Company: CRL
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-030908
Chunk: 72

Company: CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-02
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 72
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 informal market checks and believes that both the levels of payment to be made under these programs and the applicable triggers are appropriate and consistent with current general market practices. Deferred Compensation Plan Contributions As described in more detail in this Proxy Statement under “Executive Compensation and Related Information—2024 Non-qualified Deferred Compensation”, the named executives in the United States receive a compensatory element in connection with our Deferred Compensation Plan. For Mr. Foster, who was a participant in the Company’s now discontinued Executive Supplemental Life Insurance Retirement Plan (ESLIRP), the Company credits to his accounts the present value of the annual Company accrual as it would have been calculated under the ESLIRP. These credits can vary significantly year-to-year as the ESLIRP formula is dependent on the average of the highest five consecutive years of compensation. For Mses. Girshick, Pease and Creamer, and Mr. LaPlume, the Company currently provides an annual contribution to their Deferred Compensation Plan account equal to 10% of the sum of their base salary plus the lesser of (1) their target annual bonus or (2) actual annual bonus. We provide a Deferred Compensation Plan because the Company wishes to permit our executive employees to defer the obligation to pay taxes on certain elements of their compensation while also potentially receiving earnings on deferred amounts. The Deferred Compensation Plan was implemented to motivate and ensure the retention of employees by providing them greater flexibility in structuring the timing of their compensation payments. The employer contributions to the Deferred Compensation Plan ultimately 55

have their origins in the legacy ESLIRP program, which was a long-standing element of our executive compensation package. Other Factors Underlying the Ongoing Implementation of the Compensation Program Stock Ownership Guidelines Our stock ownership guidelines operate as a related feature to the Compensation Program. The Board of Directors believes that senior management should have a meaningful economic stake in the Company in order to align the interests of management and our shareholders. Therefore, the Board has adopted stock ownership guidelines for senior management which are designed to satisfy an individual executive’s need for portfolio diversification, while maintaining management stock ownership at levels high enough to assure our shareholders of management’s commitment to creating corporate value. Under these guidelines, members of our senior management are required to maintain an ownership position, expressed as a multiple of salary, as follows:

| ​ | CEO                                              | ​ | ​ | 6 times base salary | ​ |
| ​ | Direct reports to the CEO                        | ​ | ​ | 3 times base salary | ​ |
| ​ | Senior Vice President (not reporting