Company: ADAMM
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001273685-25-000038
Chunk: 59

Company: ADAMAS TRUST, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 59
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 our Company, (v) the level of support received for our recent "say-on-pay" advisory votes and feedback received from stockholder outreach meetings and (vi) the views of Pearl Meyer . The following provides an overview of our approach to each primary element of our NEO compensation program and an analysis of the compensation paid under each of these elements.

#### Base Salary
Base salary, which represents the fixed element of our executive compensation program, provides for basic economic security at a level that allows us to retain the executive’s services. The Compensation Committee generally establishes annual base salaries for our NEOs commensurate with the level of experience that the executive brings to the position, the nature of the responsibilities required of the executive, such as whether the executive is performing in multiple roles, how successful the executive is in achieving goals established by the Compensation Committee and the executive’s contributions to the Company and internal pay equity considerations, but does not assign any specific weights to these factors. As discussed in other parts of this CD&A, the Compensation Committee also gives significant consideration to the size of the Company and our projected general and administrative expenses in setting annual base salaries and has not historically targeted base salaries for our NEOs to any specific level within the range of base salaries paid by our peer group. Base salaries are reviewed annually and may be adjusted to better match competitive market levels or to recognize an executive’s professional growth and development, increased responsibility or other discretionary factors.

In January 2024, after taking into account a number of factors, including peer group data and individual and Company performance, the Compensation Committee determined to leave Mr. Serrano’s base salary unchanged from 2023, while increasing Mr. Mah’s base salary for 2024 by $60,000 to $685,000 to move his base salary closer to the median base salary for presidents of our peer group and awarding Ms. Nario-Eng a 5% increase in base salary in consideration of her lengthy tenure as our Chief Financial Officer, which tenure ranks above the 75th percentile of our peer group.

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#### Annual Incentive Compensation
Annual incentive compensation, in the form of cash incentive compensation, is available to each of our NEOs under the 2024 Annual Incentive Plan. Annual incentive compensation serves as a means of linking annual compensation both to our overall corporate financial performance and to subjective individual performance criteria that are within the control of our NEOs. The Compensation Committee believes cash incentive compensation payable under the 2024 Annual Incentive Plan provides our NEOs