Faculty Member Biography

Ira Kay

Managing Partner, Pay Governance

Ira, a Managing Partner/Founder at Pay Governance, is one of the nation’s foremost experts on executive compensation. He works closely with boards and management to help them develop executive compensation programs that Balance the Tension in increasing shareholder value in the current regulatory environment. His clients include premier US and global corporations ranging across various industries, including technology and financial services companies. A sample list of his major clients includes Qualcomm, Accenture, WalMart, Morgan Stanley, and  Chubb. He has done special projects in the tech space for Intel, Palo Alto Networks and a subsidiary of Google.​

Ira writes and speaks regularly on executive compensation issues. He has authored and edited several prominent books on executive compensation and governance. His most recent co-edited book was written with the partners of Pay Governance: “Balancing the Tension: Current Topics in Executive Compensation”. Ira is considered an expert on the relationship of CEO pay and performance and has conducted and published research on pay for performance, stock buybacks, say on pay votes, CEO pay ratio and other important topics. He is often quoted in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), New York Times, Agenda, The Economist, and other leading board-level publications. ​

Ira holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Ph.D. In economics from Wayne State University.​

Ira Kay, Managing Partner, Pay Governance

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