Compensation practices at financial institutions receiving federal bailout money raised the ire of citizens and lawmakers this winter, but the huge salaries and bonuses paid to some corporate leaders are not new. How did executive compensation reach such lofty levels?

With chief executive pay skyrocketing, companies are tying those giant paychecks to performance measures and stock options — incentives intended to get CEOs to hit their marks. Such incentives become valuable only if certain benchmarks, such as increased share prices, are hit.

What makes an individual an effective director of a Fortune 500 company? Is it skills, experience, and connections? Or is it outside allegiances that pull a director one way or another? Are women better at it than men? Do executives from other companies have an edge?

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides stockholders with a way to express their displeasure when a CEO’s compensation seems outrageously high. But, only a tiny percentage of corporations and their CEOs have been on the losing end of so-called “say-on-pay” votes.

Shareholders, interest groups and governments have called increased diversity on boards of directors, but what actually happens when women and minorities take seats on boards long dominated by white men? A team of researchers from the W. P.