The 2019 Executive Compensation Conference

A “must” attend event. We will address important developments and how the executive compensation environment continues to change due to emerging best practices, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (162m), compensation design trends, impact of the Pay Ratio disclosure, reducing pay design complexity, pay disparity and more. 

This conference will be very interactive. We will address new and emerging executive compensation trends during the 2019 Proxy season. These important developments will be discussed and how Compensation Committee members, CHROs and Total Rewards Professionals are addressing them and preparing for 2020. The executive compensation environment continues to evolve and the benchmarked best practices continue to change. We will discuss how companies are implementing SEC rules (e.g. Pay Ratio), improved incentive designs to ensure greater pay-for-performance alignment and much better communications as our investors and other stakeholders are demanding enhanced disclosures. There is a major issue of public trust of compensation outcomes. Other topics will include selecting performance metrics for short, medium and long-term and global issues in executive compensation, and Board of Directors compensation issues.

Who Should Attend:

• SVP, VP and Directors of: Executive Compensation, Total Rewards, Compensation and Benefits
• CHROs
• Legal Executives
• General Counsel
• Corporate Secretaries
• Senior Communications Executives
• Member of Board Compensation Committees

 Earn Recertification Credits

Get Involved!

For marketing partnerships, contact melissa.mianulli@conferenceboard.org.
For sponsorship opportunities, contact michael.felden@conferenceboard.org.
For speaker inquiries, contact greg.lau@conferenceboard.org. 

Day One | Thursday, October 24, 2019

8:00 am – 8:50 am
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:50 am – 9:00 am
Welcome and Introduction

Greg Lau, Conference Program Director, The Conference Board

9:00 am – 9:45 am

Current State of Executive Compensation and Why Pay Continues to Matter

Broad overview of the current U.S. environment on executive compensation and the political, regulatory and disclosure overlay, 2019 SOP votes, pay levels, impact of tariffs on ST/LT metrics, EVA, practices and marketplace positioning, CEO pay, SEC and legislative developments will be addressed.

Mike Marino, Managing Director, FW Cook

Rachel Gibbons, Senior Consultant, FW Cook

9:45 am – 10:30 am

Executive Compensation, Activism and SOP Vote

This session will review how activism can impact executive compensation and benefits and how ISS and Glass Lewis may suddenly recommend against SOP.

William P. Fiske, U.S. Head of M&A and Contested Situations, Georgeson LLC 

Sandra Pace, Partner, Pay Governance, LLC

10:30 am – 10:45 am
Networking Refreshment Break

10:45 am – 11:30 am

Incentive Design and Goal Setting Through Transformational M&A

This session will examine novel approaches to short- and long-term incentive design in the face of transformational M&A. We’ll use Assurant’s 2018 acquisition of The Warranty Group as a case study to highlight challenges, solutions developed, and lessons learned when selecting metrics and establishing goals during a period of transformation.

Mark Emanuel, Managing Director, Semler Brossy

Millie Morales, Senior Vice President, Global Compensation and Benefits, Assurant

11:30 am – 12:30 pm

How The Legal Landscape Is Impacting Executive Compensation

We will survey the most common sources of litigation over executive compensation and discuss strategies for companies and their counsel to reduce the risk and stress the importance of process. We will also look at assessing certain litigation risks for directors and Compensation Committee members. What is next for the plaintiffs’ bar?

Douglas Chia, Fellow, Rutgers Center for Corporate Law & Governance

Arthur Kohn, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Luncheon

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm

Global Compensation Challenges

A discussion about some of the existing practical executive compensation challenges across the globe.  What are the differences in U.S. and UK-EU compensation structures, including short and long-term target setting and metrics. Possible effect of Brexit on incentives and compensation and governance trends in the UK-EU that may come over to the U.S.  Will also address differences in deferred compensation instruments.

Vismay Gada, Global Head of Financial Services & Customer Success, beqom

Philip Halliday, Senior Executive Compensation Consultant, EBG Advisors

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

CEO and Executive Compensation Practices: 2019 Edition

The session will present the key findings from the new edition of The Conference Board’s CEO and Executive Compensation Practices research, a review of five years of data on compensation disclosure across the Russell 3000 and the S&P 500. The presentation will illustrate trends in executive pay, covering pay movements and composition, industry, size and market index effects. Copies of the report will be sent to attendees.

Paul Hodgson, Senior Adviser, ESGauge

Lisa Hunter, Founder, Newport Consulting Group, Inc.; Program Director, Compensation Councils, The Conference Board

James Reda, Managing Director and Practice Leader, Executive Compensation, Gallagher HRCC

3:00 pm – 3:15 pm
Networking Refreshment Break

3:15 pm – 4:00 pm

Compensation Committee – What is Next in Governance?

How is the role of the Committee evolving? Are Committees broadening their charter – discussing ESG and Human Capital metrics, reviewing top talent, succession and development, using discretion, diversity, activists and more. How can the Committee counter short-termism and foster longer range thinking through compensation design. What defines a successful Committee?

Margaret Engel, Founding Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners

Lyndon Park, Managing Director, Head of Governance Advisory Solutions, ICR

Paul Washington, Executive Director, Environmental, Social and Governance Center, The Conference Board

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

2019 Proxy Disclosures – The Best, Most Effective and Some Surprises

Here we’ll explore the ongoing evolution of proxy summaries (format and content), new and innovative CD&A disclosures, pay ratio trends, Say-on-Pay voting results, and various shareholder proposals on executive compensation-related matters.

Mark Borges, Principal, Compensia

Amy Wood, Partner, Chair Compensation & Benefits Practice Group, Cooley LLP

5:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Total Rewards Today and Planning for 2020 and Beyond

This session will focus on the roles and responsibilities and hot topics for Global Total Rewards.  We will discuss what the key interactions are with the CEO, Compensation Committee, Consultants, CHRO and CFO.  What have been the most interesting and toughest  challenges in 2019? (Brexit, ISS, Pay Ratio, UK gender pay gap law,  investor outreach, new performance designs, BRT purpose, retention….).  What are you working on now for 2020 and beyond? How are benefits adapting to a changing world?  How do you develop your staff?  What skills are essential? How does the incentive program align with the company’s desired culture and behaviors? What is your involvement in M&A?  What are best practices in dealing with shareholder, special interest groups and Congressional inquiries on pay and much more? 

Steve Pennacchio, Senior Vice President, Total Rewards, Pfizer

5:35 pm – 6:30 pm
Networking Reception

Day Two | Friday, October 25, 2019

8:30 am – 9:15 am

Talking to Your Compensation Committee About Gender Pay Equity

Will examine how gender pay is being discussed at compensation committee meetings, key disparity issues that should be addressed and how actions may also impact the pay gap ratio.

Kelly Malafis, Founding Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners

Takis Makridis, President and CEO, Equity Methods

Martha N. Steinman, Partner, Hogan Lovells US LLP

9:15 am – 10:00 am

Human Capital Management – Keeping Your Committee Informed

Today’s workforce is changing. Employee expectations, recent scandals, and new institutional investor guidance are increasing scrutiny on an organization’s culture and approach to human capital management.  How an organization recruits, trains, optimizes, and retains a workforce can have a positive impact on an organization’s long-term success and Boards are interested in understanding and overseeing a company’s HCM strategy. This session will cover how companies have responded to the evolving expectations and provide a few practical examples on how these topics can be appropriately incorporated into a Compensation Committee’s agenda.

Kathryn Neel, Managing Director, Semler Brossy Consulting Group, LLC

Michelle Tan, Principal, Hugessen Consulting

10:00 am – 10:15 am
Networking Refreshment Break

10:15 am – 11:00 am

Trends and New Complexities in Designing Director Compensation

Session will review trends in Director Compensation and how ISS’ new excessive pay policies can be disruptive.

Patrick Haggerty, Partner, Pay Governance LLC

David Price, Director, Compensation-HR, CIT Group Inc.

11:00 am – 11:45 am

Trends in Long-Term Incentives

In this session we’ll discuss the evolution of long-term incentive design, including relationship of LTI grants to economic climate, performance stock awards and options, use of non-GAAP measures, use of relative TSR as a metric, stock plan proposals, and more.

Dana Etra, Principal & Head of the Boston Office, FW Cook

Deb Mazrimas, Senior Vice President, HR Total Rewards, Technology and Operations, Boston Private

11:45 am – 12:15 pm

Aligning Pay and Performance

The presentation will show how to measure the 3 key dimensions of executive pay: incentive strength, alignment and the pay premium at industry average performance. It will present data on changes in top 5 pay leverage and alignment 1992-2018. And it will present a performance share plan that provides perfect alignment of relative pay and relative performance and show how it can be used to improve more conventional plan designs.

Stephen F. O’Byrne, President, Shareholder Value Advisors Inc.

12:15 – 12:45 pm

Ask The Experts and Closing Remarks

Your opportunity to ask a panel of experts questions on any issues not addressed by our speakers or that you would like more clarity on.

Lisa Hunter, Program Director, Compensation Councils, The Conference Board