Debbie Reiss
Hardesty
Member
Debbie Reiss Hardesty now serves as Vice Chair of the Firm's Corporate Department, but also founded the Firm's Kentucky Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group, and, until recently, led this practice group across the Firm's geography. In that role, Debbie addressed a wide variety of issues involving design and tax and ERISA compliance for employee benefit plans and executive compensation programs. She has successfully used her knowledge of stock ownership and compensation programs to lead a number of cross-disciplinary teams in business management and ownership succession transactions. Ms. Reiss Hardesty also serves on the Firm's Executive Committee.
Example Experiences:
- Assist in the entire life-cycle of successful ESOP companies. One example: established the ESOP to preserve jobs in the face of possible closure due to loss of capital financing; counseled the company in governance and maintenance of the ESOP; and then represented the company in sale of ESOP's stock to a public company after years of growth.
- Executive compensation program redesign, requiring termination of some plans, enhancement of others, and addition of new plans, cooperating with in-house counsel, actuaries, and other outside consultants and vendors to create a cohesive new program.
- Frequently navigate the numerous options available to family-owned companies considering the pros and cons of sale, succession of ownership and management to family members, or the succession to non-family members with or without continued family ownership.