Company: CHEF
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001517175-25-000003
Chunk: 23

Company: Chefs' Warehouse, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 23
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 plans. In addition, the Board believes that the combined position of chairman and chief executive officer is better positioned to act as a bridge between management and the Board, facilitating the regular flow of information.

As discussed above, the Board also maintains an independent Lead Director. Mr. Goldstone currently serves as our Lead Director. We believe it is important to have a Lead Director to establish a system of checks and balances between the independent directors of the Board and Mr. C. Pappas. The Lead Director provides leadership to the Board to ensure it operates in an independent, cohesive manner. The Board believes that having a Lead Director vested with key duties and responsibilities (as discussed above) and the Board’s standing committees comprised of and chaired by independent directors (as discussed below) provides a formal structure for strong independent oversight of our management team. Following the Annual Meeting, pending his re-election to the Board, Mr. Goldstone will serve as the Lead Director.

#### Risk Oversight
The Board has overall responsibility for risk oversight. The Board oversees risk management with a focus on our primary areas of risk: risk related to our business strategy, financial risk, legal/compliance risk and operational risk. Our president and chief executive officer and each of our other executive officers are responsible for managing risk in their respective areas of authority and expertise, identifying key risks to the Board and explaining to the Board how those risks are being addressed.

Certain standing committees of the Board also have responsibility for risk oversight. The Audit Committee focuses on financial risk, including fraud risk and risks relating to our internal controls over financial reporting. The Compensation Committee addresses risks relating to our executive compensation strategies and is tasked with monitoring our executive compensation program to ensure that it does not encourage our executive officers to take unnecessary and excessive risks. The Board receives regular reports from the chairs of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee regarding these committees’ risk management efforts and receives reports and other meeting materials provided to each of the committees. In addition, we have established a Disclosure Committee, consisting of our executive officers, which assists the Board in fulfilling its oversight responsibility with respect to regulatory compliance and receives regular reports from our general counsel and other employees responsible for our regulatory compliance. All committees report to the full Board as appropriate, including when a matter rises to the level of a material or enterprise level risk. We believe the division of risk management responsibilities described above is an effective approach for addressing the risks we face.

#### Compensation Risk
Our Compensation Committee is comprised solely of independent directors and is principally responsible for establishing, overseeing and administering our compensation plans and policies for