Company: AOS
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001193125-25-037641
Chunk: 78

Company: SMITH A O CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 78
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 trends. The Nominating and Governance Committee’s roles and responsibilities are set forth in a written Charter adopted by the Board, which is available on our website. We review and reassess the Charter annually, and more frequently as necessary to address any changes.

As part of its responsibilities, the Committee monitored and advised the full Board regarding our regulatory governance and corporate governance trends. It confirmed to the Board of Directors that no updates to the Corporate Governance Guidelines or our code of business conduct, called the “Guiding Principles,” were recommended. These and other corporate governance documents, including Board Committees’ Charters, are available via our website. No waivers were sought or granted from our code of conduct. The Committee also monitored director education programs in which directors participated. Finally, the Committee reviewed and made updated recommendations to the Board regarding the company’s processes for governance and oversight of certain risks, including its enterprise risk, ESG, privacy and cybersecurity programs.

As part of its responsibilities, the Committee oversaw a director search and recruitment process as a result of which the Committee recommended to the Board the nomination of Mr. Fister and Ms. Martin as new directors at the 2024 Annual Meeting, and the nomination of Adrian Peace as a new director pending his election by our stockholders at the Annual Meeting. All three of these nominations, and the recommendation of the nominations of all director in this Proxy were made in accordance with the Corporate Governance Guidelines and the Criteria for the Selection of the Board Candidates which directs the Committee to carefully consider each director’s skill set, expertise, perspective, level of engagement and other board participation in its nomination process.

The Committee also is responsible for reviewing director compensation. For 2024, the Committee reviewed director compensation and recommended changes to cash and stock retainers effective April 8, 2025, to reflect annual director compensation benchmarking provided by WTW, which were approved by the Board.

The Committee reviewed Board Committee member qualifications and independence and made recommendations to the Board on member appointments to Committees. The Committee reviewed the Board’s Committee structure and operations and reported to the Board regarding them. Further, the Committee reviewed the independence of compensation consultants and made recommendations to the Personnel and Compensation Committee as to their independence.

The Committee also conducted an annual review of the process implemented by the Board and each Board Committee to review best practices and how they addressed risk oversight, as well as verified that all Committees’ Charters were in place and were reviewed by the Committees. The Committee also conducted a review of our Financial Code of Ethics, officers’ outside board memberships