Mick Thompson is a Mercer Partner specializing in compensation consulting with deep expertise across executive and non-executive compensation, incentive plan design, pay-for-performance alignment, regulation, and governance. 

With twenty-eight years at Mercer, he has advised more than 300 organizations across a broad range of industries and geographies. His work commonly includes compensation philosophy development, benchmarking, incentive plan design, pay-for-performance alignment, and compensation governance. Examples of engagements are as follows:

Advise Compensation Committees (and Board of Directors) of publicly traded companies or private for-profit companies regarding executive compensation, director compensation, incentive plan design, and governance-related issues.
Assist numerous organizations every year with special rewards-related projects such as salary structures, incentive plan design, and compensation benchmarking, often related to corporate transactions.
Assist private organizations in designing executive compensation programs in preparation for IPOs, Spin-outs, and SPAC transactions.
Lead due diligence and/or integration regarding compensation-related issues (executive and non-executive) for buyers on more than twenty-five deals per year for the past fifteen years.

Mick has published articles and been quoted in outlets including Crain’s, Directors & Boards, Deal Magazine, The Economist, and the Journal of Compensation & Benefits. He is a frequent speaker at industry events such as the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Equilar Summit, and the Chicago Compensation Association. Selected publications include “A Data-Driven Approach to Tenure and CEO Compensation,” “Accounting for Business Combinations: Rules HR Professionals Should Know,” “Avoiding Severance Disasters,” “Co‑CEOs and Sharing of Power,” and “IPOs and the Executive Compensation Challenge.”

Prior to joining Mercer, Mick was a senior consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick. He is an active member of The Conference Board and the Society for Human Resource Management (earned the Senior Professional HR designation). He serves on the board of Urban Gateway (former chairman) and previously served as chairman of Art Resources in Teaching, both Chicago-based nonprofit organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Master of Business Administration.