Company: SPRB
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-059288
Chunk: 12

Company: SPRUCE BIOSCIENCES, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 12
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 represented by proxy and entitled to vote on the election of directors. Accordingly, the three nominees receiving the highest number of affirmative votes will be elected. Each person nominated for election has agreed to serve if elected. The Company’s management has no reason to believe that any nominee will be unable to serve.

The Nominating Committee seeks to assemble a board that, as a whole, is diverse and possesses the appropriate balance of professional and industry knowledge, financial expertise and high-level management experience necessary to oversee and direct the Company’s business. To that end, the Nominating Committee has identified and evaluated nominees in the broader context of the Board’s overall composition, with the goal of recruiting members who complement and strengthen the skills of other members and who also exhibit integrity, collegiality, sound business judgment and other qualities that the Nominating Committee views as critical to effective functioning of the Board. The brief biographies below include information, as of the date of this Proxy Statement, regarding the specific and particular experience, qualifications, attributes or skills of each director or nominee that led the Nominating Committee to believe that that nominee should serve or continue to serve on the Board. However, each of the members of the Nominating Committee may have a variety of reasons why he or she believes a particular person would be an appropriate nominee for the Board, and these views may differ from the views of other members. The following is a brief biography as of the Record Date of each nominee and each director whose term will continue after the Annual Meeting.

Nominees for Election for a Three-year Term Expiring at the Company’s 2028 Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Percival Barretto-Ko, 52, has served as a member of the Board since May 2023. Most recently, Mr. Barretto-Ko served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Plexium, Inc., a pharmaceutical company (“Plexium”). Prior to joining Plexium, Mr. Barretto-Ko served in numerous roles, including Chief Business Officer and President U.S., at Astellas Pharma Inc., a pharmaceutical company, from 2005 to 2021. Prior to joining Astellas, Mr. Barretto-Ko served in increasingly senior roles at Roche UK and US, a pharmaceutical company, from 2001 to 2005. Mr. Barretto-Ko has served on the board of directors for Alessa Therapeutics, Inc., a private pharmaceutical company, since January 2022. Mr. Barretto-Ko