Short Stuff

Big Drum Roll. Here it comes. Hidden in last Friday's SEC News Digest is the announcement (what, no press release?) that on January 17 the Commission will "consider whether to propose amendments to the disclosure requirements for executive and director compensation, related party transactions, director independence and other corporate governance matters, and securities ownership of officers and directors. The Commission will also consider whether to propose amendments to require most of the disclosure in proxy and information statements to be provided in plain English."


Name Game:

Plexus Corp. has a fancy name for its comp committee - the "Compensation and Leadership Development Committee." Is this just because it sounds good, or does the committee participate in functions CEOs usually insist on performing, like grooming senior managers for promotion (also known as "getting to know my golfing buddies")? Unclear. The Committee's role, according to the proxy, is to "set general compensation policies." Sounds like it should be called the Compensation Committee.

Come to think of it, it's surprising we haven't seen lots of companies giving their comp committees highfalutin names. We'll be on the lookout for more.

More fun with names: The Chairman of the Audit Committee at The Steak N Shake Company (yes, that's the official spelling straight from the proxy) is named J. Fred Risk. The "Risk" part is cute for an Audit Committee head. And he happens to share the rest of his name with 1950s TV chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs.