The Company
Industry: Manufacturing
Entity Type: Privately Held
Operating Region: United States
Size: $90M Revenue
The PROBLEM
As the company experienced significant growth, its executive compensation structure had not kept pace. Individualized compensation arrangements created inconsistencies across the executive leadership team, while existing incentive programs lacked the structure and standardization needed to support continued scale. Leadership needed an experienced compensation expert to assess current practices, benchmark executive pay against the market, and develop a more competitive and sustainable approach to short- and long-term incentives.
The Solution
McDermott + Bull Interim Leaders placed an experienced interim Compensation Project Leader with more than 25 years of experience supporting middle-market growth companies and private equity-backed organizations through transformation. The interim leader conducted a comprehensive assessment of executive compensation across multiple geographies, benchmarked base and incentive compensation against market data, evaluated the company’s annual bonus structure, and developed recommendations for a long-term incentive program. The engagement also identified opportunities to strengthen performance management, incentive governance, and compensation consistency across the organization.
The RESULT
In just one month, the interim leader delivered a comprehensive compensation strategy that gave leadership a clear path toward a more competitive, consistent, and performance-driven executive pay structure. The analysis identified critical market gaps, established recommendations for short- and long-term incentives, and provided a roadmap for aligning executive compensation more closely with business performance, growth, and retention objectives.
Established Market-Based Compensation Benchmarks
Mapped executive compensation across multiple geographies and identified meaningful pay differentials, including compensation levels approximately 13% lower in Arizona and 15% lower in Georgia compared with California.
Strengthened Performance-Based Incentives
Evaluated the annual bonus program and recommended increasing the performance threshold for bonus eligibility from 60% to 80% of IBIT, creating stronger alignment between incentive payouts and company performance.
Designed a Long-Term Incentive Strategy
Identified a competitive gap in long-term incentives, with 75–80% of comparable companies offering an LTI, and developed a three-year cash-based incentive recommendation to strengthen executive retention and support long-term growth.
Julie Francis
Managing Director, McDermott + Bull Interim Leaders
jfrancis@mbexec.com
Julie Francis serves as a Managing Director for McDermott + Bull Interim Leaders, where she identifies and secures highly skilled executives to address client companies’ critical business challenges, provide interim leadership, and oversee special projects. She works with executive leadership at middle-market and enterprise-level companies as well as with investment banks and private equity groups to improve operational and financial performance.