The IGOPP announced today the release of their most recent policy paper on executive compensation, entitled “Pay for Value: Cutting the Gordian Knot of Executive Compensation”.

At a time when the political and financial elite gathered at Davos frets about the failures of capitalism and the need for its reform, Professors Yvan Allaire and Mihaela Firsirotu, in a new book titled “A Capitalism of Owners “, propose an action plan to change fundamentally the way capitalism has come to work. We […]

E. Hunter Harrison retired as CEO of the Canadian National Railways Corporation on December 31st 2009. His was a good, lucrative run at CN. On his leaving CN, he held $ 77 million in unexercised options with a further $18 million in restricted shares to vest in the future. He is receiving a pension of […]

In a profanity-laden interview with Terence Corcoran of the National Post (January 6th 2011), Professor Michael Jensen rejects the accusation in Roger Martin’s latest book that he is the spiritual father of the shareholder-value maximization movement. True enough; in the seminal Jensen-Meckling article of 1976 that Martin singles out as the source of this abomination, […]

Stock options now a smaller part of CEO compensation. In an interview with Terence Corcoran of the Financial Post (Jan. 6), Prof. Michael Jensen rejects the accusation in Roger Martin’s latest book that he is the spiritual father of the shareholder-value maximization movement. True enough. In the seminal Jensen-Meckling article of 1976 that Martin singles […]

Executive compensation has become a nasty bone of contention in most developed societies. Whatever argument is invoked to explain and justify the large amounts paid to executives, the very public disparity  of income within a given society and within the same organization turns the issue into, at best, a rallying cry for advocates of a […]

This report examines whether Say on Pay is a useful tool to ensure that executive compensation plans are designed in a way that is consistent with the firm’s best interests. It addresses five related questions: What is Say on Pay? What does Say on Pay imply about governance? What means are available to provide shareholders […]

At a time when several Canadian financial institutions are about to hold a non-binding shareholder vote on executive compensation, the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGPPO) states in a position paper made public  that this process should not be imposed on all publicly traded companies. “The arguments pros and cons a non-binding […]

“History never repeats itself. Mankind always does.” – Voltaire How did this unparalleled financial crisis come about? How can it be explained in simple terms? How can we learn from it and avoid making the same mistakes in future? The problem – the direct cause of the crisis – can be traced to a series […]