This book addresses reward governance for senior executives and is aimed at two audiences.

Firstly it is intended to be a primer for people who want to learn the way many practitioners in the area of reward approach the construction and oversight of executive reward packages. Like most areas of professional practice, this activity involves a combination of art and science, and experience and judgment play an important part in reaching sensible decisions. This book also expresses a point of view about how this activity should be conducted. In other words, it is a normative as much as a positive guide; readers should be aware that some practitioners may approach executive reward in a different way but the editors make no apologies for suggesting that this is the way in which it should be approached.

Secondly, the reality of executive reward is that many of the decisions in any situation are taken by executive management and therefore this book is also intended to serve as a primer for executives required to take reward decisions, and shows how decisions can be taken that are fair to both executives and shareholders. There is of course an essential role to be played by those who oversee remuneration decisions, non-executive directors on remuneration committees in particular, or representatives of shareholders, and keeping the interests of shareholders front of mind at every stage in the decision making process is critical to effective decisions.