Ian is our senior counsel specialising in executive compensation, share incentives and employment tax work. He has over twenty years’ experience in advising listed and unlisted companies on the design, implementation and operation of their discretionary and all-employee incentive arrangements, including in the context of takeovers, demergers, IPOs and other corporate activity. His work incorporates the roll-out of these cash and share-based plans across multiple jurisdictions ensuring their legal, tax and regulatory compliance.
Ian has a particular interest in listed companies’ directors’ remuneration, having advised a number of major listed companies on the drafting and implementation of their directors’ remuneration policies, as well as on the practical operation of malus and clawback provisions on executives’ variable pay where appropriate. Clients appreciate his robust and commercial advice in this sensitive and high-profile area.
His recent work includes acting for major international companies such as Ocado, Prudential, Reckitt and Vodafone on the implementation of their full global suite of executive and all-employee, cash and share-settled, short and long-term incentive arrangements. This varies from annual bonus and bespoke value creation plans for senior management to arrangements delivering share options and free share awards to a company’s wider workforce. Ian’s strong tax background enables him to deliver all these arrangements to all employees on the most tax-efficient basis available. He has also acted for a number of UK-listed companies, including Smith and Nephew, on the implementation of the first “hybrid” incentive arrangements operated in the UK.
The Legal 500 has described Ian as a “share plans guru” and “leading expert in his field, providing exceptional advice on the operation of incentives and executive remuneration” offering “commercial, pragmatic advice underpinned by technical foundations that are second to none.”
Ian is a member of the Corporate and Regulatory Committee of the Share Plan Lawyers Group and of the Employment Law Association and is a regular speaker at internal and external training events and conferences.