Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000712534-25-000077
Chunk: 34

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 34
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 will assist the Company in achieving its business objectives: (1) programs should attract, retain and motivate high-performing, qualified executives and be competitive with industry peers’ programs; (2) incentive compensation programs should reward performance that is directly related to the Company’s financial performance and the individual executive’s contributions to that performance; (3) programs should strengthen the alignment between management effort and business strategy; and (4) programs should link compensation to factors which

29 First Merchants Corporation 2025 Proxy Statement

affect short and long-term stock performance. The policy states that all reasonable efforts should be made to ensure that executive compensation programs do not include any cash or equity-based incentive or other feature that might encourage executives to take unnecessary or excessive risks that threaten the value of the Company or encourage the manipulation of the Company’s reported earnings to enhance the compensation of any executive.

The Compensation and Human Resources Committee periodically reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of the executive compensation programs and their alignment with the Company’s business strategies and the interests of shareholders. The Committee has primary responsibility for reviewing executive performance and approving executive compensation, although in 2024 it gave considerable weight to the recommendations of the CEO, Mr. Hardwick, in reviewing the performance and determining the compensation of executives other than Mr. Hardwick himself. The executive performance review process includes accomplishing formal reviews, adjusting base salaries and approving the non-equity incentive plan payments based on the Company’s audited financial results for the previous fiscal year. Annual salary increases and non-equity incentive plan payments occur in March. Annual restricted stock awards under the Long-term Equity Incentive Plan are made by the Committee in the third quarter.

Senior management is responsible for the implementation and day-to-day administration of the Company’s compensation programs, including its executive compensation programs, under the direction of Mr. Hardwick and the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Steven Harris.

THE MATERIAL ELEMENTS OF NEO COMPENSATION AND HOW EACH OF THESE ELEMENTS PROMOTES THE COMPANY’S STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

The material elements of the NEOs’ annual compensation are: (1) cash compensation, comprised of (a) base salary, and (b) non-equity incentive plan payments under the Senior Management Incentive Compensation Program (“ SMICP ”); (2) equity compensation, comprised of (a) restricted stock awards under the Long-term Equity Incentive Plan ( “ LTEIP ”), and (b) opportunities for discounted FMC stock purchases under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ ESPP ”); and (