December 9, 2008

Shareholders Ponder North Dakota Law

Source: The Wall Street Journal

A new front in the battle over corporate governance is emerging in an unlikely place: North Dakota. Only two publicly traded companies are incorporated in North Dakota. But last year lawmakers there -- prodded by out-of-state...

December 8, 2008

Culture Shock for IPOs: Pay Disclosures

Source: The Wall Street Journal

When investors turn to the executive-compensation section of U.S. regulatory filings, they salivate over the salaries and bonuses that top management are making. When executives and their attorneys think about the same section,...

December 5, 2008

Big Bonuses for CEOs? Not So Fast

Source: Business Week

After shareholders' dismal 2008, corporate boards are being watched closely while they decide whether to dole out traditionally huge bonuses

December 5, 2008

Since Enron, Little Has Changed

Source: The Wall Street Journal

As Warren Buffett has said, "Executive compensation is the acid test of corporate governance." Financial incentives determine what objectives an organization pursues, and they drive the way managers conduct a business.

December 5, 2008

The Conference Board Governance Center Issues Recommendations To Corporate Boards on Overseeing Risk Management and Executive Compensation -- Suggests Better Risk Oversight and Stronger Links Between Pay and Performance

Source: The Conference Board Governance Center

The Conference Board Governance Center issued today the first in its new series of reports on the oversight role of the board of directors in the current economic crisis.

December 4, 2008

Citigroup top execs ready to forego bonuses: report

Source: Reuters

Citigroup Inc's top executives and Robert Rubin, a director and senior counselor at the firm, are ready to forgo their bonuses this year as the bank reels from the effects of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported.

December 4, 2008

COUNCIL OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS ISSUES STATEMENT ON EXECUTIVE PAY

Source: The Council of Institutional Investors (CII)

Washington, DC--The global financial crisis has rightly put executive compensation under a microscope. Poorly structured pay packages encouraged the get-rich-quick mentality and overly risky behavior that helped fuel the...

December 3, 2008

Compensation Committees Adjusting CEO Pay Programs Prior to Financial Crisis, Watson Wyatt Survey Finds

Source: CNN Money

Compensation committees at U.S. companies had been making significant adjustments to how they compensate their chief executives even prior to the recent financial crisis, according to an annual study by Watson Wyatt, a leading...

December 3, 2008

General Motors and Ford CEOs putting their salary on the line

Source: Los Angeles Times

Working for a buck a year would amount to a multimillion-dollar pay cut for the chief executives of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

GM's Rick Wagoner and Ford boss Alan Mulally both pledged Tuesday to work for $1 a...

December 1, 2008

UAW wants limits on carmakers' executive pay

Source: Reuters

The Big Three U.S. automakers should tell Congress they will limit corporate pay, bonuses and severance packages in return for government loans, the president of the United Auto Workers union said on Sunday.