Company: VHC
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001140361-25-015742
Chunk: 39

Company: VirnetX Holding Corp
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 39
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 approach to achieving our compensation goals. Our Plan allows for stock options, RSAs, RSUs, stock appreciation rights, performance units, performance shares and performance bonus awards. In 2024, we granted RSAs under our Plan to our named executive officers. |

Stock-based awards are made at the commencement of employment, may be made annually based upon performance and, occasionally, following a significant change in job responsibilities or to meet other special retention objectives. The compensation committee reviews and approves stock-based awards to named executive officers based upon a review of competitive compensation data, its assessment of individual performance, a review of each executive’s existing long-term incentives, and retention considerations. In determining the number of stock-based awards granted to our named executive officers, we take into account the individual’s position, scope of responsibility, ability to affect profits and stockholder value, the individual’s historic and recent performance, the value of stock-based awards in relation to other elements of the individual executive’s total compensation and relative to comparable companies. We expect to continue to use stock-based awards as a long-term incentive vehicle because we believe that stock-based awards:

| • | align the interests of executives with those of the stockholders, support a pay-for-performance culture, foster employee stock ownership, and focus the management team on increasing value for the stockholders; |

| • | are performance-based in that the value of awards is tied directly to our stock price performance; |

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| • | help to provide a balance to the overall executive compensation program as base salary and our annual bonus program focus on short-term compensation, while the vesting of stock options, RSAs and RSUs provide incentives to increase stockholder value over the longer term; and |

| • | include vesting restrictions that encourage executive retention and the preservation of stockholder value. |

Named Executive Officers’ Compensation Decisions for 2024 In 2024, the compensation committee undertook a full review of the compensation of our named executive officers, and following this review, in November 2024, the compensation committee increased the base salaries for 2024 for each of our named executive officers compared to 2023 (as described in greater detail below). The compensation for our named executive officers for 2024 is presented in the table below.

| Name                       |     |     Base 
   Salary 
     2024 |     | Targeted    
 Cash        
 Incentive   
 Opportunity 
 for         
 2024(1)     |     | Actual Cash    
 Incentive Paid