Richard Reese - Designing Incentives at Iron Mountain - Ep.148

Think Like an Owner

My guest on this episode is Richard Reese. Richard took over as CEO of Iron Mountain, a physical records management business, in 1981. He ran the business as CEO through going public in 1996 before retiring from the role in 2013. Revenue over that period grew from around $3 million in 1981 to $3 billion in 2013.

Our discussion focuses on incentivizing teams with cash and stock, something Richard has thought deeply about over many decades, developing compensation plans, working with private and public investors, and a few stories from the early years of running Iron Mountain.

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Links:

Richard on LinkedIn

Iron Mountain

Topics:

(4:03) - Richard’s background, career, and time as CEO for Iron Mountain

(14:03) - What became easier when you went public? What became harder?

(17:30) - What did your management team look like when you stepped in and how did you look to evolve it?

(24:29) - When you started thinking about incentivizing the management team, what were some ways you got them to buy in?

(38:35) - What kind of challenges did you run into with equity compensations?