Gerard Leider

Gerard is a Partner and member of the Leadership Team in the Lake Forest office. He has been advising Compensation Committees and executive management in the field of executive and director compensation for over 30 years. Prior to Meridian’s founding in 2010, Gerard spent over 15 years consulting in executive compensation at Hewitt Associates.

Gerard leads numerous client engagements and provides consulting advice on a broad range of compensation matters including total compensation strategy, analysis, design and valuation. His work covers the full range of executive and board member compensation issues, including corporate governance, compensation philosophy, short- and long-term incentive design, incentive valuation and award guideline setting, employment and severance agreements, compensation disclosure, recruitment and support regarding proxy advisory firms’ policies.

Working with small startups to S&P 500 companies, Gerard provides both public and private companies with counsel on executive compensation and corporate governance matters in a variety of industries. Gerard’s clients span diverse industries, including mid-cap and large-cap manufacturing, automotive, capital goods, chemical, paper, retail, technology, transportation and service companies.

Gerard has been a speaker at the Equilar Summit, the MAPI Conference, Corporate Board Peer Exchange Conference and a frequent lecture at the Northwestern Corporate Governance Program. He has also written articles for the Journal of Compensation and Benefits, C-SUITE Insight Magazine, NYSE Governance Series and Corporate Board Governing Series.