Company: HEI-A
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-002543
Chunk: 42

Company: HEICO CORP
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 42
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 has offered its 401(k) Plan to nearly all of our U.S. employees, including our executive officers. As of October 31, 2024, approximately 7,900 current and former employees participated in the 401(k) Plan. Under the 401(k) Plan, employees may elect to defer a portion of their cash compensation into an account within the 401(k) Plan. The amount each employee defers is then matched at a certain rate by HEICO in cash or HEICO stock. Based upon recommendation by management, the Committee approves the matching rate that each of our subsidiaries contributes and the full Board ratifies that rate. In 2006, the Board approved the HEICO Corporation Leadership Compensation Plan (the “LCP”), which is a nonqualified deferred compensation plan that conforms to Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. The LCP is currently available to approximately 475 HEICO employees (and to the Board members). It provides that the participating employees may contribute a portion of their compensation to the LCP and that HEICO will match salary contributions at a specified fraction of each employee’s salary contribution. The matching rate is established by the Committee and ratified by the Board of Directors. In addition, the Committee and Board of Directors retained discretion to contribute additional amounts to each participant’s account in the LCP. In order to create added retention incentives, the Committee typically declares the supplemental retention contributions as set forth in the compensation tables corresponding to the named executive officers. They also serve to “catch up” for retirement benefits not paid to them prior to fiscal 2007. Our compensation consultants provide the Committee with recommended benefit levels based on the years of service to HEICO by the executives, their ages and their statistically estimated proximity to retirement. Based upon the recommendation of the Committee’s compensation consultants, the contribution to the account of Laurans A. Mendelson was substantially larger than those paid to the other named executive officers as a result of his age and years of service. These supplemental retention contributions were historically paid each December. We received feedback from some shareholders following our March 2024 proxy statement filing that they believed these contributions should performance vest instead of just time vest. Accordingly, the Committee is adopting performance vesting for future supplemental LCP awards. As the payments appearing in the compensation tables were already made in December 2023, prior to last year’s proxy statement filing and receiving the aforementioned shareholder feedback, they were time vesting only, but the subsequent awards are to be performance-based and next year’s proxy statement will reflect