Melissa L. Burek is a founding partner of Compensation Advisory Partners LLC (CAP) in New York. She has over 20 years of experience consulting with compensation committees, chief executive officers and company management. Melissa consults in all areas of executive compensation, including strategy, incentive plan design, performance measurement linkages, governance/regulatory issues and director compensation. She assists companies with ensuring that pay programs are responsible to shareholders and support company’s short and longer term business strategy.
Melissa has significant experience in the insurance, consumer products, and industrial/automotive industries. She has overseen best practices studies with Fortune 100 companies and in select industry sectors. She has advised companies through the shareholder approval process, complying with evolving regulations and assisted companies involved in initial public offerings, restructurings and executive leadership change.
Melissa has written extensively on executive compensation topics in publications and she has chaired several roundtable sessions and published articles on best practices research.
Melissa is also a frequent speaker on executive compensation.
Prior to joining CAP, Melissa was a principal at Mercer’s Human Capital business for eleven years. While at Mercer, she led the insurance industry segment. Prior to that, she was a director in KPMG’s Performance and Compensation consulting practice. She also worked in Human Resources with the Ford Motor Company.
Melissa received a BBA and MBA from the University of Michigan’s Graduate School of Business Administration. She is a member of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals.
Christopher Earnest is a partner of Compensation Advisory Partners LLC (CAP) in Houston. He has over 12 years of experience consulting with compensation committees and management teams. He also practiced law in Texas for 4 years. Chris consults in all areas of executive compensation ranging from short and long-term incentive program design to performance measurement, target setting and regulatory/compliance related issues. He also advises on director compensation programs.
Chris has experience consulting with companies ranging from private entities to Fortune 100 companies across a variety of industries including oil & gas, manufacturing, chemicals, engineering and construction, technology and retail. He frequently advises clients on navigating the guidelines and expectations set forth by shareholder advisory firms and has been engaged to assist in shareholding outreach. He has significant experience assisting clients through corporate transactions including initial public offerings, mergers, and spin-offs. Chris has also testified in the Southern District of Texas as a designated compensation expert in bankruptcy related proceedings.
Prior to joining CAP he was a Managing Director at Pearl Meyer. Chris began his career as an attorney in Houston where he practiced law for over 4 years before transitioning to consulting.
Chris holds a BS in Law & Society with a minor in Business Administration from the University of Tulsa. He also holds a JD and an MBA from the University of Tulsa.
