principal

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Ms. Appelbaum is a Principal in the Minneapolis office of McLagan’s Corporate and Consumer Banking Consulting Practice.  Gayle brings over 30 years of experience to her clients.  Her extensive knowledge of compensation trends and the banking industry coupled with her keen ability to understand each client’s needs enables her to create solutions unique to each situation.  She specializes in developing incentive compensation plans that balance short and long-term risk while building shareholder value. Gayle’s expertise encompasses the full spectrum of compensation and benefits issues, including corporate governance, pay-for-performance, risk assessment, taxation, regulatory compliance, and compensation agreement provisions.

In a recent engagement, Gayle helped a $6 Billion dollar bank assess the competitiveness and soundness of its incentive compensation plans.  Changes in incentive plan design reduced enterprise risk while also increasing total pay opportunities to a more appropriate competitive level for this high-performing organization.  In addition, all incentive plans were evaluated and documented to assure compliance with new rules and regulations.

Her passion for helping business owners led Gayle to founding and operating her own financial planning and consulting firm for 22 years, where she specialized in business planning, executive benefits and estate planning.  She later was Founder and Managing Director of Amalfi Consulting, a firm that specialized in compensation consulting for the banking industry.  Gayle has also served in an executive role in a leading investment and financial company prior to joining McLagan.

Gayle is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, earning bachelor’s degrees in business administration and philosophy.  She is a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC).  Gayle has served as an adjunct professor for Minnesota State University’s Certified Financial Planning and certificate program.  She is a featured speaker at numerous industry conferences and webinar programs and is a published author of articles pertaining to current and leading edge compensation issues.

Recent articles and media engagements:

WIB's - Compensation Benchmarking in a Down Economy

WIB - HR & Training Digest  "Final Guidance on Sound Incentive Compensation: A New Day for HR Executives"