WHC Management, page-23

"The concept of shareholder return being linked to KPIs is bonkers. Share price is the one thing that executives can't control."

Yes and no. Management can certainly make very bad business decisions that affect EPS and therefore share price. Oppositely, they can make some very good decisions which can increase EPS and therefore should increase the share price. What I wouldn't blame management is if EPS increased and the share price decreased.

The buyback program caused a lot of contention amongst WHC share holders. In hindsight it seems obvious they should have waited for the share price to drop down in the $6.XX etc when conducting the buy back instead of doing it at the peak of coal prices and share prices. I am/was new to coal last year, so I had no knowledge of the cyclical/boom & bust nature of the coal price, but I would expect management to have a good understanding of this. It seems that a more prudent approach would to have done what NHC did and advise that funds are available should management deem a buyback value accreditive.

Otherwise, I do agree with many of your points.