Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-058174
Chunk: 13

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-04-24
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 13
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 February 2025, in connection with the appointment of Mr. Farrell as Chief Executive Officer, we separated the roles of the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Yeu, who has served on our Board since 2021, was elected to serve as Board Chair. In accordance with our Corporate Governance Guidelines, the Board Chair is the chief steward of the Company’s corporate governance and leads the activities of the Board. The Board believes the current leadership structure provides appropriate leadership and oversight for the Company and serves the best interests of our shareholders at this time.

Our Corporate Governance Guidelines provide that, in the event the Board Chair is not an independent director, the independent directors will annually appoint from amongst themselves a Lead Independent Director with such responsibilities as the Board shall determine from time to time. From January 2023 until February 2025, Mr. Farrell served as Lead Independent Director. With Dr. Yeu’s election as Board Chair in February 2025, the Board does not currently have a Lead Independent Director.

Evaluation of Board Effectiveness

The Board, under the direction of the Nominating and Governance Committee, conducts an annual self-evaluation and assessment process. The Board believes that an annual evaluation process is an important component of strong corporate governance practices that promote ongoing Board effectiveness. The evaluation is intended to provide each director with an opportunity to evaluate performance for the purpose of improving Board and Board Committee processes and effectiveness. The evaluation process, which is led by our Chief Legal Officer, seeks input and feedback from directors on key areas of Board practice, and allows each director to evaluate how well our Board and Board Committees operate and to make suggestions for improvements. These key areas include Board composition and director participation, meeting procedures, materials and format, allocation and delegation of responsibilities among our Board and its committees and adequacy and availability of resources. The Chief Legal Officer compiles the directors’ input and feedback and leads a discussion with the Board. After receiving feedback from the Board discussion of these results, the Nominating and Governance Committee recommends improvements for the Board to consider implementing.

DirectorResignation Policy for Uncontested Election of Directors

In an uncontested election of directors (i.e., an election where the only nominees are those recommended by the Board), any director nominee who receives a greater number of votes “withheld” from his or her election than votes “for” such election shall promptly tender his or her resignation to the Board of Directors following certification of the election results. If any such director tenders his or her resignation, within 60 days