Matt Turner, Pearl Meyer's President of Executive Compensation, about the evolving purview of the compensation committee, and the implications of expanding governance responsibilities for the committee.

It's rare to see non-financial metrics in a long-term executive incentive plan. Is this due to a strongly held view or because it's tough to explain? In our closing episode of Season 1, Aalap and Mark explore the difficulty—and possible benefit—of this compensation plan design.

An executive incentive program based solely on financial metrics certainly aligns with the shareholder experience. When the goal is long-term value creation, does it ever make sense to introduce a non-financial metric? In this episode, Mark and Aalap say yes, sometimes.

How do you know if an executive incentive plan is delivering on the sought-after results? In this episode, Mark and Aalap dissect relative metrics (including some pitfalls with rTSR) and how correlation analysis can help pinpoint whether or not the program is aligned with the long-term value creation.

In the inaugural episode of Pearl Meyer Unscripted , managing directors Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah discuss client concerns about recently approved short- and long-term incentive plans in the context of current market volatility and a wide variety of unknowns.

There aren't many compensation committee members who would argue the fact that it's increasingly difficult to balance a true, three-year performance period with accurately targeted goals. Mark and Aalap weigh the pros and cons of various creative ideas that can take the sting out of current long-term incentive plan design challenges.

In our second episode of Pearl Meyer Unscripted , Mark and Aalap share ideas for smoothing out potential tension between the board and management around rigor of the annual incentive plan targets. They talk about various sensitivity tools and analyses that can help everyone get on the same page and turn their focus to attainment.