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Agenda by Track (subject to change)
Keynotes
Keynote I – Making Sense of Reward Plans in a Volatile Economy Global organizations today are confronted with challenges to their reward programs and employee/executive value propositions that have direct implications for their equity programs. Despite the highest structural unemployment in key markets in years, companies are still having problems attracting and retaining critical-skill and high-performing employees and executives. It has become evident that there is a disconnect between the actual reasons high-potential candidates select a given company and the reasons that leaders think they do. When it comes to equity compensation programs, emerging growth companies face a host of unique issues. As these companies prepare for their IPO event, the challenges they face only amplify. From plan design decisions to coping with SEC regulations, shareholder advisory groups, corporate governance requirements and picking the right partners, the fun only begins here! The list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning administration and employee communication challenges. Whatever the test, these expert panelists have seen and done it all. Attendees will be treated to the real world experiences of Facebook, LivingSocial and Yelp in their travels along the path from private to public – come listen and learn as they demystify what it really means to prepare for and survive the challenges of an IPO. As social media moves beyond Facebook into other platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Instagram and LinkedIn, and as social media adoption by enterprises moves beyond the marketing silo, companies of all sizes are re-evaluating how to respond to the challenges - and opportunities - that social media provides. From communicating to external stakeholders to proactively encouraging internal collaboration, this keynote will explore defining social business and future trends evident in the current business practice of social media – and what your organization needs to future proof your business and take advantage of the opportunities. Join Carine Schneider, GEO's Chairman of Board and CEO of EASi, and Facebook’s Manager of Equity Programs, Sara Spengler, for this one of a kind interview set to delve into a “day in the life” of equity compensation administration at Facebook. Attendees will be treated to Sara’s unique perspective as she recounts the challenges she and her team faced as they prepared to tackle the long list of tasks necessary to prepare for and ultimately survive employee stock administration after the Facebook IPO. While stock administration’s role in Facebook's IPO is just plain interesting, the lessons learned from this event can easily apply to virtually every stock plan administrator, especially those facing an IPO event in the future. Come and hear what it was like to be part of the Facebook team, preparing to manage a broad-based, global equity program with a unique structure, after a historic IPO.
During this keynote address, John Bremen, Managing Director, Talent & Rewards at Towers Watson, and an internationally-acknowledged expert, will share insights on these issues and others that impact U.S.-based multi-nationals, as well as non-U.S. companies operating in North America. John will discuss common misperceptions regarding the reasons equity usage has changed across multi-nationals and the reasons for these misperceptions as well as offer his advice for companies as they deal with the increasing complexity in global equity design and administration.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personal Development.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
GEO's Personal Development Series
Excel for Equity Compensation Professionals Brought to you by WorldatWork and Stock & Option Solutions in partnership with GEO. This exciting hands-on session will provide you 120 minutes of power-packed Excel tips and tricks that will be sure to save you time when working in Excel. Designed for the intermediate Excel user, attendees will work together to learn and apply common, and not so common, Excel features and functions that can be put to use immediately. Bring your laptop fully charged with Excel 2007 or above and come join us as we explore the power of Excel! Register Early! The session is available to a limited number of attendees. Does the thought of sending a tweet make your heart twitter? Does updating your status make you shiver? This 90-minute workshop, led by social media consultant and expert, Neal Schaffer, will handhold participants in learning not only why social media is so important for business, but also provide an overview of the major social media channels and how various organizations and departments are utilizing them for successful engagement. If you have ever had questions about social media but didn't know who to ask them to, this is the perfect opportunity to get them answered by an expert! Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personal Development.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Specialized Knowledge and Applications.
Strategic Issues
1.3 Compensation and the Election Year The current election year promises to create significant debate around the tax and regulatory burdens borne by employers and employees. In addition, the implementation of the new health care rules and other regulatory actions around pay practices will have a major impact on the take home pay of executives, and will likely cause companies to revisit the way they deliver incentive and deferred compensation. This session will look at the legislative and regulatory forecast from the view of both parties and will explore how the upcoming election, legislative agenda, and regulatory actions are likely to affect executive pay. Performance grants vary from company to company, industry to industry, and country to country. Aligning plan design with the needs of the business and to drive shareholder value has been the focus of many executive and equity practitioners and shareholders attempting to link pay with the performance of executives. This session presents an overview of how Applied Materials changed its performance share plan design for its senior executives in a manner that increases the alignment with the interests of shareholders, the performance of the company, and ultimately the performance of its executives. The growing complexity of equity incentive plans significantly increases the risk that plans will not accomplish their intended goals. When combined with the sometimes erratic and unexplainable behavior of equity markets, structuring your plans to ensure they achieve your company’s strategic objectives becomes that much harder. This session will give you a better understanding of the insights that valuation models and other analytical techniques can provide on the future expected mechanics of equity plans and specifically how employees might behave as a result. Attendees will learn how to create a stronger rationale for performance based programs, receive insights on how to set TSR and price target standards and much more! Equity compensation professionals are in a unique position to influence the equity design process and this session will provide a new and different approach to ensuring your plan’s success! With a significant trend towards performance shares, we have a new cornerstone of executive equity compensation, yet the migration has not been without challenges. The question, "What are these awards really worth" plagues companies as they balance recipient value versus financial statement expense. Design choices, complexity, and unintended consequences complicate the matter; however, few equity vehicles offer the potential for achieving true equity effectiveness. This panel addresses recent trends and changes in the use of performance shares along with case studies on effectively using stock price metrics, using the valuation of performance awards as an integral part of plan design, and understanding how sensitive the values are to the assumptions used. The panel will also address potential "conflicts" between the financial statement expense and the perceived values for participants based on an understanding of behavioral economics to equip attendees to masterfully avoid pitfalls, and maximize the potential of performance awards. Costs are sneaky. They can hide in the tiniest of cracks and slip out to surprise the unsuspecting. Without a reliable model to measure the true cost of global tax and regulatory compliance relating to equity-based compensation, do you really know what your equity programs cost? Are you armed with the right information to make decisions balancing cost and compliance? Are your highest risk areas covered? This panel of cost-sleuths will propose a model and a framework to manage the compliance cost. Exploring and understanding the real cost of compliance will equip organizational leaders with a course of action to make decisions to optimize tax and compliance efficiency of equity compensation. Having a merger and acquisition strategy in your toolkit is a must for all equity compensation professionals. In light of the unique challenges and issues that arise in M&A transactions and the ever-changing regulatory landscape, it is important that your toolkit be up to date and this session is designed to help you do that. This seasoned team of professionals will provide you with an understanding of the most prevalent issues in handling outstanding equity compensation awards in the context of mergers, asset sales and other acquisitions as well as address common plan and acquisition agreement issues, including issues and practical solutions under IRC Section 409A and the "golden parachute" rules of IRC Section 280G. Is there still a place for broad-based equity in today's world? What are the advantages and potential pitfalls of adopting an employee equity plan? Will it help achieve the elusive goal of employee engagement? This session will explore the potential role of broad-based equity plans in the Total Rewards model and the employee and employer exchange relationship. Learn how Intel successfully implemented a broad-based equity plan as one of the key elements supporting its engagement and retention. With the intense shareholder focus on executive compensation continuing this year with no reprieve in sight, this session will provide you with a review of the 2012 proxy season and a run-down of the important lessons learned. Looking back, an examination of the 2012 failed Say-on-Pay votes, an assessment of the pay for performance tests and other important issues will leave you equipped with the information needed to prepare for next year in style. Forging ahead, attendees will also hear the panel’s expert opinions on best practices, equally applicable to pre IPO and non public companies. Do you have questions on how to dialogue with your shareholders? This panel has your answers. Are you looking for information on ISS or other shareholder activist group’s guidelines and how to respond to their inquiries? This panel will tell you where to look. Join in for an interactive and informative session that will have lots of time for your specific issues and leave you prepared for success. Say on Pay has increased the importance of all compensation decisions. At the same time, this intense focus on company pay practices by shareholders and advisory groups creates a risk and companies are encouraged to do what is "industry best practice" instead of what is right for their specific company. Attendees to this session will learn about global best practices, implementation hot spots and specific plan pitfalls to avoid while at the same time ensuring their equity plans incorporate what shareholders want. Using the say-on-pay journey of Jabil Circuit, a $17 billion electronics manufacturer, as a case study, the panel will explain how you can ensure your program is aligned with its stated philosophy, how to best communicate that in your CD&A and show you how Jabil conducted their shareholder outreach to ensure say-on-pay success! As a result of Dodd-Frank rulemaking, clawback requirements are poised to be one of the biggest challenges equity compensation professionals will face in the not too distant future. Armed with the knowledge that this change is forthcoming, most companies are grappling with how to design and implement clawback provisions for their stock compensation programs now. In the absence of best practices, companies are struggling to correlate the theoretical basis of these regulations with their practical implementation. Attendees will receive up-to-the-minute details of evolving best practices, including tips for addressing specific plan design requirements like how to recoup ill-gotten gains from terminated employees and a laundry list of tax compliance considerations such as Section 83 and 409A implications, FICA tax questions and much more! Everyone wants to talk about how successful their program is. No one ever wants to talk about their failures. In fact, we can often learn more from examining failures, and making sure they don't happen again, than we can from simply trying to copy someone else’s plan. This session will examine some of those failures. The names will be changed to protect the guilty from embarrassment. Specifically, the panel will address: 1) How to get your plan voted down by shareholders; 2) How to convince employees that you're not giving them enough; 3) How to upset shareholders with a performance-based plan; and other cases that you will normally only hear when the stock plan administrator has been celebrating too late at the conference the night before. More importantly, the panel will show you what you can do on a preventative basis to keep you from having similar stories to tell in the future. It’s an art - balancing the upsides of employee ownership with the general complexity of equity plan administration, the increasing burden of navigating the tax consequences of equity compensation, and the growing cost of complying with compliance obligations in the U.S. and abroad. Attendees will be treated to a presidential-style debate when this panel of industry experts, composed of “candidates” from a variety of perspectives, discusses the pros and cons of maintaining equity compensation programs for employees. This panel will examine whether equity awards are still a viable part of an overall employee compensation program, and, if so, for what types of employers and which groups of employees. Taking a fresh look at whether equity compensation programs are meeting goals and expectations, and making adjustments as appropriate, is an absolute must to stay competitive, cost efficient and provide maximum value.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Business Law.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Business Law.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Taxes.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Private and Pre-IPO Companies
1.2 An Insider's Look into the World of Private Company Share Plans Join this session for a comprehensive look into the world of private company employee plans. From start-ups to Fortune 500-sized private companies, the panel will take a look at the various design elements common to equity plans in non-public companies. This team of experienced private company panelists will discuss the unique requirements surrounding the design and management of private company plans, from plan design, to grant valuation and the eventual monetization of awards on behalf of participants. The panel will also share experiences and perspectives on addressing the special challenges of communicating the benefits of private company awards to participants, as well as discuss the importance of linking plan objectives to company culture and the perception of delivering value to the employee. The IPO-process can feel daunting, even for the most experienced equity plan professional. When you add global equity regulatory and compliance considerations to the mix, the result can send even the most tenacious administrator running for the hills. Never fear, this session will help you get prepared to weather even the toughest IPO storm. This experienced team of panelists will take you step-by-step through a list of action items necessary for a U.S. headquartered company to comply with global regulatory requirements before it’s too late. The panel will also address quirky topics that are unfortunately far too common for pre-IPO companies including contractors with equity, secondary offerings, and use of different share classes. Managing a stock plan recordkeeping system for a public company can be a lot harder than for a private company: if you're not prepared for these changes, this session is for you! We’ll take a look at several different aspects of your database and the differences in how this data is being managed today versus what it will look like post-IPO. The panel will then provide practical advice on assessing and addressing these needs, so you can formulate your own action plan and get your equity plan data in fighting shape. The first quarter of 2012 generated the most IPOs since 2007 – which will succeed over the long run? Experience shows that for emerging companies in particular, a key factor is the ability to attract, motivate and retain needed talent. That, in turn, requires having competitive compensation programs in place that are customized to key executives’ specific needs and priorities. Every new company is unique. Over succeeding stages of growth, however, they confront similar challenges in trying to drive strategic objectives through the structure and level of pay programs. Our experience suggests that there are five key executive compensation decisions that most emerging organizations need to address. Our presentation will offer hands-on guidance for IPOs at the five critical decision points in the executive pay planning process – from bootstrapping through post-offering. This presentation will cover the basics of tax accounting for equity comp, with a focus on practical issues and solutions for private companies. The panel will explain terms such as deferred tax asset, APIC Pool, shortfalls and windfalls, and explain the financial accounting impact of these items and more. Because so many private companies have losses, both current and accumulated, the panel will discuss the implications of losses on the tax accounting model under ASC 718. Previously a fairly unknown tool of investment bankers and sophisticated investors, dual and multiple class stock structures combined with super voting power have emerged as an IPO strategy to be reckoned with in the last few years. Household names such as Facebook, Google, Zynga and others have utilized this approach to allocate voting rights and maintain owner and founder control while still providing access to the capital markets. What strategic considerations factor into a company’s decisions to use dual or multiple class stock structures and what impact does the use of these strategies have on the corporation, its shareholders, and its employees? Attendees of this session will hear about the real-life challenges faced and the solutions implemented directly from advisors dealing with companies who use dual and multiple-class share structures.. Equity awards are the most important component of compensation in start-up ventures; they embody both the promise and the risks of these enterprises. As such, it is imperative that a company’s equity award design reflect its stage of development. In this session, a team of experienced panelists will address the changes that occur in equity awards as privately held companies pursue their strategic goals and follow the path towards an IPO or sale. Drawing upon the results of the most recent Syzygy Pre-IPO and Private Company Total Compensation Survey, conducted annually for the past 12 years and containing data from hundreds of pre-IPO companies, panelists will tie survey data to real-world experience and provide a roadmap as to how companies should use equity awards as they move towards an IPO or profitable sale of their businesses. If your company is considering an IPO, this is a session you cannot miss!
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Taxes.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Business Law.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Administration and Communication
1.1 Blockbuster - Leveraging Technology to Make Your Communications a Hit Without Busting the Budget Comprehensive, effective, and even interesting stock plan communications are a goal common to most companies with stock plans, and technology can make it easier than ever. However, budgets, technological capabilities, and resources vary widely, so one size does not fit all. How do you raise communications about your stock plan above the deluge of information flooding employees every day? Communications are competitive; you have to make your message stand out to get the attention it deserves, but the means and methods used to grab attention and hold it are not exclusive. To compete at the communications box office, consider learning from Hollywood. Learn to be creative, promote effectively, use technology, and strive for high production values to get rave reviews and attain blockbuster status. When we yell action, the panel will discuss how to utilize technology to maximize participant involvement and education, and how to do so on both a blockbuster and indie budget. “Implementation” conjures up thoughts of ascending mountains of work, plowing through piles of project plans, and struggling through sign-offs and checklists. Whether implementing a new plan, a new provider, or a new program, the process can be a monumental effort, leaving even the most seasoned stock plan professionals feeling lost and confused. These Sherpas of implementation will share perspectives and history on various implementations to guide others safely through an implementation. From designing, implementing, and communicating the first Total Shareholder Return Unit (TSRU) Plan to re-introducing an ESPP after it had been cancelled just years before, to changing equity administration platforms in a mere 60 days, these stories will captivate and inspire all to trek boldly through the implementation terrain. The old adage “Life happens when you are busy making other plans” shouldn’t apply to your equity plans but sorting through the many different ways companies can address life-changing events to find the right solution can often be a daunting task. In this session, this expert panel will address the various approaches to major life events affecting your equity compensation plans – death, disability, divorce, retirement, leaves of absence and employment terminations – and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach you need to know. Attendees will receive country specific information as well as session materials addressing the treatment of these events under equity compensation awards in various countries. Did you know that accidentally excluding a participant from your ESPP via a missed paper enrollment form could disqualify the entire plan and all participants would then owe tax at purchase? Did you know that if you allow an ineligible participant to participate in the plan, that person’s purchase is disqualified? Section 423-qualified ESPPs are subject to many complex and challenging restrictions via the IRS regulations that make it easy to damage, or even destroy, what may be one of the most important elements of your company’s compensation strategy. This expert panel will identify the most common risk areas for your ESPPs and discuss ways to avoid or mitigate each one while amusing the audience with classic film quotes and trivia. Sometimes you just gotta say what the…heck? This session will deliver practical tips on what your company needs to consider to effectively administer and manage equity awards in multiple countries. Focusing on global hotspots that seem to always present challenges, these experienced panelists will highlight the current administrative challenges that impact how certain awards need to be administered in countries like Belgium, France, China, and the UK. With employee satisfaction and retention as a primary driver for many corporations, attendees will also learn about effective communication tools and self-service features that are available to global participants so they understand what it is, why it’s valuable, and how best to use it. When it comes to equity compensation accounting, if you are searching for more than just the basics, this session is for you! Touching on some of the most challenging areas in accounting, this team of experts will help you get your arms around those tough to answer questions in areas such as accounting for forfeitures and terminations, accounting for performance options and awards, variable accounting for equity compensation and accounting for employee stock purchase plans. Sharpen your pencils and come ready to take notes, this session will be sure to provide you the details you need to know. Are you drowning in exercise confirmations or weary of tracking down transfers gone awry? Join this session for a review of best practices for transaction processing and internal controls that are critical to ensure that stock compensation settlement processes are organized, efficient and not at risk of being a transactional nightmare. With the aid of process flow charts this team of expert panelists will cover transaction process progression between issuer company stock administration and the primary departments involved in the settlement of equity transactions and will address the most popular equity instruments used today as well as a few tricky ones too! Attendees will be able to leverage the presentation material to educate company decision-makers and participants and better document company processes. Everyone has been to a communication session, but never like this one. The experts on this panel believe that communications start much earlier, are driven far more frequently and are more integrated than we normally consider. In fact, nearly everything you do – from everyday activities to designing a plan to dealing with extraordinary events – is communications. This presentation will help you get your arms around your communications requirements and provide you eight critical steps that must be followed to ensure you accomplish your goals of attracting, motivating, retaining and building culture at your company. We’ve known that IFRS is looming for the U.S. but lucky for us, most of us anyhow, we have escaped thus far. But what happens when companies grow internationally? IFRS2, the standard for stock compensation, applies to non-U.S. subsidiaries of multinational companies and when an acquisition occurs, it can be upon you in the “blink of an eye.” When you get that knock at your door, be prepared to grasp the opportunity instead of running to hide. The panel will discuss key topics such as what circumstances can lead companies to a reporting obligation today, what differences exist between ASC 718 and IFRS2 and will provide a checklist of information attendees need to have in order to be an IFRS superstar. This session will provide a comprehensive discussion of all of the important tax and legal developments around the globe and provide practical guidance for complying with the changes, for minimizing employer cost and for maximizing after-tax benefits to participants. Attendees will learn about these changes and leave with a clear action plan of steps to take to address them. If you have global equity plans, you cannot afford to miss this session! In this session GEO Award winners, ConocoPhillips and Google, will share their experiences in developing award-winning mobility solutions. Employing team work and tenacity, these companies worked to fully automate the share awards tax compliance processing to allow their cross border international plan participants to have the same experience as their domestic participants. Attendees will hear how the teams secured the cooperation of other departments as well as their service providers to make implementing a new process and technology a success for the corporation and more importantly its plan participants. In addition to addressing the income and social tax considerations necessary to make this endeavor a success, the panel will also show you how you can apply the lessons these companies learned to enhance your state tax mobility processing as well. Process improvement. Everyone knows the term but what does it really mean to undertake an equity compensation process improvement project? In this session attendees will undertake this journey with Exelon Corporation, one of the nation's largest electric companies, as they moved to automate stock administration, employee mobility and integrate their systems with their general ledger. By highlighting the before and after processes as well as discussing the specific improvements in performance shares, restricted stock and options, Exelon will share how they were able to ensure their project goals were met and how they successfully implemented an equity compensation data management application. Human Resources, Legal, Finance, Accounting, Tax and other departments each have a vested interest in the equity management process. Without the right communication process between stakeholders, roles and responsibilities can become blurred and can lead to process inefficiency, missed opportunities and risk. It is essential that companies take a cross-functional approach with respect to developing best-practices of equity administration. This session will take us through each stage of the equity administration process and examine the key issues and drivers that are critical from the point of view of each stakeholder involved. Understanding the interplay of these issues between each department throughout the life cycle of an award will provide you a vantage point to better set policy and process, and coordinate organization and technology support. In today’s global world any U.S. company operating an ESPP needs to understand and design a plan to include the flexibility to offer it on a global basis at a moment’s notice. Get a rare peek behind the scenes as this team of seasoned veterans demonstrates what it takes to design and implement a global ESPP – the right way. The session will include discussions on the legal, administration and communication processes needed for a successful ESPP program as well as provide a look into some of the most common mistakes and provide recommendations on how to avoid them. With the ESPP once again becoming an important component of equity compensation programs worldwide, this is a session you should not miss! To get ideal outcomes out of employee programs, including equity compensation programs, employers are turning to established marketing techniques to get the results they desire. Persuasive computing is a particularly powerful approach, and one that can be easily applied to equity program design and communication. This session will profile how a global organization has used persuasive computing techniques to drive equity program engagement via tools such as a user-friendly portal, access to real-time, actionable and personally relevant information, targeted action items, long-term incentive strategies and others – too many to mention here! Attendees will leave this session with a better understanding of how to use persuasive computing techniques and how to implement that knowledge into the design and communication of a global long-term incentive program to enhance engagement and drive organizational objectives.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Communications.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Accounting.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Communications.
Levels II and III. Field of Study: Accounting.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Business Law.
Levels: I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and II. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Administrative Practice.
Levels I, II and III. Field of Study: Personnel/HR.