Boards are continuing to adopt limits on the amount of compensation directors can earn in a year to protect against pay lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty. However, as more suits have progressed, some boards are implementing new limits that appear to be trending lower than those adopted previously, and a few boards have even…
The largest companies are gradually telling investors more about the pains they’re taking to protect their own information as well as customers’ privacy. Yet some industries are reporting those efforts better than others, according to new studies. A growing number of firms have fallen into step with last year’s guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission to…
In private conversations, many board members confide that they’re frustrated that they often run short of time in board meetings without adequately discussing strategy. They say those conversations get short shrift while they spend time making sure their managers are compliant with regulations and are managing risks. Indeed, three years ago, McKinsey, the management consulting firm,…
Chief executive officer pay levels have become part of a heated debate about how much public company leaders should be paid. Some packages have risen into the tens of millions of dollars each year. Shareholder groups have tried to block these large pay packages, but almost entirely without success. CEOs at big companies do work…
The merger of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. will be lucrative for the top executives of both companies. Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who will become president and CEO of the combined company, ViacomCBS, has signed a new contract ending four years after the deal closes. The contract lists salary, bonuses and other incentives worth about $31 million…
At a number of major American companies, compensation for board of director members has come under fire from shareholders in recent years. While director salaries remain a small fraction of CEO salaries (these are the highest paid CEOs at America’s largest companies), they have steadily risen over the past decade. In several recent instances, shareholders…
At a number of major American companies, compensation for board of director members has come under fire from shareholders in recent years. While director salaries remain a small fraction of CEO salaries (these are the highest paid CEOs at America’s largest companies), they have steadily risen over the past decade. In several recent instances, shareholders…
McDonald’s Corp. has been among the American companies that pay its workers the least. As some evidence of the ongoing pay problem at the fast-food chain, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has released the compensation of McDonald’s CEO Stephen Easterbrook. He was paid $15.9 million in 2018. That is 2,124 times the median employee salary of…
In recent weeks, several boards have grown in size to bring on new directors. According to SEC filings analyzer MyLogIQ, boards of such companies as Ball Corporation, Micron Technology and Oracle amended bylaws dictating board size in order to appoint new directors, while Cintas, Ford Motor Co. and General Mills expanded without needing formal votes on bylaws. All the new directors appointed to the preceding boards are women,…
One-time stock awards for CEOs in fiscal year 2018 are up, compared to the previous two years. According to data from analytics firm MyLogIQ, in 2018, the largest one-time stock awards in the S&P 500 went to Oracle’s co-CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, each of whom received special awards of nearly $104 million — almost seven times the next-largest…