Company: QLYS
Filing Date: 2025-04-11
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-013472
Chunk: 61

Company: QUALYS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-11
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 61
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 and for recruitment, motivation, or retention purposes. Our Compensation and Talent Committee will approve and periodically review all future practices with respect to perquisites or other personal benefits.

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Change in Control and Severance Payments and Benefits Ms. Kim’s employment offer letter provided for certain protections in the event of termination of her employment under specified circumstances. In addition, certain equity awards granted to our named executive officers provided for acceleration of vesting upon termination of their employment under specified circumstances. Our board of directors previously approved (i) a severance and change in control policy for our CEO in April 2021, in connection with Mr. Thakar’s appointment as CEO, and (ii) for our other named executive officers in October 2021. The severance and change in control payments and benefits under these policies supersede any prior agreement or arrangement the named executive officers may have had with us that provided for severance and/or change in control payments or benefits (other than any existing vesting acceleration benefits upon a termination of employment due to death or disability). We believe that these arrangements maximize stockholder value by minimizing any potential distractions caused by the possibility of an involuntary termination or a potential change in control, which allows our named executive officers to maintain their focus and dedication to their responsibilities. We believe that these arrangements also provide further retention value by encouraging our named executive officers to continue providing services to us. For a summary of the material terms and conditions of these severance and change in control arrangements, as well as an estimate of the potential payments and benefits payable thereunder, see the section entitled “ Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control” below. Compensation Policies Hedging and Pledging Policy We maintain an insider trading policy that prohibits directors, officers, employees and agents (such as consultants and independent contractors) of our company as well as related parties from trading in derivative securities (including hedging) with respect to our common stock, pledging company securities as collateral, or holding company securities in a margin account. Stock Ownership Guidelines and Equity Holding Policy We maintain stock ownership guidelines that set minimum stock ownership requirements for our non-employee directors and executive officers (including our named executive officers), in order to more closely align their interests with the long-term interests of our stockholders. Under the guidelines, each executive officer is required to own a number of shares of our common stock with a value equal to a specified multiple of his or her base salary. Only shares of the Company’s common stock (including shares beneficially owned) count towards satisfaction of the stock