The Advisors' Blog

– Broc Romanek

I’m pretty excited that Steven Clifford has agreed to serve as the keynote for our upcoming “Proxy Disclosure Conference.” Steven is a former CEO who recently penned the book: “The CEO Pay Machine: How it Trashes America & How to Stop it.” Here’s a brief excerpt from the book:

After three negotiating sessions, Brad and I reached an agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding that we sent to our lawyers. The lawyers then did what they always do. “What happens if it rains frogs?” they asked. After three drafts, they reached an agreement on this point, and then turned to the question of whether a rain of tadpoles is the same as a rain of frogs. Once they had billed enough hours to satisfy their professional standards for minimum care, we had an agreement.

Our new CEO pay plan worked very well. Long-term value creation became the economic goal of both Brad and the shareholders. He is happier and more focused, and has remarked that the new system influenced his behavior and decision-making.* The board is happy. The shareholders are happy. Happiest of all is the comp committee. They don’t have to revisit the issues of CEO compensation or retain compensation consultants or deal with lawyers for seven years.

And here’s a few articles about the book:

– Atlantic Magazine’s “How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs”
– MarketWatch’s “This former CEO wants a luxury tax on CEO pay”
– NY Post’s “Why are CEOs getting paid tons of money for nothing?”
– Seattle Times’s “Local ex-CEO issues call to arms against ‘outrageous’ CEO pay”

Reduced Rates – Act by August 10th: Time to act on the registration information for our popular conferences – “Pay Ratio & Proxy Disclosure Conference” & “Say-on-Pay Workshop: 15th Annual Executive Compensation Conference” – to be held September 25-26 in San Diego and via Live Nationwide Video Webcast. Here are the agendas – nearly 20 panels over two days. So register by August 10th to take advantage of the discount.