Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001505732-25-000079
Chunk: 23

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 23
---
 Kotval, and Mr. Seidman. At all times, all members of the Audit Committee have been independent as required by SEC and Nasdaq rules. Mr. Demos qualifies as “audit committee financial experts.” In 2024, the Audit Committee met twelve times.

Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee assists our Board of Directors in its oversight of compensation, including benefit plans, for all employees. The Compensation Committee has direct responsibility for executive officer compensation and consideration of risk implications regarding the same. The Compensation Committee also has responsibility for overseeing succession planning and director compensation recommendations. The Compensation Committee’s mandate includes the following:

• to assist our Board of Directors in fulfilling its responsibilities with respect to the oversight of the Company’s affairs in the areas of employee compensation plans, policies and programs;

• to determine specific executive officer (as defined under Nasdaq rules or as otherwise identified by our Board of Directors) compensation and benefits, and to approve and administer all executive officer contracts;

• to develop and maintain incentive compensation programs that are designed to:

◦ reward high performance, promote accountability and adherence to our values and the codes of conduct;

◦ align employee interests with the interests of our shareholders, through the use of equity plans;

◦ attract, develop and retain talented leadership to serve our long-term best interests;

◦ reflect appropriate consideration of current best practices for programs with similar goals and objectives; and

◦ avoid the encouragement of excessive risk-taking arising from our incentive compensation policies and practices, and mitigate material risks as necessary with effective controls and risk management processes; and

• to monitor the performance of our management committee(s) administering any qualified and non-qualified benefit plans.

Our Board of Directors has adopted a written charter for the Compensation Committee which is available on our website www.mybankwell.com. The Compensation Committee currently consists of Messrs. Dale (Chair), Lampert and Porto. All members of the Co mpensation Committee are independent. The Compensation Committee has retained an outside independent compensation consultant, Pearl Meyer & Partners, LLC to provide advice to the Compensation Committee for any matters related to the discharge of the Compensation Committee’s duties and responsibilities. In 2024 , the Compensation Committee met twelve times.

Governance and Nominating Committee . The Governance and Nominating Committee assists our Board of Directors in its oversight of corporate governance policies and practices, board composition and director nomination and related matters. The Governance and Nominating Committee’s mandate includes the following:

• to oversee the composition of our Board of Directors and its committees, including developing a