Rhonda R. Buseman
BENCHMARK ELECTRONICSAbout Rhonda R. Buseman
Rhonda R. Buseman is Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Benchmark Electronics (BHE), serving in the role since July 2019. She is 51 and holds a BS in Management from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, where she is an Alumni Hall of Fame inductee; she is a Certified Compensation Professional (WorldatWork), a licensed Predictive Index analyst, and holds Korn Ferry Leadership Architect and Interview Architect certifications . Company performance relevant to incentive alignment includes 2022 PSU awards paying out at 43.55% of target, with actual results of Revenue $2.656B, Operating Income Margin 4.59%, and ROIC 9.87% for the measurement year; PSU metrics are weighted equally across revenue, operating income margin, and ROIC and assessed over a three-year period .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Technical Institute, Inc. | Senior Vice President of Human Resources | 2006–July 2019 | Led HR for publicly traded education company; executive leadership role |
| ConocoPhillips | HR leadership roles | — | HR leadership at a global energy company |
| Circle K | HR leadership roles | — | HR leadership in retail operations |
| Main Street Restaurant Group | HR leadership roles | — | HR leadership in multi-unit restaurant operations |
External Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh Start Women’s Foundation | Executive Board Member | — | Community and leadership engagement |
Fixed Compensation
- Not disclosed in the 2025 Proxy’s Named Executive Officer (NEO) tables; Buseman was not an NEO for 2024, so salary and cash bonus details are not publicly itemized .
Performance Compensation
- Company executive incentive design (applies to NEOs; CHRO-specific details not disclosed): Annual cash incentives tied to revenue, Adjusted Operating Income, and Adjusted Inventory; long‑term equity split between PSUs and RSUs with PSUs based on revenue, Operating Income Margin, and ROIC, each weighted one‑third over three years .
PSU Performance Structure and 2022 Results (Company-wide NEO program)
| Metric | Weighting | Threshold | Target | Maximum | Actual | Payout (Aggregate) | Vesting/Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 1/3 | $2.527B | $2.956B | $3.399B | $2.656B | 43.55% of target (aggregate across metrics) | 3-year performance; assessed Q1 2025 |
| Operating Income Margin | 1/3 | 4.41% | 5.00% | 5.59% | 4.59% | 43.55% of target (aggregate across metrics) | 3-year performance; assessed Q1 2025 |
| ROIC | 1/3 | 11.90% | 14.00% | 16.11% | 9.87% | 43.55% of target (aggregate across metrics) | 3-year performance; assessed Q1 2025 |
- RSUs: Beginning in 2024, RSUs vest over 3 years, adjusted from a 4-year schedule to align with peer practice; no stock options were granted in 2024 .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Insider trading plan: On September 5, 2025, Buseman adopted a Rule 10b5‑1 trading arrangement for potential sale of up to 20,000 shares, with no sales before December 5, 2025; the plan expires November 30, 2026 .
- Hedging/pledging: Directors and executives are prohibited from pledging, hedging, short selling, or speculative trading in company securities .
- Ownership guidelines: For NEOs, updated in August 2024—CEO 5x salary, CFO 3x salary, other NEOs 2x salary; retention of 20% of RSU vestings until thresholds met. CHRO-specific ownership guideline disclosure not provided in the proxy .
- Beneficial ownership: Individual share counts for Buseman are not listed in the March 21, 2025 beneficial ownership table; Directors and executive officers as a group held 774,464 shares (2.2%), but Buseman is not itemized in the individual rows .
Insider Selling Pressure Overview
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| 10b5‑1 Plan Size | Up to 20,000 shares |
| Earliest Trade Date | December 5, 2025 |
| Plan Expiration | November 30, 2026 |
| Hedging/Pledging | Prohibited for executives |
Employment Terms
- CHRO-specific employment agreement, severance, change‑of‑control terms: Not disclosed in the 2025 Proxy. The company disclosed an employment agreement for the CEO and severance agreements for CFO, Interim CFO, CCO, COO, and General Counsel, with automatic one-year extensions and restrictive covenants; CHRO was not listed among agreements disclosed .
Performance & Track Record
- Company 2024 context: Management highlighted enhanced margins, steady earnings and cash flow, and materially reduced inventory to reinvest in growth .
- Pay versus performance references: CAP vs. TSR, Net Income, and Revenue visual relationships were included to assess alignment; 2022 PSU results were below target consistent with financial performance .
- Compensation governance: “Best practices” include emphasizing variable pay, stock ownership guidelines, anti‑hedging/pledging, double‑trigger vesting/severance on change‑in‑control, and independent consultants; no tax gross-ups other than qualified relocations; no SERPs; strong say‑on‑pay support in 2024 (>96%) .
Compensation Peer Group (Pay vs. Performance Index)
- Peer group index used in pay-versus-performance analysis: Celestica Inc., Flex Ltd., Jabil Inc., Kimball Electronics Inc., Plexus Corp, and Sanmina Corporation .
Governance, Controls, and Policies
- Clawback Policy: Adopted in 2023 under Dodd‑Frank 954; applies to executive officers, enables recoupment over the prior three fiscal years in case of accounting restatement; includes methodologies for price/TSR-based awards when restatement impacts are estimated .
- Securities Trading Policy: Transactions governed to ensure compliance; Rule 10b5‑1 trading plans explicitly permitted under policy frameworks .
Investment Implications
- Alignment: Anti‑hedging/pledging and clawback strengthen alignment; equity-based incentives tied to revenue, margin, and ROIC reinforce long-term value creation focus .
- Selling pressure: A 10b5‑1 plan for up to 20,000 shares creates potential scheduled supply beginning December 2025 through November 2026, though plan-based trades reduce discretionary timing risk and may reflect diversification rather than negative signal .
- Disclosure gaps: Lack of CHRO-specific salary/bonus/PSU/RSU grant detail, severance, and change-of-control terms in the proxy limits precision in pay-for-performance and retention risk analysis for Buseman; monitoring future DEF 14A and any Item 5.02 8‑Ks is warranted .
- Program signals: Shift away from options and RSU vesting shortened to three years suggests retention and market alignment; 2022 PSUs paying at 43.55% of target indicates rigorous targets with below-target outcomes during the period, tempering windfall risk .