Company: SPRB
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form Type: PRE 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-055856
Chunk: 25

Company: SPRUCE BIOSCIENCES, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-18
Form: PRE 14A
Chunk 25
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 Processes and Procedures

Typically, the Compensation Committee meets quarterly or as needed. The Compensation Committee meets regularly in executive session. However, from time to time, various members of management and other employees as well as outside advisors or consultants may be invited by the Compensation Committee to make presentations, to provide financial or other background information or advice or to otherwise participate in Compensation Committee meetings. Our Chief Executive Officer may not participate in, or be present during, any deliberations or determinations of the Compensation Committee regarding his compensation or individual performance objectives. The charter of the Compensation Committee grants the Compensation Committee full access to all books, records, facilities and personnel of the Company. In addition, under the charter, the Compensation Committee has the authority to obtain, at the expense of the Company, advice and assistance from compensation consultants and internal and external legal, accounting or other advisors and other external resources that the Compensation Committee considers necessary or appropriate in the performance of its duties. The Compensation Committee has direct responsibility for the oversight of the work of any consultants or advisers engaged for the purpose of advising the Committee. In particular, the Compensation Committee has the sole authority to retain, in its sole discretion, compensation consultants to assist in its evaluation of executive and director compensation. In addition, under the charter, the Compensation Committee may select, or receive advice from, a compensation consultant, legal counsel or other adviser to the compensation committee, other than in-house legal counsel and certain other types of advisers, only after taking into consideration six factors, prescribed by the SEC and Nasdaq that bear upon the adviser’s independence; however, there is no requirement that any adviser be independent.`

In fiscal year 2023, after taking into consideration the six factors prescribed by the SEC and Nasdaq described above, the Compensation Committee engaged Aon Consulting, Inc. (“Aon”) as compensation consultant. As part of its engagement, Aon was requested by the Compensation Committee to develop a comparative group of companies and to perform analyses of competitive performance and compensation levels for that group for purposes of developing recommendations on the amount and form of executive and director compensation that were presented to the Compensation Committee for its consideration. The Compensation Committee did not engage Aon for any consulting services in 2024. In addition, management of the Company engaged affiliates of Aon for other services in 2024 that were not related to Aon’s Compensation Committee consulting services. Specifically, we engaged an affiliate of Aon for insurance brokerage services, for which we paid $150,000 in 2024. Although the Compensation Committee was aware