Company: ALGN
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001097149-25-000016
Chunk: 93

Company: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY INC
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 93
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 materially amended with respect to any other terms or provisions since stockholders last approved the Incentive Plan in 2023. To the extent stockholders do not approve this Proposal 5, the Incentive Plan will continue as if the Incentive Plan Amendment did not apply and was not adopted by the Board.

### REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE TO APPROVE THE INCENTIVE PLAN AMENDMENT
Long-Term Stock Ownership is a Key Component of our Compensation Objective

Our overall compensation objective is to compensate our employees generally, including our executives and non- employee directors in a manner that attracts and retains the caliber of individuals needed to manage, staff and supervise our business in a competitive industry. Our employees are our most valuable asset, many with skills and experiences highly sought after by technology companies against whom we compete for talent. Accordingly, it is imperative to our future success that we provide our employees with compensation packages that are not only competitive but also that reward personal performance, help meet our retention needs and incentivize them to manage our business as owners, thereby more closely aligning their interests with those of our stockholders.

To achieve these objectives, we historically have provided a meaningful portion of our key employees’ total compensation in the form of equity awards through our equity incentive programs, the value of which depends on our stock performance. Our goal is for equity awards to continue to represent a meaningful portion of our key employees’ total compensation. Awards generally are subject to vesting over an extended period of time subject to continued service with us and we believe this approach helps to encourage long-term focus and commitment from our employees and provides Align with an important retention tool for key employees. In addition, we believe we need to continue to use equity awards to help attract, retain and motivate employees and other service providers to continue to grow our business and ultimately increase stockholder value as we compete for a limited pool of talented people and hiring and retaining such talent.

Reserving Shares Available for Granting Equity Awards is Important for Meeting our Future Compensation Needs

A significant portion of the compensation for our executive officers is in the form of equity compensation. In addition, approximately 5,406 of our regular, full-time employees hold outstanding equity awards as of February 28, 2025. We expect to exhaust the existing share reserve of the Incentive Plan as early as 2026 and believe it is prudent to replenish the share reserve at this time. Without the additional shares, we likely would need to make changes to our long-term incentive program in order to