Biography

Alexander is a managing director at Pearl Meyer. The former president and CEO of Yaffe & Company, he is a second-generation expert in executive compensation and has two decades' experience in the field. As the leader of Yaffe & Company, he oversaw its geographic expansion from 10 to 37 states, development of complimentary service lines, and worked with clients whose net revenues ranged from $10M to greater than $1B, allowing for a varied perspective in similarities and differences based on geography, size, and organizational design.

Alexander has assisted hundreds of tax-exempt boards and their leadership teams with assessing executive compensation programs, executive performance evaluation methods, retirement plan designs, leadership transition, succession, and retention planning. Additionally, he works with hospitals and integrated health systems to develop comprehensive physician compensation governance practices, assess current-state compensation and productivity relative to the market, and the development of next-generation plan designs. A common theme across his consulting engagements, Alexander focuses on aligning data, relationships, and circumstances to drive mutually beneficial outcomes for organizations, individuals, and affected stakeholder constituencies.

Alexander has participated in expert panels on these topics, given presentations, and has led board education programs nationally. He published his second monograph with the AHA Center for Healthcare Governance titled The Health System-Physician Relationship Continuum: What Boards Need to Know (Oct 2015). 

Alexander graduated from Full Sail University in 1999 with a degree in film/television production. In 2012, he continued his studies at Columbia University pursuing a degree in economics and philosophy.

Biography

Jim Hudner is a managing director and consulting team leader at Pearl Meyer. In his management role, he oversees a team of senior compensation consultants in the execution of the firm’s growth strategy and in the development of consultants at various stages in their careers. He consults in the areas of total compensation strategy, executive compensation, compensation planning, base salary management, incentive plan design, and performance management. Jim brings more than 30 years of consulting experience to his position and has consulted with organizations in a wide range of industries including technology, higher education, healthcare, research organizations, financial services, and manufacturing.

Jim has considerable experience with the assessment, design, implementation, and communication of compensation programs covering broad-based employee populations. His consulting experience also includes the development and assessment of executive compensation programs in tax-exempt organizations, particularly in light of Section 4958 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Jim earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and an MBA with a concentration in human resources and finance from Babson College. He is an experienced speaker on a variety of compensation topics and has contributed to several industry publications.

Biography

Steve Van Putten is a senior managing director with Pearl Meyer and leads the firm’s efforts with respect to thought leadership and intellectual capital development. Steve’s primary focus and expertise is on advising compensation committees and senior management on executive and director compensation matters. He has over 30 years of board-level experience consulting to Fortune 500 companies on executive pay.

Steve is a frequent presenter at national executive compensation forums and conferences, including the National Association of Corporate Directors’ annual conference featuring the “Leading Minds in Executive Compensation.” He has written extensively on executive and incentive compensation and is the co-author of the book Myths and Realities of Executive Compensation (Cambridge University Press).

Steve specializes in the design of annual and long-term incentive programs that support long-term value creation. He has developed innovative methodologies for analyzing relationships between pay and performance, as well as assisting companies in determining appropriate performance metrics and associated goals, and calibrating performance award slopes.

Prior to joining Pearl Meyer in 2010, he was the North America East Region practice leader of Watson Wyatt’s executive compensation consulting practice and North American practice director of Watson Wyatt’s performance metrics and measurement group.

Steve holds an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a BA from Trinity College.

Biography

Peter Wertheimer is a principal at Pearl Meyer. In this role, he provides executive compensation and governance advisory services to boards and management teams across industries. Peter has a wealth of experience in public and private companies as well as tax-exempt and not-for-profit organizations of all types and sizes. He specializes in executive pay benchmarking, short- and long-term incentive plan design, IPO readiness, reasonableness opinions, peer group development, and board compensation, among other areas.

Prior to joining Pearl Meyer, Peter was an associate principal at Korn Ferry, in the Executive Pay & Governance practice of the Total Rewards division. His clients have included large and complex tax-exempt healthcare and nonprofit organizations, as well as publicly traded and private corporations at various stages of maturity across industries. Earlier in his career, Peter was a consultant at Yaffe & Company, Inc., which was acquired by Pearl Meyer in 2020.

Peter holds a BS from Towson University and a MBA from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. He serves on the board of directors of HealthCare Access Maryland and is a member of the Washington Area Total Rewards Association (WATRA) and the Private Directors Association’s Metro DC chapter.