Company: CSTL
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001447362-25-000050
Chunk: 55

Company: CASTLE BIOSCIENCES INC
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 55
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 best business judgment in setting executive compensation and uses peer group data as a reference point. The Compensation Committee conducts an annual assessment of the peer group in order to ensure that it reflects Castle’s most current financial and sector-specific standing.

### Peer Group Selection and Market Analysis
The Compensation Committee engaged its independent compensation consultant, Aon, to provide competitive compensation information including pay levels, trends and mix, to inform the design of our 2024 executive compensation program. Working with the Compensation Committee, Aon constructed a peer group for Castle for the Compensation Committee’s consideration and approval, after reviewing general industry data, industry-specific data and public available information in proxy statements and other SEC filings. The objective was to identify companies representing Castle's broad labor market for talent while maintaining comparability, having sufficient group size to avoid distortions from a single company, and ensuring sufficient and credible data are available. The peer groups outlined below are a result of this work.

When reviewing competitive market data, the Compensation Committee examines the range of market data but does not set a specific targeted percentile as part of its compensation philosophy. An executive's positioning against the competitive labor market is intended to reflect that executive's experience, marketability and performance over a period of time. While the Compensation Committee uses competitive benchmarking in determining appropriate compensation ranges, the Compensation Committee generally avoids making “automatic” adjustments based solely on an employee's positioning relative to the market. The Compensation Committee believes this approach better utilizes competitive data to facilitate, rather than dictate, the Company's compensation decisions, which results in appropriate recognition of our top performers.

Depending on whether the Company and an individual’s performance exceed the specified performance criteria, realized total compensation during any given year may be above or below the benchmark compensation levels. The amount and structure of compensation can also vary by executive due to negotiations and competitive pressures inherent in attracting and hiring experienced diagnostic managerial talent. To help attract and retain such talent, the Compensation Committee also seeks to provide an appropriate level of employee benefits comparable to those in the diagnostics industry and to publicly traded companies.

Each year, Aon reviews the external market data and evaluates the composition of our peer group to ensure it appropriately reflects our growth, the increase in our revenues and market capitalization and the consolidation in our industry.

2024 Peer Group

In August of 2023, the Compensation Committee updated the peer group for 2024. A broader metric was used to account for the Company being at the top quartile and the Company’s profile relative to peers. Specifically, with the assistance of Aon, the Compensation Committee