The growth-at-all-costs model for shale drillers has succeeded in ramping up U.S. oil production, but it hasn’t necessarily led to impressive financials. A group of activist investors are hoping to upend this arrangement by breaking the link between the pace of drilling and CEO pay. Reuters reports that some activists investors are pushing for some fundamental changes to executive compensation, which they argue could make shale drilling much more profitable. For years, shale executives have enjoyed huge paydays for increasing their companies’ oil production – the more oil produced, the more the CEO earns through pay and bonuses. Wall Street has showered money on companies that post impressive growth numbers, and higher share prices mean more executive pay. Much of this was premised on the fact that enormous profits would eventually arrive. But to date that hasn’t been the case, and shareholders are wising up to the fact that […]