Our goal for this year’s Summit was to bring as many of our clients as possible to a single location for world-class education and unparalleled networking with leaders in the industry. Thanks to our great lineup of speakers and participants, I’m proud to say that it was a unanimous success. We had nearly 350 Equilar clients in attendance in Washington, and over 90% of them rated the event a 4 or 5 out of 5 on their feedback forms. In particular, attendees cited the unsurpassed quality of our speakers (nearly 60% gave us a 5) as the favorite part of the event. Thanks again to our all-star lineup of speakers for their valuable insights and to the participants for their candid questions.
The “Lessons Learned” panel at the Summit. From left: George Paulin (CEO, Frederic W. Cook), Ira Kay (Managing Partner, Pay Governance LLC), Doug Friske (Managing Principal, Towers Watson), Peter Chingos (Senior Partner, Compensation Advisory Partners), and Charlie Tharp (Executive Vice President for Policy, Center on Executive Compensation).
Another great addition to the Summit this year was the industry roundtables that we hosted on Day Two. Candidly, given that this was the first time that we hosted the roundtables, we were not sure how they were going to turn out. Thankfully, our clients felt that the networking and peer discussions were invaluable. We’re certainly looking to build on the success of our roundtables for next year, in the hopes of further uniting our unique community of clients.
I’d also like to thank our terrific sponsors, without whom this Summit would not have been possible. Our Diamond sponsor, E*TRADE, helped us host a great event on the first night. The Capitol Steps gave a hilarious and entertaining performance that certainly pushed the edge of the envelope for several of us in the room. (As an aside, though I would not consider myself a political junkie, I would highly recommend Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Amazing detail and insight on the 2008 election.)
But most of all, I’d like to thank President Obama, who took time out of his busy schedule to join us at the Hilton.
Just kidding. While the Commander-in-Chief was at the Washington Hilton on the second day, he unfortunately wasn’t there for our event. A nurses’ association happened to be hosting a conference at the same time. Despite the newspaper headlines, I guess health-care reform still trumps exec comp!
As always, we strive to continue to improve everything we do, and we welcome your feedback on the Summit. Please e-mail us at summit2010@equilar.com to tell us what you liked and what you’d like to see changed for next year. If you didn’t get to attend the Summit and want to make sure that you don’t miss next year’s, please feel free to drop us a line as well. We’ll announce the date and location soon, so stay tuned! Thanks again for your support of Equilar and your help in making this year’s Summit a huge success.
If you’re thinking about attending Equilar’s upcoming Executive Compensation Summit, to be held June 15-16 in Washington, D.C., you’ll be excited to hear our latest news: we’ve just announced a “power lunch” for all conference attendees, with a panel featuring Robert Jackson, Roel Campos, and Jeffrey Cunningham. Rob is a professor at Columbia Law who has spent the past two years as the right-hand man of TARP “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg, Roel is the former commissioner of the SEC and a partner at Cooley Kronish Godward, and Jeff is the Chairman and CEO of Directorship magazine. These three gentlemen should provide unique insights into the regulatory process, the media’s relationship with exec comp issues, and the future of compensation practices. It’s a unique opportunity that’s not to be missed.
We’re proud to add this trio to our cohort of over 25 top speakers, including representatives of the leading pay advisors and executives from top companies like Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, Intel, and Prudential. If you’ve been putting off your registration for the Summit, now is the time: our Spring Break discount of $200 off will end tomorrow, Wednesday, April 14. Take a look at the Summit agenda and sign up today!
I’m proud to announce that this March marked the tenth anniversary of Equilar’s founding. We’ve been fortunate enough to grow our business despite tumultuous times. We survived a tough couple of years at the beginning caused by the burst of the dot-com bubble. And despite the impact of the credit-induced Great Recession, 2009 was a record year for us. I’m very grateful to the friends and family who believed in our business from the beginning and to the many loyal clients (now over 800!) who have supported us throughout the years.
Equilar’s success wouldn’t be possible without our amazing, focused, and committed employees, who analyze thousands of proxies, build great products that deliver this information in a user-friendly, timely manner, and get the word out about what we do and how it can make a difference for our clients. To thank them for their hard work, we took everyone out for a fun afternoon of go-karting.
Again, please accept my thanks for your support of Equilar. We expect the next decade to be even greater than the last one!
Sharing good news about Equilar’s success is always a fine line: I want to draw attention to the great work we’re doing here, without tooting my own horn too hard. So I’m proud, but also thankful, to announce that Equilar had an amazing 2009, with 20% revenue growth and over 800 corporate subscribers– growth we’re particularly thrilled to have experienced amidst a major recession. Our research has appeared in nearly every major U.S. newspaper and business magazine over the past year, including the New York Times Top 200 pay study (look for a new edition this April). We were also cited in the proxy filings of Amgen, Home Depot, Staples, and numerous other companies.
None of this would have been possible without the hard work of a dedicated team, spanning our research, sales, products, marketing, and technology departments. Equilar’s “work hard, play hard” culture has never been more apparent than in the driven natures and friendly spirits of our employees. (If you’re interested in working with us, we have some great openings for recent grads and seasoned professionals in our Redwood Shores, CA office.)
We’re not resting on our laurels, though. 2010 is going to be our biggest year yet, with more reports for our subscribers, exciting new products, the debut of our magazine, C-Suite Insight, and a bigger, better Executive Compensation Summit in June.
We’re committed to serving our customers’ needs. If there’s something we can do to make your Equilar experience better, we want to hear about it. And if you haven’t joined us yet, contact us to find out about our fast, easy, intelligent solutions to your most pressing executive compensation questions.
As we adjust to the new SEC disclosure regulations and reflect back on the storms that lead up to the current economic climate, we are left to wonder – what is in the forecast for 2010? While market uncertainties make it tough to predict what will happen next in the world of executive compensation, one thing is for sure: All companies are exploring new ideas and practices to help them comply with stricter regulations, avoid excessive risk taking, and keep their shareholders happy.
Our newly published report, 2010 Executive Compensation Outlook, provides a follow-up to the companies studied in our 2009 Executive Compensation Outlook Report and explores trends and practices likely to affect us this year.
Some of the things we encountered:
Salary reinstatements are on the rise. Of the 40 executive salary reductions we studied at the end of 2008, nearly a quarter have been reinstated.
Incentive compensation is changing. Performance awards are being amended to provide longer performance periods, some firms have put relative measures in place, and others have adjusted threshold, target, and maximum level.
Companies are getting creative with equity compensation. Performance-based awards are being amended to become time-based, option terms are being extended to give stocks a chance to rise, and some companies are adding more restricted shares and stock units to their equity mix.
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