Rising star: Monique Allaire, AVEO Pharmaceuticals.
It isn’t often that you find a person who will not only step up to the plate and do their job in expert fashion when times are tough, but will also go above and beyond the call of duty to handle functions outside their job title when the company needs them most. Monique Allaire was such a person for AVEO Pharmaceuticals in 2011.
After becoming a publicly traded company in 2010, AVEO was under a tremendous amount of pressure to get off on the right foot with regulators and proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis, as it had to craft its first proxy statement and 8-K filing. Allaire took it upon herself to coordinate certain aspects of the process that were not actually part of her job as director of investor relations. She reached out to legal, compensation and voting professionals inside and outside the company to review the private company structures AVEO had in place and compare them to those that were more suitable for public companies in the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry.
'Allaire coordinated the review with Laurel Hill Advisory Group and outside counsel Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, uncovering several compensation and governance issues that may have produced objections from regulators. She took the materials, commentary and recommendations that she had collected and developed a presentation which included a number of alternative policy moves the company could make. She was then personally involved in presenting the alternatives to the AVEO board. Several governance policy adjustments were made, and AVEO’s first proxy statement was ultimately well received in the marketplace.
As Laurel Hill noted, ‘Allaire recognized the substantial differences between the needs and requirements of public versus private and acted on her own belief in the need to put a responsible foot forward regarding governance and compensation during a challenging year for all public companies.’
This foresight and commitment to getting the job done earned Allaire Corporate Secretary’s rising star award for 2011. Her conscientious review of governance and compensation structures shows her strong understanding of industry standards, which bodes well for her advancement in the field. Additionally, her ability to fulfill her obligations as AVEO’s spokesperson at a critical moment for the company while also conducting governance policy analysis for the board shows exceptional executive management skills. Allaire is definitely a rising talent ready to make her mark in the years to come.
