Shareholder advisers slam executive pay
By Jeff Smith
Rocky Mountain News
Monday, May 19, 2008

Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and RiskMetrics, formerly ISS, both criticize Qwest Communications for overly generous executive pay and are supporting two shareholder proposals, including one to split the chairman and chief executive jobs.

Their proxy reports come in advance of the telco's annual shareholders meeting Thursday in Denver.

Proxy Governance, a third shareholder advisory firm, sides with Qwest's board in recommending against shareholder proposals.

But it criticizes the telco's executive pay as being "out of line," and recommends against the re-election of four compensation committee members, including Denver's Linda Alvarado.

Qwest defends its executive compensation as being in line with a peer group of major telcos.

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