What is the role of management and compensation consultants with respect to NEO compensation?
When evaluating, establishing and approving the compensation of our NEOs other than the CEO, the CNGC considers the performance evaluations provided by our CEO and the recommendations provided by our Chairman, our People division, and our CEO. With respect to the compensation of our CEO, our Chairman, with support from our People division, makes recommendations to the CNGC. As part of this process, our CEO reviews his annual performance evaluations of the other NEOs with the CNGC. Our People division engages compensation consultants to assist it in formulating its recommendations to the CNGC regarding NEO compensation. In analyzing the appropriate level of compensation for our NEOs for fiscal 2009, our People division relied on benchmarking data and a benchmarking system developed by Hay Group, Inc. regarding executive pay at peer companies, as described below. Hay Group generally only advises management on compensation matters but in the past has been and, in the future, may be engage
