The NASPP Blog

New this year, we are featuring “Meet the Speaker” interviews with panelists for the upcoming 21st Annual NASPP Conference. This is a great way to get to know our many distinguished speakers and find out a little more about their sessions in advance of the Conference.

For today’s blog, we feature an interview with Bernice Toy of BeUbiq, who leads the session “The Documentation Gap: Managing Version Control of Plan Documents.” Here is what Berni had to say:

NASPP: What are a few key areas your panel will address with respect to your topic?

Berni: Stock plan professionals are being asked to do more with less. And, at the same time, are expected to enhance collaboration and ensure equity plan are compliant worldwide. The only way to be successful is to centralize and organize source content and business knowledge. Our panel of experts will share how they use technology to do just that.

NASPP: What is the biggest challenge companies face with respect to this issue?

Berni: Document and version control is one of the biggest challenges. Let’s use a stock plan for an example. In the past, when I joined a new company or when I consulted, one of the first things I would do is read through all the active stock plans. I would try to find the document(s) on my own… after an hour of searching through shared folders I might have found multiple copies of the plan. To ensure I was working off the most recent version, I would have to ask someone. Turns out the most recent version was on the person’s laptop. And when there’s a remote workforce, sharing documents and knowledge is even more of a challenge.

NASPP: What are some horror stories you can tell about your topic?

Berni: Some horror stories include missed deadlines, working off the wrong set of information, or not knowing what has been done in the past. Each of these resulted in companies needing to pay large fines or legal fees. In one case, a company paid for a private letter ruling twice, because no one on the team knew the history and there wasn’t a record of the original filing to be found. Our panel will share remedies for managing key processes.

NASPP: Tell us three things people don’t know about you.

Berni: Wow…how do I answer this question?

1. I’m older than I look, thanks to my hair stylist. 
2. I direct a dance company. Yes, when I’m not a stock plan professional, I’m a dancer/choreographer.
3. My favorite color is red, but people think it’s teal, since I tend to wear teal a lot!

About the NASPP Conference
The 21st Annual NASPP Conference will be held from September 23-26 in Washington, DC. This year’s program features 60+ sessions on today’s most timely topics in stock compensation; check out the full agenda and register today! You don’t want to miss Bernie’s session, “The Documentation Gap: Managing Version Control of Plan Documents.”