Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is pleased to announce that three of its stock plan clients were awarded prestigious Global Equity Organization (GEO) Awards at the 2012 ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 2012.1
Founded in 1999, GEO is an international, not-for-profit organization designed to support equity compensation professionals. GEO has more than 4,500 individual members representing over 1,500 companies and professional firms in more than 60 countries around the world. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney was proud to participate in this conference, as well as being a co-sponsor of the 2012 GEO Awards, which honor organizations that demonstrate excellence in leadership and dedication to their share plans.
Gamesa, a Spain-based holding company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is primarily engaged in the renewable energy sector won the GEO award for “Best Plan Effectiveness” for those companies with less than 30,000 employees. Gamesa’s international plan design and strong participation rates in their Share Purchase Plan clearly demonstrated that requiring individuals to make a monetary contribution to purchase and hold shares, while rewarding exceptional performance and achievements, were effective in aligning shareholders and company interests with those of their global employee base.
Google, Inc., the premier internet search provider (NASDAQ: GOOG), was awarded the “Best Use of Technology” award. Google’s gMobility plan is geared to mobile employees and creates an automated tool that captures transfer data and applies that data so that both the withholding and apportionment are completed through an automated process. gMobility was implemented to improve the employee experience, provide scalability and efficiency, and to assist with compliance and risk mitigation.
Skanska, a Sweden-based construction and project development company won the “Best Plan Effectiveness” award for those companies with more than 30,000 employees. Skanska initially designed the current Skanska Employee Ownership Program to effectively achieve their core objectives of aligning management’s interests with the employees, aligning shareholders’ interests with the employees and using a share plan as an effective and relevant retention tool.
“As one of the founding sponsors of the Global Equity Organization, we are committed to supporting corporate executives and equity compensation professionals dealing with the challenges of creating, managing and administering quality equity compensation plans. We are delighted for Gamesa, Google and Skanska to join the previous winners of the esteemed GEO awards,” said Jay Foley, Managing Director in the London headquarters of Global Stock Plan Services at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
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Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,300 offices in 43 countries. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.
1 GEO is not affiliated with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. References to third parties should in no way be considered a solicitation by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for services on behalf of third parties listed, or an endorsement of those companies by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
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©2012 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
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