Company: APPN
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001441683-25-000031
Chunk: 16

Company: APPIAN CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 16
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 Operating Officer of the Company and a former Advisor to the Board within the past three years. In making these independence determinations, our Board of Directors considered the current and prior relationships each non-employee director and director nominee has with the Company and all other facts and circumstances our Board of Directors deemed relevant in determining their independence, including the beneficial ownership of our capital stock by each non-employee director and director nominee.

#### BOARD LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE
The Company’s Board of Directors is currently chaired by the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr. Calkins. The Company believes combining the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board helps to ensure the Board and management act with a common purpose. In the Company’s view, separating the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board has the potential to give rise to divided leadership, which could interfere with good decision-making or weaken the Company’s ability to develop and implement strategy. Instead, the Company believes combining the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board provides a single, clear chain of command to execute the Company’s strategic initiatives and business plans. In addition, the Company believes a combined Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board is better positioned to act as a bridge between management and the Board, facilitating the regular flow of information. The Company also believes it is advantageous to have a Chairman of the Board possessing an extensive history with and knowledge of the Company (as is the case with the Company’s Chief Executive Officer) as compared to a relatively less informed independent Chairman of the Board. In light of the Chief Executive Officer’s extensive history with and knowledge of the Company, the Company believes it is advantageous to combine the positions of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at this time. As described above under “Independence of the Board of Directors,” four of the nine director nominees on the Board of Directors are “independent directors.”

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#### ROLE OF THE BOARD IN RISK OVERSIGHT
Risk is inherent with every business, and we face a number of risks, including strategic, financial, business and operational, legal and compliance, cybersecurity, and reputational risks. One of the Board’s key functions is informed oversight of the Company’s risk management process. This includes responsibility for ensuring management has processes in place designed to identify, evaluate, manage, and mitigate cybersecurity risks to which it is exposed. The Board receives regular updates, on at least a quarterly basis, from our senior management team on such cybersecurity risks, developments in