The Shareholders Association for Research and Education (SHARE) released its 2007 Key Proxy Vote Survey today showing growing support among investment management firms for selected shareholder proposals that address excessive executive compensation. However, success was mixed at best. Firms like Manulife FInancial passed a limit to supplemental executive retirement plans while firms like Nortel Networks failed to pass resolutions despite strong shareholder support.

"Executive compensation was the big issue last year," said Executive Director Peter Chapman. "Continuing shareholder efforts to tie executive compensation to performance and concern about 'pay for failure' helped drive a number of resolutions aimed at curbing excessive executive pay packages for executives. Our survey showed strong support for these proposals."

The Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) board of directors may find themselves in trouble after Proxy Governance Inc. recommended that shareholders withhold their support for the board in light of excessive compensation amid operational underperformance. Tyson underperformed its peers and failed to take action to respond to industry challenges like increased feed costs and beef export restrictions. Meanwhile, the approved pay for CEO Richard Bond amounting to $24.6 million - 82% more than CEOs of other companies in the peer group! Is this pay out of touch with reality? Well, maybe just a little bit...

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman wants to question three current and former CEOs of companies involved in the subprime mortgage crisis abou ttheir own multi-million pay packages in a hearing next month. Letters have been sent out to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, Citigroup CEO Charles Prince, and Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal asking them why they "stand to collect tens of millions of dollars in severence payment and other compensation" even as their current or former companies are losing billions of dollars in the mortgage meltdown. Amazingly, CEOs like O'Neal managed to walk away with accumulated benefits worth more than $161 million while their companies are in shambles. Meanwhile, Mozilo received a package worth $110 million on top of $140 million from stock that he sold during 2006 and 2007 - all while Countrywide stock dropped 80%.

Sallie Mae, which has suffered a series of setbacks during the mortgage crisis, has paid top dollar to recruit a new chief financial office last week. John Remondi will receive an annual salary of $1 million along with stock awards that will deliver $2 million for every $1 increase in the company's share price. The CFO could also earn cash bonuses of up to $3 million, two years of housing in Reston, and $100,000 a year for personal use of corporate aircraft. The salary is higher than any other CFO on record and 150% more than his predecessor in 2006. "He must be in the miracle department," commented on compensation analyst.

Countrywide chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, was encouraged by a top U.S. lawmaker today to donate a portion of its $150 million in recent earnings to nonprofit groups that are trying to help subprime mortgage borrowers that were coerced into loans that they simply could not afford.

The solicitation was made by House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, who is also known for spearheading investigations into executive compensation and credit card companies. The chairman also noted that the proposed $4 billion acquisition of Countrywide could be a “positive development” in the subprime mortgage crisis.

John F. Young, new chief executive as TXU Corporation, is set to receive a salary of $1 million and could get annual bonuses of up to $2 million this year, according to a filing with the SEC. The executive is also eligible for bonuses up to twice his salary for hitting board-set performance goals. Young will also receive two and a half times his annual salary and bonus target if he is fired without cause or resigns for good reason during the next two years.

Executive compensation has always been a controversial topic at TXU since it was acquired last year in a private buyout by KKR and others. In 2006, CEO John Wilder received compensation valued at $17.12 million in stock awards and was expected to get at least $277 million worth of stock when he left the company. Who said public company CEOs cost a lot of money? It looks like private equity found a cheaper one in this case...

The Securities and Exchange Commission released a new tool aimed at helping people uncover executive compensation values. Many are excited at the new initiative as it is a step toward transparency; however, many others have uncovered problems with the system that suggest it may need some work before it's ready for public use.

The largest problem with the new application is that it only covers 500 companies and there are no plans to expand that number. This is because the commission currently views it as a "demonstration project" and not an "ongoing effort". Another major problem is that it only provides numbers without any added analysis. Many individual investors may not have any benchmark for comparison between many different executives.

One superior option avaible for free online is ExecutiveDisclosure.com. This service enables investors to not only look up compensation information on most public companies, but also compare compensation with stock performance and peer compensation. ExecutiveDisclosure.com is widely considered to be the best option for analyzing executive compensation - and it's free!

AmEx CEO Ken Chenault has created one of the best models for executive compensation to date after the credit markets killed off a lot of his compan's profits. AmEx's board granted the executive 1,375,000 stock options in November and should receive the same number again on January 31st. This is a huge number of shares was justified by the unusually distant time horizon over the next six years requiring that EPS grow at lesat 15% a year on average, revenues must grow at least 10% a year, ROE must average at least 36% per year, and total return to shareholders must beat the S&P500 by at least 2.5% per year. Now that's a plan that shareholders can back!