The total compensation of non-employee directors is reasonably positioned among our carefully chosen industry peer companies and approximates the median of those peer companies.
ISS and Glass Lewis each expressed concern over the relative pay magnitude of our director compensation program. We strongly believe that Glass Lewis’s methodology of utilizing company size as its sole factor (i.e., without regard to industry or other relevant criteria) to determine the appropriate levels of director compensation does not appropriately reflect the positioning of the Company’s compensation for non-employee directors within industry peer companies. The Compensation Committee and the Board set the compensation of our non-employee directors at market-competitive levels designed to secure and retain the highest caliber of non-employee directors with relevant global and U.S. expertise in biopharmaceutical sales and marketing, product development, financial management and corporate development. All of our directors are expected to have experience and expertise in the biopharmaceutical healthcare industry, in addition to exhibiting high integrity, collegiality, innovative thinking, sound business judgment and a knowledge of corporate governance requirements and practices. The proxy statement for our AGM includes charts that further detail the key skills and experience our directors bring to our boardroom. Attracting and retaining the most highly qualified board members is in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders.
The Compensation Committee, in consultation with Radford, its independent compensation consultant, reviews our peer group annually to ensure that the companies in the peer group continue to provide meaningful and relevant compensation comparisons, and accordingly, considers industry, revenue, market capitalization and geographic criteria to select our peer group. Compared to our 2019 peer group, our Company ranked at the 65th percentile for trailing 12 months’ revenue and at the 67th percentile for 30-day average market capitalization, measured as of the time Radford prepared its final recommendations regarding the 2019 peer group for the Compensation Committee’s determination.
The Compensation Committee and Board consider the positioning of our director compensation program and the size of our Company relative to our industry peer companies, and then determine both the cash and stock components of our director compensation program to ensure that our compensation is positioned at market-competitive levels. When our director compensation levels are compared against those of our industry peer companies, rather than those of companies solely of similar market capitalization that fail to share other material commonalities, we see that the compensation of our non-employee directors as set forth in our Director Compensation Policy approximates the median, which is the approach consistently recommended by the Compensation Committee, in consultation with Radford.
Allocating a higher percentage of total compensation in the form of stock compensation is consistent with our industry peer companies’ practices, our compensation philosophy of meaningful share ownership and the corporate governance best practice of linking director compensation to the Company’s long-term performance. Additionally, we do not provide non-employee directors with retirement benefits or significant perquisites.
We manage our stock award use prudently, we believe the Share Increase is reasonable and we maintain strong corporate governance practices.
We carefully and thoughtfully manage our stock award use, considering dilution and burn rate when determining the size of stock awards that we believe are necessary to secure and retain the services of our non-employee directors. The potential dilution to current shareholders that could result from approval of the Proposed Directors Plan (that is, shares subject to the Share Increase divided by ordinary shares outstanding on the record date) would be approximately 0.9%, which we believe is both reasonable and within industry standards. Additionally, our track record demonstrates a prudent and responsible utilization of shares under the Directors Plan and the 2011 EIP that is closely aligned with the practices of our industry peer companies.
Our director compensation program also reflects our Board’s commitment to strong corporate governance. For example, (i) in 2016, we eliminated the “evergreen” provision for automatic annual increases to the share reserve of the Directors Plan and (ii) the Proposed Directors Plan prohibits the repricing of stock options and stock appreciation rights without shareholder approval. Additionally, after recently engaging with our shareholders and receiving feedback on our director compensation program, the Compensation Committee further enhanced our corporate governance practices by amending our Director Compensation Policy to provide that: (i) continuing option grants to non-employee directors shall vest in full on the first anniversary of the date of the annual general meeting of our shareholders with respect to which the option is granted (instead of in a series of 12 successive equal monthly installments); and (ii) the annual aggregate value of all compensation granted or paid by us to any individual for service as a non-employee director, including stock awards granted under the Directors Plan and cash fees paid to such non-employee director, will not exceed $750,000 in total value, or in the event such non-employee director is first appointed or elected to the Board during such period, $1,350,000 in total value. If Proposal 4 is approved by our shareholders, the Board will further amend the Proposed Directors Plan to include the Director Compensation Limit consistent with the amendment already made to the Director Compensation Policy.