Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000712534-25-000077
Chunk: 9

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 9
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The Bylaws of the Corporation provide that a director shall not continue to serve after the Annual Meeting following the end of the calendar year in which he or she attains age 73.

All of FMC’s directors also serve as directors of its wholly owned subsidiary, First Merchants Bank (“ FMB ”).

#### VOTING ITEM 1: ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
Four (4) directors will be elected at the Annual Meeting. All of the current Class I directors — F. Howard Halderman, Kevin D. Johnson, Clark C. Kellogg, and Michael C. Rechin — whose terms will expire as of the 2025 Annual Meeting, have been nominated to serve a new one-year term expiring as of the 2026 Annual Meeting.

There are no family relationships among the Company’s executive officers and directors.

THE BOARD RECOMMENDS A VOTE “FOR” THE ELECTION TO THE BOARD OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING NOMINEES:

5 First Merchants Corporation 2025 Proxy Statement

| Class I (Terms expire 2026):     |     |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| F. Howard Halderman              
 age 58                           
 Director since 2013              |     | Mr. Halderman is the President and CEO of Halderman Farm Management Service, Inc. (“HFMS”), headquartered in Wabash, Indiana, which provides management services for agricultural properties from coast to coast, and Halderman Real Estate Services, Inc. (“HRES”), headquartered in Wabash, Indiana, which buys and sells farm real estate through private transactions and public auctions and performs certified farm appraisals, primarily in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan; and is Executive Chair of US Agriculture, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser registered with the SEC.  Mr. Halderman joined HFMS in 1988 and succeeded his father as President and CEO in 2000. Mr. Halderman co-founded HRES with his father in 1990, and he became the CEO of that company in 2012.  Mr. Halderman is an Accredited Farm Manager with the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, and he is a licensed real estate broker in Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky.  He serves on the Boards at Honeywell Foundation, Inc., Field of Dreams, Inc., and Parkview Health System.  He is also on the Investment Committee for Community Foundation of W