Knowledge Base

The following sources allow you to get compensation and diversity information about executives/CEOs (such as their gender, ethnicity) of public companies, based on publicly disclosed information (e.g. SEC filings, ESG reports).

Large Datasets

• Compustat: Execucomp – see WRDS access help - US coverage since the 1990s, provides individual-level compensation data + a flag for the executives' gender. This is the top source for information about U.S. executives.
  1. Under Subscriptions go to Compustat - Capital IQ > Execucomp > Annual Compensation.
  2. Fill out the Web Query Form (see instructions).
• ISS ESG – see WRDS access help – Covers S&P 1500 companies and has individual-level executive compensation data in the Incentive Lab files back to the late 1990s. It does not include diversity data for executives.
  1. Under Subscriptions go to ISS ESG > Incentive Lab.
  2. Fill out the Web Query Form (see instructions).
• Refinitiv ESG Data - Global coverage at the company-level (not the individual executive-level). The diversity variables (e.g. Executive Members Gender Diversity, Percent and Executives Cultural Diversity) are only provided for recent years and only when reported). The compensation variables include Total Senior Executives Compensation and the Highest Remuneration Package.
  1. To find and select these variables, when you're getting the data, use the option to browse the Data Item Library.
  2. Go to the Environmental, Social and Governance category. You can either search for the word "executive" or if given the option to browse go Governance > Management.

Other Compensation Sources

These sources are better for looking up companies individually and/or for current data rather than for getting a large time-series dataset.

• Capital IQ – see Capital IQ access help (Global coverage)
  • On a company's page, in the left navigation under People select Compensation.
• LSEG Workspace – see LSEG Workspace access help (Global coverage)
  • On the company's landing page, go to the ESG tab > Offices > Detail. The compensation data will be in the Renumeration box.

Other Diversity Sources

These sources cover public and private companies but only provide current information (e.g. the gender of the current CEO with no way to track that over time) and the data cannot typically be exported in bulk. Due to changing privacy laws in some U.S. states, some vendors (e.g. Data Axle) are pulling the ethnicity data for those states. Additionally, many of these variables are generated using algorithms to determine the most likely gender and/or ethnicity of a person based on their name, rather than being self or officially reported information.

• D&B Hoovers – U.S. coverage, has a flag for whether the firm is Women-owned or Minority-owned.
• Data Axle Reference Solutions – U.S. coverage, has a flag for Executive Gender and Executive Ethnicity.
• Orbis – see Orbis access help – U.S. coverage only for these variables, has a flag for US companies owned or managed by women or US companies owned or managed by an ethnic minority.
• PrivCo – see PrivCo access help - U.S. coverage, private companies with over $1M in annual revenue, with variables for whether a company is Minority-, Asian-, Black-, Lantix-, Middle Eastern/North African-, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander-, Women-, Veteran-, or LGBTQ-led. For a larger download, Ask Us for assistance.
• PitchBook – see PitchBook access help - Global coverage, in the People screener there is a Gender flag.

See also:

• U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index – A long running annual report that "examines the latest data and trends in board composition, board governance practices and director compensation among S&P 500 companies."