Charles Smith is an executive rewards Principal in Mercer’s Los Angeles office, dedicated to using data to align compensation and incentive programs with business strategy. He has over seven years of experience advising Management and Compensation Committees.

Charles’ consulting experience spans various industries, including Technology, Life Sciences, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Entertainment, Healthcare, Insurance, Medical Devices, Airlines, Utilities, and Energy. His core focus areas include executive compensation, incentive plan design, 280G excise tax analysis, SEC pay versus performance disclosure, M&A integration, pre-IPO/SPAC compensation strategy, and global compensation design. He also provides oversight of human capital management, broad-based compensation, retention strategy, leadership development, and sales incentive design.

Recent projects include developing a new equity strategy for a public company facing cash constraints and a significant drop in share price, conducting severance and retention strategy modeling for a multinational media corporation, redesigning a performance share plan to analyze stock price volatility, and assessing 280G excise tax implications for executives in potential business combinations.

Charles holds a BA and MA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, a JD from UVA Law School, and an MBA from the Darden School of Business, where he received the William Michael Shermet Award for academic excellence. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2017.