Company: ACHV
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-059297
Chunk: 18

Company: ACHIEVE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 18
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 of the Board of Directors. The Compensation Committee does not have any explicit authority to delegate its duties. The Compensation Committee held seven meetings during fiscal year 2024.

In 2024, the Compensation Committee retained Aon’s Human Capital Solutions practice, a division of Aon plc, or Aon, a provider of compensation market intelligence to the life sciences industries, to provide a report summarizing relevant benchmark data relating to industry-appropriate peers and make recommendations regarding base salary, target total cash (base salary plus target cash incentives), and terms of long-term equity incentive awards for our executives. The Compensation Committee determined that no work performed by Aon during fiscal year 2024 raised a conflict of interest.

Please see the sections entitled “Executive Compensation” and “Director Compensation” for further matters related to the Compensation Committee and director and executive officer compensation matters.

Nominating and Governance Committee

The Nominating and Governance Committee currently consists of Bridget Martell, Chairperson, Stuart Duty and Kristen Slaoui, each of whom the Board of Directors has determined satisfies the applicable SEC and Nasdaq independence requirements.

The Nominating and Governance Committee reviews, evaluates and proposes candidates for election to our Board of Directors, and considers any nominees properly recommended by stockholders. The Nominating and Governance Committee promotes the proper constitution of our Board of Directors in order to meet its fiduciary obligations to our

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stockholders, and oversees the establishment of, and compliance with, appropriate governance standards. The Nominating and Governance Committee held four meetings during fiscal year 2024.

Thomas King served as our lead independent director from June 2023 to August 2024, when he assumed the role of Interim Executive Chairman in connection with our CEO transition. Effective upon the Annual Meeting, Mr. King will cease to serve as Interim Executive Chairman and will serve in the position of an independent Chairman of the Board. Mr. King brings extensive leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry in leading the Board. Richard Stewart has served as our Chief Executive Officer since August 2024 and, prior to that, as our Chairman of the Board from 2017 to September 2020, and as our Executive Chairman from September 2020 to August 2024, when he reassumed the position of Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Stewart brings extensive executive leadership and experience with the development of our lead product candidate, cytisinicline. Our Board of Directors believed that having Mr. Stewart focus on the day-to-day operational and strategic