Company: SYBT
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001437749-25-007118
Chunk: 36

Company: Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 36
---
, gender, civic and community relationships and knowledge and experience in matters impacting financial institutions.

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee engages in regular discussions of board and director succession matters, including plans for identifying potential candidates to fill positions vacated by retiring directors. Several of our existing directors will reach our mandatory retirement age over the course of the next few years. As the Committee seeks to identify qualified individuals to fill those vacancies and considers the overall composition of the Board, the Committee is committed to broadening the diversity of our Board and expects to actively consider race and ethnicity as additional factors in the evaluation of its potential director candidates. During 2022, we expanded the diversity of the Board through the addition of one director from the underrepresented community, Allison J. Donovan.

With respect to incumbent directors considered for re-election, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee also assesses each director’s performance, contribution, level of engagement, and meeting attendance record. In addition, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee determines whether nominees are in a position to devote an adequate amount of time to the effective performance of director duties.

Shareholder Nominations

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee will consider candidates for nomination as a director submitted by shareholders. The Committee evaluates individuals recommended by shareholders for nomination as directors according to the same criteria discussed above and in accordance with the Company’s bylaws and the procedures describe under “Shareholder Proposals and Director Nominations” on page 7 of this Proxy Statement.

<div align='center'>22</div>

Director Independence

Our Corporate Governance Guidelines state that a substantial majority of the Board of Directors should be independent. The Guidelines further provide that in making its independence determinations, the Board should apply the standards set forth in the Guidelines and the criteria for independence contained in the Nasdaq listing standards. To be considered independent under the Nasdaq rules, the Board must affirmatively determine that a director has no relationship with the Company which, in the opinion of the Board, would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. The Nasdaq listing standards and our Corporate Governance Guidelines include various bright-line tests that preclude a determination of independence, including the existence of certain employment, compensatory or business relationships between the Company and a director or a member of his or her immediate family.

Our Board of Directors, through a process managed by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, conducts an annual review of director independence. During this review, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee considers transactions and relationships