Company: RRGB
Filing Date: 2025-03-18
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-025001
Chunk: 22

Company: RED ROBIN GOURMET BURGERS INC
Filing Date: 2025-03-18
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 22
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 Group, Inc., and adding (i) Potbelly Corporation and (ii) The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc., resulting in a peer group consisting of 17 restaurant companies. INDEPENDENT COMPENSATION CONSULTANT In 2024, Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC (“Meridian”) again served as the Compensation Committee’s independent compensation consultant. The independent compensation consultant assists with the Compensation Committee’s annual review of our executive compensation programs, cash and equity compensation practices, ongoing development of our executive compensation philosophy, and acts as an advisor to the Compensation Committee on compensation matters as they arise. The compensation consultant also advises the Compensation Committee on compensation for the Board of Directors. The Compensation Committee evaluated Meridian’s independence as its compensation consultant by considering each of the independence factors adopted by Nasdaq and the SEC. Based on such evaluation, the Compensation Committee believes no conflict of interest exists that would prevent Meridian from independently representing the Compensation Committee. RISK MITIGATION The Compensation Committee considers, in establishing and reviewing our executive compensation program, whether the program encourages unnecessary or excessive risk taking. The Compensation Committee concluded that our pay programs do not encourage unnecessary or excessive risk taking. The factors considered by the Compensation Committee include: • the general design philosophy of our compensation policies and practices for employees whose behavior would be most affected by the incentives established by our compensation policies and practices, as such policies and practices relate to or affect risk taking by employees on our behalf, and the manner of their implementation; • our risk assessment and incentive considerations in structuring our compensation policies and practices or in awarding and paying compensation; • how our compensation policies and practices relate to the realization of risks resulting from the actions of employees in both the short term and the long term; • our policies regarding adjustments to our compensation programs and practices to address changes in our risk profile; and • material adjustments we have made to our compensation policies and practices as a result of changes in our risk profile. The Compensation Committee believes it has mitigated unnecessary risk taking in both the design of the compensation plans and the controls placed upon them because: • payouts under our STI and LTI compensation plans are capped at 200% of target; • payouts under PSUs with relative TSR performance metric are capped at the target grant amount if Company TSR is negative; • LTIs feature multiple components; performance is measured over multi-year periods with value dependent on share price as compared to a group of key competitors; • the Compensation Committee has the ability to reduce payouts under our incentive compensation plans in its discretion; • executives are subject