The Delves Group Previews Shift in Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance in Crain’s Chicago Business Article
CHICAGO, May 25, 2010 – Don Delves, president of The Delves Group, provided a future-looking perspective in the current debate on executive compensation and corporate governance in a Crain’s Chicago Business article this week. The Delves Group is a Chicago-based executive compensation and corporate governance firm that serves boards, compensation committees, and management.
Executive compensation has drawn much recent public ire, especially in the financial sector. The compensation provisions in the Senate and House versions of financial reform, which are headed for reconciliation, should keep executive compensation and corporate governance practices in the public eye.
“In a year when their companies shed employees, struggled to make sales and watched helplessly as stock prices plummeted, many executives earned less — but the pay cuts weren’t deep enough to appease critics, who still say CEO pay is out of line with performance,” wrote Crain’s reporter Samantha Stainburn in “Recession strips shine from CEOs’ reputations, but their salaries remain golden.”
Delves provided commentary and analysis on the situation but looked toward future shifts in board structure that should lead to better alignment of executive compensation and corporate performance. As the Crain’s article quoted Delves, “There is a generational shift happening in the boardrooms right now. . . . You’re seeing baby boomers not just entering the boardrooms but taking them over. It’s a more diverse and open-minded group, and they’re willing to challenge the old-guard status quo.”
In the same way, The Delves Group brings a corporate governance perspective to the current executive compensation debate. The firm is working with board and compensation-committee clients to develop executive compensation principles that bring greater clarity and accountability to executive pay.
“Executive compensation principles provide a common language for a more meaningful dialogue with shareholders and employees,” Delves said. “Principles-based executive compensation is the cutting edge of corporate governance because it provides a solid conceptual framework for making tough decisions, designing incentives, and creating optimal alignment.”
For the complete Crain’s article and Don Delves’ executive compensation analysis, see “Recession strips shine from CEOs’ reputations, but their salaries remain golden” at http://bit.ly/9rQTPJ
This is the second time in two weeks that The Delves Group provided media commentary and analysis on executive pay. On May 18, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article, “Top pay for top jobs: CEOs of Chicago area firms had an up-and-down year as recession reigned,” for which The Delves Group provided executive compensation survey data and analysis.
For the complete Sun-Times article and The Delves Group’s CEO pay statistics, see “Top pay for top jobs: CEOs of Chicago area firms had an up-and-down year as recession reigned” at http://bit.ly/drhSm4
