Autodesk 2015 Annual Report Download - page 51

2015 Proxy Statement 45
goals, components, and metrics; compensation trends in the high technology sector and general market for senior executives;
and the compensation of the CEO and the other executive officers. The Committee has considered the independence of
Exequity in light of NASDAQ's listing standards for compensation committee independence and the rules of the Securities and
Exchange Commission. The Committee requested and received a written confirmation from Exequity addressing the
independence of the firm and its senior advisers working with the Committee. The Committee discussed these considerations
and concluded that the work performed by Exequity did not raise any conflict of interest.
Management. The Committee also consults with management and Autodesk’s Human Resources Group regarding executive
and non-executive employee compensation plans, including administration of Autodesk’s equity incentive plans.
Competitive Compensation Positioning
To ensure our executive compensation practices are competitive and consistent with the Committee’s guiding principles,
Exequity and management provide the Committee with compensation data for each executive role. This data is drawn from a
group of companies in relevant industries that compete with Autodesk for executive talent (the “compensation peer group”).
The Committee uses this data, as well as information about broader technology industry compensation practices, when
deliberating on the compensation of the executive officers.
The compensation peer group is selected based upon multiple criteria, including industry positioning, competition for talent,
company size, financial results and geographic footprint. The Committee reviews the compensation peer group each year to
ensure that the comparisons remain meaningful and relevant.
For fiscal 2015 compensation, the compensation peer group included the following companies:
Company
Reported
Fiscal Year
Revenue
($'s in
Billions)
Net Income Or
Loss
($'s in Billions)
Market
Capitalization as of
1/31/2015
($'s in billions)
Adobe Systems, Inc. 28-Nov-14 4.15 0.27 34.89
Akamai Technologies, Inc. 31-Dec-14 1.96 0.33 10.37
CA, Inc. 31-Mar-14 4.52 0.91 13.28
Citrix Systems, Inc. 31-Dec-14 3.14 0.25 9.53
Electronic Arts, Inc. 31-Mar-14 3.58 0.01 17.01
Intuit Inc. 31-Jul-14 4.51 0.91 24.39
Juniper Networks, Inc. 31-Dec-14 4.63 -0.33 9.46
MICROS Systems, Inc. 30-Jun-14 1.41 0.18 N/A*
National Instruments
Corporation 31-Dec-14 1.24 0.13 3.85
Nuance Communications, Inc. 30-Sep-14 1.92 -0.15 4.47
PTC Inc. 30-Sep-14 1.36 0.16 3.84
Red Hat, Inc. 28-Feb-15 1.79 0.18 11.7
salesforce.com, inc. 31-Jan-15 5.37 -0.26 36.73
Synopsys, Inc. 31-Oct-14 2.06 0.26 6.60
Autodesk, Inc. 31-Jan-15 2.51 0.08 12.26
Autodesk Percentile Ranking 50% 29% 62%
Maximum 5.37 0.91 36.73
Minimum 1.24 -0.33 3.84
* MICROS was acquired in September 2014
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