Transformative events come in all shapes and sizes (e.g., M&A event, retirement of a key employee, capital raises, etc.). The purpose of this presentation is to share ideas on how compensation can be structured so that when a transformative event later occurs, the key employee is properly incentivized towards increasing shareholder value. To that end, some of our discussion points include: (i) smoothing the transition triggered by a key employee retiring; (ii) how to initially set terms within a new or revised executive contract so that the key employee has individual negotiation power when the bank later sells in an M&A event; (iii) for privately-held banks, how to use an ESOP to create a tax-advantaged liquidity program for the trading of compensatory equity awards; (iv) raising capital and using an ESOP as a partial solution; and more!