Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

S&P 500 CEO Compensation Increase Trends

CEO pay continues to be a widely debated topic in the media, in the boardroom, and among investors and proxy advisors. As the U.S. was in the heart of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, CEO total direct compensation (TDC; base salary + actual bonus paid + value of long-term incentives [LTI]) dropped for 2 consecutive years. […]

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P&G Proxy Fight: Trian Pushes to Reevaluate Executives’ Incentive Compensation Goals

A conclusion to the proxy fight between Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Trian Partners (Trian) is approaching, as shareholders are scheduled to vote their shares at the company’s annual meeting on October 10—if the two sides don’t reach a resolution before then. Earlier in September, Trian published a comprehensive presentation that outlined its rationale for […]

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2017 Proxy Season Review: Compensation

In early September, ISS published its annual post-season report on compensation vote results and practices, which revealed a continuation of many trends identified last year. Shareholder support for management say-on-pay remains stronger than ever, while failures are exceedingly rare; average support for equity plan proposals was consistent with prior years. While CEO pay at larger […]

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Weekly Roundup: September 29–October 5, 2017

Long-Term Pay-For-Performance Alignment Posted by Aubrey E. Bout and Blaine Martin, Pay Governance LLC, on Friday, September 29, 2017 Tags: Boards of Directors, Compensation committees, Executive Compensation, Incentives, Institutional Investors, Management, Proxy advisors, Say on pay, Shareholder value, TSR Activism and Board Diversity Posted by David A. Katz & Laura A. McIntosh, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Friday, September 29, 2017 Tags: Accountability, Asset management, BlackRock, Board composition, Board performance, Boards of […]

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The Equifax Hack, SEC Data Breach, and Issuer Disclosure Obligations

The recent Equifax data breach focuses attention on the necessity of adequate disclosure by public companies of material cybersecurity-related events. Both SEC Chair Jay Clayton and Stephanie Avakian, the Co-Director of the Division of Enforcement, have made clear that they would “like to see better disclosure around [cybersecurity]” and could “absolutely” bring a cybersecurity disclosure […]

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The Inner Workings of the Board: Evidence from Emerging Markets

The board of directors forms an integral part of a firm’s governance mechanisms. Yet, how boards perform their dual role of supervisor and advisor of corporate management is difficult to observe from outside of the company. To open this black box, we survey 130 non-executive directors in various emerging markets to obtain detailed information about […]

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Lessons from the ISS Report on the Trian/P&G Proxy Contest

TSR comparison to peer group and S&P 500 continues to be a key factor in ISS evaluation. CAGR comparison to peer group continues as a key factor. Disparaging a well-known, successful activist with a history of long-term investment is a negative factor. Limited director experience in the company’s industry is a negative factor. Generally, and […]

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CEO and Executive Compensation Practices: 2017 Edition

The Conference Board, in collaboration with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and MylogIQ, recently released CEO and Executive Compensation Practices: 2017 Edition, which documents trends and developments on senior management compensation at companies issuing equity securities registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and, as of May 2017, included in the Russell 3000 Index. […]

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The Long-Term Consequences of Short-Term Incentives

In our paper, The Long-Term Consequences of Short-Term Incentives, which was recently made available on SSRN, we show that short-term stock price concerns induce CEOs to take value-reducing actions. We measure short-term concerns by the amount of a CEO’s equity that is scheduled to vest in a given quarter. Vesting equity is positively associated with […]

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Improving SEC Regulations with Investor Ordering

In my forthcoming article, The Case for Investor Ordering, I show that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations regarding corporate arrangements could be substantially improved if investors in corporations were able to choose whether those regulations apply to the corporation. For all but a few SEC regulations, such “investor ordering” would result in greater aggregate […]

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