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Austin Vanbastelaer

Austin Vanbastelaer

Managing Director (recently promoted to Partner) at Semler Brossy Consulting Group, an executive compensation consulting firm, based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Aug 12, 2026

speaker_0HOST
8:48
What is it about those moments that forces that design? And can you share any examples of, you know, a program in a transformation or a transaction that, um, just really stood out to you?
9:02
Sure.
9:03
I think that both of those stand out as being particularly critical points because it's literally the board and the management team putting all the chips on the table and making a huge bet on the future.
9:16
So if you're executing, uh, a transaction, you are literally telling your shareholders that, you know, we're gonna either buy something or split the business or merge or whatever it is because we think that is the best possible outcome, right? We're, we're putting, again, all of our chips on the table on this call with our, our business judgment, right? And so I think inherently in that type of situation, you're just gonna have higher stakes.
9:45
A transformation is the same thing, just without, you know, [laughs] disposing of or acquiring something.
9:53
But again, you're, you're putting all your chips on the table, and you're saying, "Our industry, our business is changing so rapidly that we need to reinvent ourselves in a not steady state, but dramatic way." And so both of those, I think, call for at least the investigation of above-and-beyond compensation programs, whether that means a one-time award or a complete rethinking of the, uh, incentive vehicles.
10:23
You know, who knows? It's very situation dependent.

15 MINS LATER

NicoHOST
24:58
Mm-hmm.

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