The Advisors' Blog

– Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com

Sure, people in the US are angry about excessive executive pay. And even though there are more failed say-on-pay votes already this year compared to all of last year, it still isn’t a wave of failures as might be expected. In comparison, it has been quite a show in the UK this year, with CEOs resigning after an adverse say-on-pay vote. I can’t imagine that happening in the States.

The latest in the United Kingdom is the WPP saga. Last week, WPP’s CEO – Sir Martin Sorrell – wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times defending his pay and calling the controversy over his compensation “deeply disturbing.” As could be expected, WPP shareholders are now even more up in arms.

Although some write that Sir Sorrell was brave to speak out, it seems that B-School Lesson # 1 would be “do not write op-ed pieces defending your pay.” WPP’s shareholder’s meeting is on Wednesday and it should be a hoot…