Remuneration Reviews
Comparator-led executive remuneration reviews built on direct, anecdotal market intelligence — designed for organisations whose true peer set is not represented in standard benchmark databases, and delivered as a defensible recommendation for board ratification.
Comparator-led intelligence, not a formulaic points-based assessment.
Most executive remuneration reviews are built around points-based job-evaluation methodologies — formula-driven systems that assign weighted values to scope, accountability, and complexity, then triangulate against a survey database. The approach has its place. For vanilla listed-company comparisons it is fast, repeatable, and produces a defensible number.
For everything else, it falls short. Points-based systems are backward-looking, survey-dependent, and only as valid as the database they draw from. In any context where the real comparator market is not represented in that database — which describes most of the engagements we are asked to advise on — they produce outdated or invalid benchmark data, and recommendations a board cannot defend.
Lighthouse Remuneration Reviews are built on a different foundation. Each engagement begins with a hand-selected comparator group of five to seven peer organisations — chosen specifically for their genuine relevance to the client's structure, sector, ownership model, and competitive geography. Compensation insight is gathered through direct anecdotal intelligence, drawn from the senior network we have built over three decades of international practice and supplemented by sector data where it adds value. The result is a comparator-led market intelligence product that reflects the world the client actually competes in — not an industry average drawn from organisations that look nothing like their own.
Built for the businesses standard benchmarks cannot reach.
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Private equity-owned businesses
PE-backed platforms rarely have a clean listed comparator set. Recent engagements have included a private equity-owned specialist transportation company and a private equity-owned technology firm whose true competitors sat across Asia — both contexts where standard NZ benchmarks would have produced a misleading recommendation.
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Unlisted New Zealand businesses, including non-bank lenders
Without public disclosure obligations, unlisted firms — including the New Zealand non-bank lending sector — sit outside the reach of conventional surveys. We work directly through our network to surface like-for-like compensation intelligence the published data simply does not contain.
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Organisations whose comparators sit offshore
Where the most relevant peer set is in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, or beyond, domestic survey data understates the true market and undermines the case for a competitive offer. Our cross-border reach gives boards a defensible read on compensation in the geographies that actually matter to them.
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Specialist and family-owned firms
Specialist transportation businesses, infrastructure platforms, family-owned enterprises, and other organisations operating outside the mainstream of listed-company benchmarking — sectors where general remuneration surveys lack the granularity to support a board-level recommendation.
What a remuneration review includes.
Hand-selected comparator group
A bespoke set of five to seven peer organisations selected for genuine relevance to the client's structure, sector, ownership model, and competitive geography. The comparator group is agreed with the client before research begins, ensuring the foundation of the review is sound.
C-suite role coverage
Reviews typically cover Chief Executive, Chief Financial, Chief Marketing, and Chief Risk Officer compensation, and are readily extended to other senior executive roles where the brief requires.
Total compensation analysis
Base salary, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, and equity arrangements analysed across the comparator group, producing a complete view of competitive positioning at the package level — not just headline base.
Direct anecdotal intelligence
Compensation data gathered through direct conversations with our senior network, validated against published sources where they exist. The result is current, specific, and contextual market intelligence — not legacy survey averages.
Board-ready recommendations
Findings synthesised into clear, board-ready remuneration recommendations, packaged for board review and ratification, with the underlying rationale documented in full so the recommendation can be defended on its evidence.
Independent perspective
Delivered personally by a senior partner with no commercial interest in the outcome — ensuring the recommendation reflects the evidence and the client's context, not a service provider's incentives.
A defensible recommendation for board ratification.
The output of a Lighthouse review is a clear, defensible remuneration recommendation — supported by the rationale that produced it, and packaged for board review and ratification. Boards rely on these reviews to set CEO and senior executive packages with the assurance that the underlying intelligence reflects the market they actually compete in, rather than an outdated or invalid benchmark drawn from organisations that bear little resemblance to their own.
Recent engagements have included a private equity-owned specialist transportation business, a private equity-owned technology firm whose closest competitors sat across Asia, and a number of New Zealand non-bank lenders whose unlisted status placed them outside the reach of conventional surveys. In each case the comparator-led approach produced market intelligence the client could not have obtained through a points-based methodology — and a recommendation the board was able to ratify with confidence.
Discuss a remuneration review →
Leadership decisions shape the future of your organisation.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss an upcoming mandate, a succession question, or simply to begin a longer-term conversation. All enquiries are handled in strict confidence.