My Driver

The second chapter of this dissertation investigates a sample of larger publicly-traded US companies with a designated investor relations (IR) executive, who is among the top five paid employees. We provide initial evidence regarding the level and components of compensation for these IR executives relative to other executives. We examine the company's choice to elevate the IR function and its relation with future earnings persistence. Finally, we provide evidence that firms with an IR executive among the top five paid employees are more likely to meet or just beat analyst expectations.;The first chapter of this dissertation examines the relation between pay dispersion among top executives and firm performance, executive turnover, and earnings management. I find that deviations from normal dispersion are associated with deterioration in firm performance and higher executive turnover. I also document a positive relation between abnormal pay dispersion and earnings management. This study contributes to accounting literature by suggesting that abnormal pay dispersion provides incentives for earnings management. Vanessa Henman, a plucky but accident-prone white writer, flies from London to Uganda for an African writers' conference. She also means to visit her former cleaner, Ugandan Mary Tendo, now the successful Executive Housekeeper of Kampala's up-market Sheraton Hotel. But Mary has her own agenda: her son Jamil is missing, and she has secretly summoned Vanessa's beloved ex-husband Trevor, a plumber, to her home village to build a new well. Vanessa sets off alone on safari to distant Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the mountain gorillas. But she quarrels with her driver and a bloody war closes in on Bwindi from Congo. Can anyone save her? Will Mary Tendo find her son? 'One of her strongest novels to date...fast-moving, energetic, constantly surprising' Hilary Mantel 'Maggie Gee has never written better' Rose Tremain 'A tour de force - brilliantly structured, surprising, humane, and suspenseful' Elaine Showalter 'Brilliant...just brilliant...this book deserves to be published in every language' Hillary Jordan 'Executed with a lovely, light touch ... an immensely enjoyable novel.' Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph 'Worldy, witty, enjoyable, impressive' Doris Lessing 'Sparky, funny and terrifically entertaining' Guardian "Vanessa Henman, a plucky but accident-prone white writer, flies from London to Uganda for a Pan-African writers' conference. She also intends to pay her former cleaner, Mary Tendo, a surprise visit. But Mary--now the executive housekeeper of the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala--has her own agenda, and she has secretly summoned Vanessa's beloved ex-husband Trevor, a plumber, to her home village to help build a well. The conference over, Vanessa sets off alone on a safari to the distant Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the mountain gorillas. Farce teeters on the edge of something much darker when Vanessa quarrels with her driver and a bloody war closes in on Bwindi from Congo. Can anyone save her?"--Amazon.com