What Didn’t Work: Tongue-Tied at the Top

At that point, the compensation committee became concerned that Ladner was among the highest-paid university presidents. It also began to distrust his tightly controlled communication with the board. As a result, the compensation committee retained the consulting firm Towers Perrin to conduct an independent review, which concluded that the highest reasonable compensation for Ladner was $780,000. Ladner attacked the consultant’s credibility and persuaded the board to hire a second firm, Mercer. Frustrated with Ladner’s arrogant defense of his compensation and no longer able to support him, I resigned from the board.