The Bedford Group/TRANSEARCH has released the 2024 Report on Board and Executive Compensation in the Clean Technology Industry. The report gathers detailed compensation data from over 175 publicly traded cleantech companies listed on the CVE, TSX, TSXV, ASX, Nasdaq and NYSE, covering over 860 named executive officers and 1,200 board members.
This is Bedford’s fourth annual industry-wide report on compensation awards and practices, and provides insights and analysis about the global cleantech industry with a focus on Canadian and US companies with market caps under CA$10 billion.
“The cleantech industry continues to face challenges like rising turnover and increasing pressure on executive salaries,” said Amrit Sandhu, client partner at Bedford Consulting Group. “But what stands out is the resilience and resourcefulness of these companies. They’re finding ways to navigate labour shortages and funding constraints by making smarter, more strategic executive hires that position them for long-term success.”
Turnover continued to rise in 2023 amongst the C-Suite, with 16.4 per cent of companies changing their CEO compared to 12.9 per cent in 2022, and 10.2 per cent in 2021. CFOs also saw movement as over 23 per cent of companies changed theirs, with the highest rate in companies with market caps under $100 million.
This fuelled upward pressure on base salaries across the C-Suite, with increased salaries from $100 million to $4 billion market cap tiers for both CEOs and CFOs. CEO salaries remained flat in companies below $100 million or above $4 billion. Smaller companies (<$100M) likely reflected constrained budgets, while large-cap firms ($4B–$10B) reduced base salaries by six per cent, potentially aligning compensation with performance or shifting emphasis to equity incentives. Across all other market cap tiers, CEO base salaries rose by double digits.
Diversity amongst CEOs and NEOs remains low, with a continued decrease in female CEOs – 3.8 per cent in 2023, down from 4.4 per cent in 2022 and 5.2 per cent in 2021. NEO diversity has been more consistent, at 12.2 per cent in 2023, up from 12.2 per cent in 2022 and 11.7 per cent in 2021. It’s clear that significant work remains to be done for diversity.
The Board retains a stronger diversity showing, with a more significant increase in female representation in 2023 (29 per cent) than we saw in 2022 (22 per cent). Canadian companies are not required to report on ethnic diversity, so we have no figures yet, though this is due to change as the ISS will expect all S&P/TSX Composite Index constituents to have at least one racially/ethnically diverse director.
Bedford’s Executive and Board Compensation and Governance Report highlights year-over-year compensation changes at the board and executive level for base salary/retainers, equity and non-equity incentives and total compensation. The 2024 report also includes information and guidance around good governance and reporting best practices in the areas of diversity, board composition, severance and change of control benefits, share ownership, and problematic pay practices.
The complete report is available here.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
