Considerations for Executive Compensation During a Crisis | Farient Briefings
June 10, 2025
Considerations for Executive
Compensation During a Crisis
Pay is never easy. In the unpredictable landscape of corporate governance, crises can strike without warning, leaving boards and management scrambling to make critical decisions.
Amidst the chaos, one of the most challenging tasks is determining executive compensation. How do today’s boards reward, motivate, and retain top executives while balancing the needs of the company, shareholders, and other stakeholders?
In this story, Farient’s Trey Poore delves into the complexities of executive pay during turbulent times, the pitfalls of hasty decisions, and offers strategic approaches to enhance crisis response readiness.
Adoption of Hybrid LTIPs on the Rise in UK
In recent years, a growing shift among companies, shareholders, and proxy advisors in the UK toward more flexible and tailored approaches to executive remuneration has occurred.
One of the emerging themes coming out of this AGM season is the increased consideration and adoption of hybrid incentive plans.
In the News
How Much Should Elon Musk Get Paid?—The Wall Street Journal
A newly published Wall Street Journal story explores the options open to the Tesla board as it considers how the world’s richest man should be compensated. Farient Advisors Founder and CEO Robin A. Ferracone offers a clear perspective:
“You’re paying the person to do an executive job, and you have to separate that from what kind of equity stake they have. If he wants a bigger stake in the company, go buy it.”
Ferracone also highlights investor-friendly alternatives such as matching share purchases through a co-investment structure, while reinforcing that compensation committees more broadly should apply the same rigorous process to awarding founder-CEOs as they do for any other executive.
Where to Find Us
NACD Leading Minds of Governance
Boston, MA
September 17, 2025
Directors & Boards
Compensation and Talent
Virtual
September 25, 2025
NACD Directors Summit 2025
National Harbor, Maryland
October 12-15, 2025
For more information, please email us at info@farient.com.
Understanding Climate Incentives
Exclusive: Around the globe, the heat is on to combat climate change while some political regimes denounce the veracity between greenhouse gas emissions and a warming planet. Nevertheless, large corporations are reporting Scope 1, Scope 2, and, increasingly, Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and linking reductions to executive compensation, according to Farient Advisors’ newly published 2025 Global Trends in Stakeholder Incentives: Climate Strategies and Incentives for Corporate Sustainability.
Learn more about how the world’s largest companies are setting and achieving climate goals by linking climate measures to executive incentives by sector and geography.
About Farient Advisors
Farient Advisors LLC is an independent premier executive compensation, performance, and corporate governance consultancy. Farient provides a full array of services, linking business strategy to compensation through a tailored, analytically rigorous, and collaborative approach. Farient has locations in Los Angeles, New York, and London and works with clients globally through its partnership in the Global Governance and Executive Compensation (GECN) Group. Farient is a certified diverse company and is recognized by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.
© 2025 Farient Advisors LLC. | Privacy Policy | Site by: Treacle Media