Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-05-07
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001213900-25-040263
Chunk: 82

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-05-07
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 82
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 and recommended by the compensation committee, and approved by the board of directors. The compensation committee engaged a compensation consulting firm to provide and structure benchmarking data for similar positions in similar companies. 2024 Base Salaries The named executive officers’ base salaries are a fixed component of annual compensation for performing specific duties and functions. Such base salaries are adjusted from time to time to realign with market levels after taking into account individual responsibilities, performance and experience. Annual Bonuses We use annual cash incentive bonuses for the named executive officers to motivate their achievement of short -termperformance goals and tie a portion of their cash compensation to performance. It is expected that, near the beginning of each year, the Compensation Committee will select the performance targets, target amounts, target award opportunities and other terms and conditions of annual cash bonuses for the named executive officers, subject to the terms of their employment agreements. Following the end of each year, the Compensation Committee will determine the extent to which the performance targets were achieved and the amount of the award that is payable to each of the named executive officers. A bonus plan was established for executive officers in 2024. Overview of Executive Compensation Program Our Compensation Committee anticipates annually reviewing the compensation of our employees, including our executive officers. In setting executive base salaries and bonuses and granting equity incentive awards, the Compensation Committee considers compensation for comparable positions in the market, the historical compensation levels of our executive officers, individual performance as compared to our expectations and objectives, internal equity, our desire to motivate our employees to achieve short- and long -termresults that are in the best interests of our stockholders, and a long -termcommitment to us. We intend to target a general competitive position and consider independent third -partybenchmark analytics to determine the mix of compensation of base salary, bonus and long -termincentives. We engaged the services of an external compensation consultant to advise on executive compensation matters including our overall compensation program design and collection of market data to inform our compensation programs for our executive officers and members of our board of directors. The compensation for our executive officers will have the following components: base salary, cash bonus opportunities, equity compensation, employee benefits, and severance protections. Base salaries, employee benefits, and severance protections are designed to attract and retain senior management talent. Annual cash bonuses and equity awards are used to promote performance -basedpay that aligns the interests of the named executive officers with the long -terminterests of our stockholders and enhances executive retention. 47 Employment Agreements with our Named Executive Officers We are