First American’s CEO Exit Underscores Need for Succession Readiness—Fortune

In the wake of First American Financial’s termination of CEO Kenneth DeGiorgio following his arrest for assault, Fortune explored the broader governance and compensation implications of the case. The article highlights how boards navigate reputational risk, contractual obligations, and leadership transitions in unexpected scenarios.

Farient Advisors’ Chief Data Officer Eric Hoffmann provided expert insight into the termination package, noting that “cash severance payments are typically a multiple of salary and a multiple of bonus and two times is relatively common.”

He explained that in addition to DeGiorgio’s 2x severance, the executive received accelerated vesting of restricted stock units under his newly negotiated agreement. Hoffman also clarified updates in the revised proxy statement, which reflected a total payout of $18.6 million—up from the originally reported $16.4 million.

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About Eric Hoffmann

Chief Data Officer

Louisville, Kentucky
(626) 800-3120
eric.hoffmann@farient.com

Eric leads Farient’s data strategy, operational capabilities, partnerships, research, and client insights. With more than 20 years of human resource technology and data analytics experience, Eric’s work at Farient focuses on creating and delivering information and decision support to boards of directors, human resource professionals, and investors. Combining data analytics and visualization, Eric and his team create compelling narratives that lead to business insight and defensible decisions for his clients.

Eric has extensive experience in executive compensation and performance. From March 2005 to January 2011, he was the Technology Solutions Delivery Leader and a partner at Mercer. In support of Mercer’s compensation and benefits data and analytics business, Eric and his global, cross-disciplinary team delivered leading-edge SaaS-based client-facing and operationally driven data analytics solutions. Before that, Eric was a principal at Mercer, where he led a software development team. Eric holds a BS in computer science and mathematics from Purdue University and an MS in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

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