The Philadelphia (Conference) Story, Part III (May 22, 2008)
The Philadelphia (Conference) Story, Part III
May 22, 2008 — First, about my video blogging problems: Apparently, I need to convert my .avn files to .wmv files. Bottom line: I might not have video clips of the conference until next week when I'm back in Scottsdale. But I do have a bunch.
Wednesday after the opening keynote, I attended an executive comp session featuring David Chun of Equilar and Pat McGurn of RiskMetrics Group (you might know them as ISS). It was an outstanding presentation in a lot of ways. Dave told me later they had done a handful of times before in other venues, so maybe that accounted for how well they came across together.
Chun was an excellent "just data" guy — working with his firm's data — while McGurn provided the audience with what I might call gentle reminders about how RiskMetrics prefers to see firms construct their executive compensation. Chun noted that median total compensation for CEOs at S&P 500 firms in 2007 was $8.8 million. That's a still big number to be sure, but only up 1.3% over the year prior. McGurn emphasized that his organization is looking closely at peer group comparisons, specifically the size (revenue) of peer organizations. He noted that 99% of companies set their compensation targets at median or above versus their peer group — which he said causes an automatic "ratcheting" up of pay levels.
Wednesday night was the social event for the conference — an absolutely fantastic evening at the somewhat new National Constitution Center. There's one museum room that has life-sized statues of the signers of the Constitution and you can literally walk among them. Seems like all of the statues were about 5'9", with the notable exception of George Washington, who's statue was about 6'4" (it made me wonder a bit whether it was accurate or revisionist history about this country's first "king").
The Center is absolutely worth a visit if you get to Philadelphia anytime soon. It's about three city blocks from Constitution Hall, and the city smartly created a grass mall (a la Washington, D.C.) in between the buildings, so there are open sight lines between them. I have to hand it to Philadelphia — this is not the same city that I remember visiting about 15 years ago. It's clean, vibrant, has great people and, of course, a great history, too.
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