As the battle over shareholders’ ability to control executive earnings rages in Europe and the United States, regional protests over excesses in executive compensation have been relatively muted. Perhaps this is because it was not the region’s lax regulatory policies that resulted in the economic crisis the world finds itself in today. Nevertheless, the region was happy to ride the economic tidal wave of the past few years as long as it felt it was getting something in return. “I think the attitude here is: we don’t mind paying but we want to see that we are getting something for it,” said Richard Lamptey, principal and head of executive remuneration consulting Middle East at Mercer. Moreover, the nature of Middle Eastern societies itself traditionally lacks the notion of social responsibility that is linked to executive pay in other more developed economies. Consequently, this is seen to facilitate the notion that
