We continue our “Top 5” series with a topic that is increasingly central to boardroom conversations: CEO succession readiness. In this episode, Mark and Aalap are joined by Managing Directors Peter Thies and Susan Sandlund to discuss why boards need to move beyond simply identifying a potential CEO successor and focus more deliberately on whether the organization is truly ready for leadership transition.

In Season 5 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted, we’re examining hot topics likely to be on compensation committee agendas as they head into fall planning meetings. In our first episode, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by managing directors Steve Van Putten and Will Cockle to discuss how executive incentive plans can support business transformation while still maintaining accountability for financial performance. The conversation explores how committees can think about transformation-related priorities such as AI, portfolio repositioning, M&A, and new market growth, and how incentive designs can evolve to recognize meaningful progress without adding unnecessary complexity or weakening financial discipline.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our fourth and final episode examining the technology space, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by managing director Eric Myszka to discuss stock-based compensation expense, equity efficiency, and whether companies are getting the right return from equity spend.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our third episode examining the technology space, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are re-joined by managing director Malcolm Adkins to discuss how AI’s value chain is extending beyond traditional technology companies into data centers, power, infrastructure, and energy-related businesses, and how this extension creates compensation questions around scarce talent, targeted premiums, and internal equity. Compensation committees of companies impacted by this shift should be asking: Are incentive plans rewarding durable value creation rather than market tailwinds?

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our second episode examining the technology space, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by managing director Will Cockle to examine how AI-native companies and traditional SaaS companies are now operating in very different compensation markets, which is driving shifts in board-level conversations around talent, equity, valuation, dilution, and performance.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our first episode examining the technology space, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by managing director Steve Charlebois to discuss how technology has moved from a broad growth story to a more AI-driven value creation story, and what that shift means for performance orientation, equity strategy, private versus public company dynamics, and the competition for high-demand talent.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our second episode examining the oil and gas industry, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined again by managing directors Malcolm Adkins and Wes Hart from Pearl Meyer's Houston office. Together, they discuss how AI, data centers, power demand, and adjacent growth opportunities are influencing oil and gas business models, talent needs, and incentive design.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our second episode examining the oil and gas industry, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by Wes Hart to examine some of the incentive design challenges compensation committees are faced with in a sector defined by cyclicality, commodity price volatility, and shifting investor expectations.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In our first episode examining the oil and gas industry, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by Malcom Adkins to discuss how compensation committees are navigating a smaller public-company universe, rethinking peer group design, and evaluating whether traditional approaches to performance measurement still fit today’s oil and gas market.

Season 4 of Pearl Meyer Unscripted is looking at executive compensation through an industry lens. In this episode, co-hosts Mark Rosen and Aalap Shah are joined by Rob James to discuss the key compensation issues life sciences companies should address when preparing to go public.