Windstream hopes to maintain its Key Employee Incentive Program (KEIP), which would could dole out a total of $20.1 million if its executives meet their performance requirements throughout 2019, Channel Partners reported. Windstream filed for bankruptcy in February after a court ruled that it owed $310.5 million to one of its bondholders. The company announced last week that it will cut 15 percent of its partner base while upping commissions for the remainder. The five executives — President and CEO Tony Thomas, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Robert Gunderman, Enterprise and Wholesale President Layne Levine, Kinetic business unit President Jeff Small, and Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Kristi Moody — are “generally responsible” for Windstream’s strategy and play a “central role” in the company’s chapter 11 proceedings, according to Willis Towers Watson, which is consulting the reorganization efforts. The advisory firm declared to the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York Tuesday that the court should approve the KEIP as Windstream goes through the bankruptcy process. The court filing states that the five members of senior management would only earn their base salaries without KEIP. Windstream would dish out incentive payments for the first half of 2019 and the respective third and fourth quarters. Windstream is also trying to retrain its Key Employee Retention Program, which gives up to $5 million to select “non-insider” employees.
