The majority of public companies in the US, Canada, Britain and Australia, as well as in several non-Anglo countries, now receive their pay advice from independent advisers. These independent advisers differ from broad-based advisers that receive most of their fees from providing services to management. This means the independent firms are less subject to conflicts of interest.

 

The rise of the independent board adviser stemmed from various studies and reports that discovered that the presence of conflicts of interest appeared to make a real difference in the level of executive pay (see HERE). The resulting regulations requiring disclosure of advisers and their fees, and/or how the board managed conflicts of interest, contributed to the running down of these services in the broad based firms, and the rise of the independents in the UK, USA, Australia and several other countries.

 

Throughout this market transformation, the better independent board advisers met their larger clients’ international needs by relying on informal networks of contacts with like firms overseas. This network has now been formalised.

 

The Global Governance and Executive Compensation Network (see more about GECN HERE) ensures global companies are able to receive executive and board remuneration advice relevant to their operations in multiple jurisdictions, leverage off the best global governance practices, and more effectively engage with foreign based institutional investors and their proxy advisers in the various countries.

 

Guerdon Associates, Australia’s leading independent board adviser on remuneration and governance, is one of the founding partner firms in the network. With GECN members, it can now provide services to clients from offices in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Zurich, Geneva, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai.

 

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