In my Board of Directors and Corporate Governance class, taught by adjunct professor Jack Harsh, we have had a number of conversations about executive compensation and some of our guest speakers have even weighed in on the subject. Our most recent guest speaker, Bob Sledd (former CEO of Performance Food Groups), believes that most CEOs are fairly compensated and do not make anywhere near the amount of money that news outlets claim (well, those on Wall Street do). Executive compensation is clearly a hot topic given the government’s involvement with bailing out a number of large firms as well as the disparity we hear between Company X making huge layoffs this year yet still giving top executives hefty bonuses or other forms of compensation. Professor Harsh believes that this year will be a record year for compensation even if we (the general public) don’t agree with the reasons why. Professor Harsh encouraged us to not think about executive pay in an absolute value but rather focusing on that compensation is tied to the company’s strategic goals and timeframe for meeting such goals, not for (legally) manipulating their books so that their stock price goes up without actually accomplishing any exemplary results.
In light of the media focus on the subject, I found two interesting articles on CNN Money that I encourage you to check out - the 5 Most Overpaid CEOs and the Ten Highest Paid Executives. Do they really deserve what they’re getting?
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