Company: ISRG
Filing Date: 2025-03-14
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001035267-25-000098
Chunk: 32

Company: INTUITIVE SURGICAL INC
Filing Date: 2025-03-14
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 32
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 plans expressly prohibit the Company from buying out stock options whose exercise price exceeds the fair market value of our common stock, often referred to as underwater options, for cash.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| No Liberal Recycling of Shares                                              |     | All of the Company’s active equity plans prohibit the liberal recycling of shares or underlying awards granted under these plans.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| No Automatic “Single Trigger” Vesting of Equity Awards                      |     | None of the Company’s outstanding equity awards provide for automatic acceleration of vesting of equity awards upon a change in control of the Company.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |

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#### Executive Compensation Philosophy

#### Goal of Executive Compensation Program
The primary objective of our executive compensation program is to attract and retain a passionate team of executives who will provide leadership to advance the Quintuple Aim: better outcomes, better patient experience, better care team experience, improve patient access, and lower total cost to treat. We seek to accomplish this goal in a way that is aligned with the long-term interests of our stockholders.

We employ a “team-based” approach to compensating our executives, which is predicated on two principles:

• Each executive, including our NEOs, must demonstrate exceptional performance to remain a part of our executive team. We believe that executives who underperform should be removed from our executive team and have their compensation adjusted accordingly or be dismissed from the Company.

• Executives, including our NEOs, must contribute as members of the team to our overall success rather than merely achieve specific objectives within their respective area of responsibility.

As a result of this team-based approach, the Compensation Committee carefully considers the relative compensation levels among all members of the executive team. Accordingly, our executive compensation program is designed to be internally consistent and equitable to further the Company’s success. As reflected in the discussion below, the differences in the amounts awarded to each of our executives, including our NEOs, relate primarily to the experience, responsibilities, and performance of each individual executive and differing market practices for compensation in each executive’s job function.

#### Compensation Mix
We are focused on a total compensation program that directly links to performance. We provide competitive cash compensation through base salary, which is fixed pay, and cash performance incentives. Our equity compensation program provides for awards in the form of RSUs and PSUs (and, prior to 2024, stock options). We believe long-term equity awards are effective compensation elements for attracting innovative and passionate executives that reward stockholder value creation and for providing