Skip to content

Contact Us

Hi, How can we help? Fill out the form below, and we'll find the right person to get in touch.

    Results

    Service Type: Board Advisory Services

    Boardroom Comp Under COVID-19

    By Adam Swietek

    Pre-pandemic, board compensation practices had become static and homogeneous, even as the role of non-employee directors continued to expand—but that was before the pandemic launched a global economic crisis. CBM recently spoke with Jim Heim, a lead consultant with Meridian Compensation Partners, about how the market downturn, coupled with a clear desire on the part … Continued

    Compensation Committees: What to Do With 2020 Bonus Plans?

    By Adam Swietek

    At the onset of COVID-19, the popular advice for adjusting annual bonus pay was to “wait and see.”  Now several weeks in, some companies have begun restructuring bonuses. What actions are they taking? In this episode, Chris Havey, Partner & Lead Consultant with Meridian Compensation Partners, explains what he’s witnessing across corporate boardrooms right now: … Continued

    Director Compensation: Key Considerations During COVID-19

    By Adam Swietek

    Much like executive compensation, director pay will be met with institutional shareholder scrutiny in the months ahead. Investors and proxy advisors will scrutinize stock option awards, meeting fees, and whether board pay remains steady amid lay-offs and revenue declines. How should compensation committees navigate the challenges ahead? In this episode, Meridian Partner Bob Romanchek shares his … Continued

    Compensation Committee Challenges Amid COVID-19

    By Adam Swietek

    Most compensation committees finalized executive compensation plans, targets, and awards at the end of February, never expecting that COVID-19 would come next. Now boards are left to navigate a crisis environment with a very unpredictable future. In this episode of Inside America’s Boardrooms brought to you by Diligent, Meridian Partner Bob Romanchek speaks with TK … Continued

    COVID-19

    By Adam Swietek

    First and foremost, we hope you, your families and your colleagues are staying safe and healthy during this global health crisis. We appreciate normal business operations for many companies have been upended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only through the extraordinary efforts of employees, executives and boards will companies be able to manage through the … Continued

    Ready to Expand Your Clawback Policy? Not so Fast . . .

    By Adam Swietek

    More recently, many have stopped waiting. In public company boardrooms across the United States and abroad, there is a growing trend to expand company clawback policies beyond current regulatory requirements to include additional triggers for addressing employee misconduct through the use of their clawback rights. The focus on clawbacks is in large part a result … Continued

    Emerging Topics for Compensation Committees

    By Adam Swietek

    Executive compensation continues to be a major focus for institutional investors, yet the conversation is shifting. Compensation committee agendas have expanded to include topics like human capital management, company culture, ESG, and succession planning—all factors that are increasingly tied to CEO pay. In this episode, Virginia Rhodes, Partner with Meridian Compensation Partners, outlines several of … Continued

    Meridian Compensation Partners Celebrates 10th Anniversary

    By Adam Swietek

    On January 29th, Meridian Compensation Partners celebrated its tenth year as a leading executive compensation and corporate governance consulting firm in North America. Originally formed through a planned separation from its prior parent company, Meridian has expanded to over 85 employees in ten offices across North America, serving over 700 client companies. “Meridian has experienced … Continued

    Fostering Diversity in Board Pay Practices, Part Two

    By Adam Swietek

    In recent years, we have observed a remarkable level of homogenization of compensation practices for non-employee directors, even as what is expected from board members of public companies continues to evolve and—generally speaking—expand. In our client work, we have also noted a great deal of diversity in the role that the board is expected to … Continued

    Prepping Your Clawback Policy for Prime Time

    By Adam Swietek

    In the wake of corporate scandals and high-profile executive misconduct, compensation committees are reviewing the adequacy of their clawback and forfeiture policies. Board members want to be assured they have the tools needed if they find themselves in the headlines. The original clawback provision under Sarbanes-Oxley requires only the CEO and chief financial officer (CFO) … Continued

    Fostering Diversity in Board Pay Practices, Part One

    By Adam Swietek

    In recent years, we have observed a remarkable level of homogenization of compensation practices for non-employee directors, even as what is expected from board members of public companies continues to evolve and – generally speaking – expand. In our client work, we have also noted a great deal of diversity in the role that the board … Continued

    Compensation: Quiet Before the Storm?

    By Adam Swietek

    Compensation committees fared well in the 2019 proxy season, with the vast majority of Russell 3000 companies receiving support on their compensation programs from proxy advisors and shareholders. Yet, compensation programs continue to be a hot=button issue for stakeholders, with scrutiny of incentive pay metrics, goal rigor and policy transparency only intensifying. CBM recently spoke … Continued

    Use Compensation to Advance ESG Initiatives

    By Adam Swietek

    Directors should take a close look at how their companies can use compensation to advance an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy. A key to ESG oversight is the board’s examination of how compensation reflects and advances the company’s commitment to ESG goals. Investors and other stakeholders package a broad range of nonfinancial topics under … Continued

    2019 NACD Directorship 100 Released—The Annual List of the Most Influential Leaders in Boardrooms and in Corporate Governance

    By Adam Swietek

    The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the authority on boardroom practices representing more than 20,000 corporate board members, announced the honorees of the 2019 NACD Directorship 100™, an annual recognition of the leading corporate directors, corporate governance experts, policymakers, and influencers—leaders who significantly impact boardroom practices and performance. Meridian Compensation Partners is proud to … Continued

    How Should Boards Handle Involuntary CEO Retirement?

    By Adam Swietek

    In the first quarter of 2019 alone, more than 20 CEOs of large public companies announced their resignations. This uptick in C-level departures, which included several “involuntary retirements,” has compensation committees rethinking their approaches to officer-level severance pay. CBM recently spoke with Jonathan Szabo, lead consultant with Meridian Compensation Partners, about the conversations taking places … Continued

    2019 Helen Keller Achievement Awards and AFB Leadership Conference

    By Adam Swietek

    Meridian Compensation Partners was proud to sponsor the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) 2019 Leadership Conference held February 27 – March 1, 2019 in Arlington, VA, which covered the most pressing and relevant topics in the field of blindness and offered many opportunities to learn from the best and brightest minds in the field, … Continued

    How to Structure a Fair Executive Severance Agreement

    By Adam Swietek

    Few things cause shareholder or media outrage like a poorly structured executive severance agreement. When a CEO is terminated for poor performance and walks away with tens of millions in severance payments, it’s understandably a hard pill for company stakeholders to swallow. So how can boards avoid the fall-out around severance pay following an executive … Continued

    Executive Compensation in the Banking Industry

    By Adam Swietek

    Introduction This is Meridian’s fifth year tracking executive compensation practices at U.S. banks with assets above $10 billion. One theme remains consistent: programs continue to evolve. As we entered the 2018 year, companies invested much time and energy calculating the CEO pay ratio and preparing for its disclosure. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act eliminated … Continued

    Change-in-Control Benefits Can Incentivize Valuable Transactions, Protect Executives

    By Adam Swietek

    As the global economy remains strong, the pace of mergers and acquisitions will remain robust. As such, this is a good time for compensation committees to review change-in control (CIC) protections, including arrangements for severance, payments, and other special benefits that may be tied to displacement caused by mergers, hostile takeovers, or asset liquidation. While … Continued

    10 Keys to Great Compensation Committee Processes

    By Adam Swietek

    Executive compensation is complex and institutional investors and proxy advisors are increasingly aggressive and prescriptive in their views of executive compensation. This makes the role of a public company compensation committee complex and demanding. It is now more important than ever that the Committee process is effective and efficient. While great process does not guarantee … Continued

    Trends in Compensation: Committee Chairs & Lead Directors

    By Adam Swietek

    Compensation trends for lead directors and committee chairs have been interesting to follow in the years after Sarbanes-Oxley. Audit committee chairs were the first to be rewarded with higher pay; compensation committee chairs quickly followed suit as issues like Say on Pay came to the forefront. Yet, we still see a significant gap in pay … Continued

    2018 NACD Directorship 100 Released—the Annual List of the Most Influential Leaders in Boardrooms and in Corporate Governance

    By Adam Swietek

    The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the authority on boardroom practices representing more than 19,000 corporate board members, announced the 2018 NACD Directorship 100, an annual recognition of the leading corporate directors, corporate governance experts, policymakers, and influencers—leaders who significantly impact boardroom practices and performance. Meridian Compensation Partners is proud to report that both … Continued

    Long-Term Incentives: Compensation Committee Challenges

    By Adam Swietek

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZ-8hhjzuI[/embedyt] While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has brought some positives to the economy and certainly to select individuals, it has also brought some challenges to compensation committees as they try to figure out the correct balance for long-term incentives as part of the executive pay package. In this episode, Bob Romanchek, partner … Continued

    Hot-Button Board Compensation Issues

    By Adam Swietek

    Board compensation is always a hot topic for directors, with outside director compensation, lead director compensation, equity grants, the actual value of outside director pay and instances where companies have been sued for excessive outside director pay all front-burner topics. In the video above, Corporate Board Member recently sat down with Bob Romanchek, partner with Meridian Compensation Partners to talk … Continued

    Vesting Doesn’t Make Sense

    By Adam Swietek

    It usually perks up the ears of most corporate directors when you say “board compensation.” What’s happened recently in this area, particularly with equity grants? If you take a step back, outside director compensation has generally been in a pretty narrow range, value-wise. Looking back over the past five to seven years, it’s averaged about … Continued

    Avoiding Action on Director Pay

    By Adam Swietek

    A wave of lawsuits surrounding director compensation surfaced a couple of years ago, often alleging “excessive” pay for boards of directors on a variety of grounds. Because boards set their own pay levels, there are potential legal ramifications due to the “self-dealing” nature of director compensation. While lawsuits were settled and subsequent litigation has subsided, … Continued

    Addressing Compensation Issues In M&A

    By Adam Swietek

    Consolidation in the banking industry continues, with more than 200 bank mergers in 2017. Whether your institution is a potential buyer or seller, there are several compensation matters that will need to be addressed proactively. Change-in-Control (CIC) Protections CIC arrangements are particularly important in the banking industry due to the significant consolidation activity. CIC arrangements … Continued

    Five “Must Know” Aspects of the Compensation Committee Process

    By Adam Swietek

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8eqctYRuBM[/embedyt] Episode Summary Serving on the compensation committee has become a formidable challenge for most directors regardless of one’s background or career. Not only do compensation committees have to navigate a host of regulations and complex terminology, but over the last several years, shareholders have made a significant push towards transparency on how decisions … Continued

    Aligning Executive Pay With Company Performance

    By Adam Swietek

    From an executive compensation perspective, boards have an important duty to pay executives appropriately in line with the underlying performance of the company. The age-old issue of paying for performance seems more complex than ever—and more highly scrutinized! The design of short-term and long-term incentive programs needs to align with a company’s business strategy, and … Continued

    Executive Compensation in the Banking Industry

    By Adam Swietek

    Introduction Bank executive compensation practices continue to evolve, as does the regulatory influence on pay programs. Eight years after the Dodd Frank Act was signed, incentive compensation rules under Section 956 of the Act remain outstanding and seem unlikely to move forward under the current administration. The 2016 re-proposal of Section 956 regulations included prescriptive … Continued

    Six Years Running – Meridian Named a “Best Small Firm to Work For”

    By Adam Swietek

    For the sixth consecutive year, Meridian Compensation Partners was recognized in Consulting magazine’s recently released list of the “Best Small Firms to Work For” in 2017. The rankings are based on an online survey of over 10,000 consultants working for over 300 firms. Meridian ranked #14 on the magazine’s list. Consulting ranked participating firms and … Continued

    Lessons From Wells Fargo: Forfeiture and Clawback Policies

    By Adam Swietek

    As published in BankDirector.com By: Susan O’Donnell, Daniel Rodda| SEPTEMBER 13TH, 2017 Since 2010, banks have followed the Interagency Guidance on Sound Incentive Compensation Policies and reviewed their incentive plans to ensure they do not motivate inappropriate risk taking. However, incentive compensation in the retail business lines was often perceived as inconsequential and unlikely to … Continued

    Bob Romanchek on Inside America’s Boardrooms

    By Adam Swietek

    Serving on the compensation committee has become a formidable challenge for most directors regardless of one’s background or career. Not only do compensation committees have to navigate a host of regulations and complex terminology, but over the last several years, shareholders have made a significant push towards transparency on how decisions are made. Bob Romanchek, … Continued