Document:

EX-10.24

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Exhibit 10.24

  Ralph William Charlton III, M.D., M.A.S

   

  March 14, 2022

  Re:  Employment Terms

  Dear Will, 

  	Spruce Biosciences, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), is pleased to offer you full-time employment in the regular exempt position of Chief Medical Officer effective as of March 28, 2022 (the “Commencement Date”), in which you will be responsible for such duties as are normally associated with such position or as otherwise determined by your supervisor. You will report to Javier Szwarcberg, the Chief Executive Officer, or such other individual as the Company may designate. Your position will be headquartered in our offices located in Daly City, California, or such other location as the Company may designate, except for such travel as may be necessary to fulfill your responsibilities. In the course of your employment with Company, you will be subject to and required to comply with all company policies, and applicable laws and regulations.  

  	You will be paid a base salary at the annual rate of $400,000 subject to required tax withholding and other authorized deductions. Your base salary will be payable in accordance with the Company’s standard payroll policies and subject to adjustment pursuant to the Company’s policies as in effect from time to time.  

  In addition to your base salary, you may be eligible to earn an annual cash performance bonus, at the discretion of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) or Compensation Committee of the Board (the “Compensation Committee”), based on the attainment of corporate performance metrics and/or individual performance objectives, in each case established and evaluated by the Board or Compensation Committee in its sole good faith discretion.  Your target annual bonus shall be 40% of your base salary, but the actual amount of your annual bonus may be more or less, depending on the attainment of applicable performance criteria and Company achievements. Such annual bonus shall be paid within three months following the year to which the annual bonus relates and will be contingent upon your continued employment through the applicable payment date (provided that if your employment is terminated by the Company without Cause (as defined in the Equity Plan (as defined below) or as the result of your death or disability, then in any such case you will receive any earned but unpaid annual bonus relating to the immediately preceding calendar year at the same time as if no such termination had occurred). You hereby acknowledge and agree that nothing contained herein confers upon you any right to an annual bonus in any year, and that whether the Company pays you an annual bonus and the amount of any such annual bonus will be determined by the Board or Compensation Committee in its sole good faith discretion.

  
 	Subject to approval by the Board or Compensation Committee, the Company will grant you an option to purchase 250,000 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Stock Option”) at a per share exercise price equal to the closing sales price on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the Date of Grant. The Date of Grant shall be the sooner of the first or fifteenth day of the calendar month immediately following the Commencement Date, or if such day is not a business day, then the next business day. Subject to your 

  2001 Junipero Serra Blvd | Suite 640 | Daly City, CA 94014

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

  continued employment with the Company through the applicable vesting date, 25% of the shares underlying the Stock Option will vest on the first anniversary of the Commencement Date and 1/48th of the total number of shares initially underlying the Stock Option will vest on each monthly anniversary thereafter.  The Stock Option will otherwise be subject to the terms and conditions of the Company’s 2020 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Equity Plan”) and a stock option agreement to be entered into between you and the Company (the “Stock Option Agreement”).  

  You will be entitled to participate in the Company's Severance and Change of Control Plan, a copy of which will be separately provided to you. You will also be eligible to participate in all of the employee benefits and benefit plans that the Company generally makes available to its regular full-time employees, including group health plans, life and disability insurances, and a 401k Plan.  In addition, during your employment, you will be eligible for other standard benefits, such as paid time off and holidays to the extent applicable generally to other similarly situated employees of the Company.  The Company reserves the right to terminate, modify or add to its benefits and benefit plans at any time. 

  	 

  The Company requires that, as a full-time employee, you devote your full business time, attention, skill, and efforts to the tasks and duties of your position as assigned by the Company. Accordingly, you may not provide services (for any or no form of compensation) for any other person or business entity while employed by the Company, without prior authorization and approval from the Board.

   

  As an executive officer of the Company, you will be entitled to indemnification as provided under the Company's bylaws and other governing documents in effect as of the date hereof to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. The Company and you intend that such obligation shall remain in full force and effect, such that a future change in the Company's bylaws other than a change required by applicable law, shall not affect the Company's obligations hereunder. You will be covered by the Company’s directors' and officers' liability insurance policy on the same basis as other executive officers of the Company.
 

  	As a condition of employment, you will be required to (1) sign and comply with a Proprietary Information and Inventions Assignment Agreement, a copy of which will be separately provided to you, which, among other things, prohibits unauthorized use or disclosure of Company proprietary information, (2) sign and return a satisfactory I-9 Immigration form and provide sufficient documentation establishing your employment eligibility in the United States of America, and (3) provide satisfactory proof of your identity as required by United States law. This offer, and any employment pursuant to this offer, is also conditioned upon your consent to, and results satisfactory to the Company of reference and background checks. Until you have been informed in writing by Company that such checks have been completed and the results found satisfactory, you may wish to defer reliance on this offer. By signing below, you represent that your performance of services to the Company will not violate any duty which you may have to any other person or entity (such as a present or former employer), including obligations concerning providing services (whether or not competitive) to others, confidentiality of proprietary information and assignment of inventions, ideas, patents or copyrights, and you agree that you will not do anything in the performance of services hereunder that would violate any such duty.

   

  	Notwithstanding any of the above, your employment with the Company is "at will". This means

  that it is not for any specified period of time and can be terminated by you or by the Company at any time,

  with or without advance notice, and for any or no particular reason or cause. This "at-will" nature of your

  2001 Junipero Serra Blvd | Suite 640 | Daly City, CA 94014

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

  employment shall remain unchanged during your tenure as an employee and may not be changed, except in an express writing signed by you and another authorized officer of the Company.

  	
	If you accept this offer, this letter, the Proprietary Information and Invention Assignment Agreement, and the other plans, policies and agreements referred to herein shall constitute the complete agreement between you and Company with respect to the terms and conditions of your employment. Any prior or contemporaneous representations (whether oral or written) not contained herein or therein or contrary to those contained herein or therein, that may have been made to you are expressly cancelled and superseded by this offer. This offer letter shall be interpreted and construed in accordance with California law without regard to any conflicts of laws principles.

  Please sign and date this letter and the Proprietary Information and Invention Assignment

  Agreement, and return it to me by March 14, 2022 if you wish to accept employment at the Company

  under the terms described above, after which time this offer of employment will expire. If you accept our

  offer, we would like you to commence your employment with us as soon as practicable.

   

  (signature page follows)

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  2001 Junipero Serra Blvd | Suite 640 | Daly City, CA 94014

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

  We look forward to your favorable reply and to a productive and enjoyable work relationship.

   

  							Sincerely,

                                        

              	     				/s/ Javier Szwarcberg, MD, MPH                             

                                                                                                         

                                                                                                        Javier Szwarcberg, MD, MPH

   

  							Spruce Biosciences, Inc.

   

  							 

  Accepted by:

   

   

   

   

  /s/ Ralph William Charlton III			

  Ralph William Charlton III

   

  March 14, 2022					

  Date

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  2001 Junipero Serra Blvd | Suite 640 | Daly City, CA 94014Exhibit 4.1

 

	NUMBER	 	 	 	UNITS
	U-	 	 	 	 
	SEE
                                       REVERSE FOR

    CERTAIN

    DEFINITIONS
	 	CLIMATEROCK	 	 
	 	 	 	 	CUSIPG2311X126

 

UNITS
CONSISTING OF ONE CLASS A ORDINARY SHARE AND ONE REDEEMABLE WARRANT,

EACH WARRANT ENTITLING THE HOLDER TO PURCHASE ONE CLASS A ORDINARY

SHARE AT A PRICE OF $11.50 PER SHARE

 

	THIS CERTIFIES THAT	 	 	 
	 	 	 	 	 
	is the owner of	 	 	Units.
	 	 	 	 	 	 	 

Each
Unit (“Unit”) consists of one (1) Class A ordinary share, par value $0.0001 per share (“Class A
ordinary shares”), of ClimateRock, a Cayman Islands exempted company (the “Company”) and one
redeemable warrant (“Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price
of $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment). Each Warrant will become exercisable on the later of: (1) thirty days after the Company’s
completion of an acquisition, share exchange, share reconstruction and amalgamation, contractual control arrangement or other similar
business combination with one or more businesses or entities (each a “Business Combination”), and (2) twelve
months from the closing of the Company’s initial public offering. Each Warrant will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, five
years after the completion of the Company’s initial Business Combination or earlier upon redemption or liquidation. The Class A
ordinary shares and the Warrants comprising the Units represented by this certificate will begin separate trading on [__] unless Maxim
Group LLC elects to allow earlier separate trading, subject to the Company’s filing of a Current Report on Form 8-K with the Securities
and Exchange Commission containing an audited balance sheet reflecting the Company’s receipt of the gross proceeds of its initial
public offering and issuing a press release announcing when separate trading will begin. The terms of the Warrants are governed by a
Warrants Agreement, dated as of [______], 2022, between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as Warrants Agent,
and are subject to the terms and provisions contained therein, all of which terms and provisions the holder of this certificate consents
to by acceptance hereof. Copies of the Warrants Agreement are on file at the office of the Warrants Agent at One State Street, 30th Floor,
New York, New York 10004, and are available to any Warrant holder on written request and without cost.

 

Upon the consummation of the Business Combination, the Units represented by this certificate will automatically separate into the Class
A ordinary shares and Warrants comprising such Units.

 

This
certificate is not valid unless countersigned by the Transfer Agent and Registrar of the Company.

This certificate shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of New York.

Witness the facsimile signatures of its duly authorized officers.

 

	By	 	 
	 	Chief Executive Officer	 

 

     

     

    

 

CLIMATEROCK

 

The
Company will furnish without charge to each unitholder who so requests, a statement of the powers, designations, preferences and relative,
participating, optional or other special rights of each class of shares or series thereof of the Company and the qualifications, limitations,
or restrictions of such preferences and/or rights.

 

The
following abbreviations, when used in the inscription on the face of this certificate, shall be construed as though they were written
out in full according to applicable laws or regulations:

 

	TEN 

COM -	 	as tenants
    in common	 	UNIF GIFT MIN ACT -	 	 	 	Custodian	 	 
	TEN 

ENT -	 	as tenants by the entireties	 	 	 	(Cust)	 	 	 	(Minor)
	JT 

TEN -	 	as joint tenants with right
    of	 	under
    Uniform Gifts to Minors
	 	 	survivorship and not as
    tenants in common	 	 	 	 
	 	 	 	 	 	 	Act

    ________________

	 	 	 	 	 	 	(State)

 

Additional
abbreviations may also be used though not in the above list.

 

For
value received, hereby sell, assign and transfer unto

 

	PLEASE INSERT
    SOCIAL SECURITY OR OTHER

    IDENTIFYING NUMBER OF ASSIGNEE	 
	 

                                                                                 
	 

 

(PLEASE
PRINT OR TYPEWRITE NAME AND ADDRESS, INCLUDING ZIP CODE, OF ASSIGNEE)

 

represented
by the within Certificate, and do hereby irrevocably constitute and appoint

 

Attorney
to transfer the said Units on the register of members of the within named Company with full power of substitution in the premises.

 

Dated:

 

	 	 	Notice:	The
    signature to this assignment must correspond with the name as written upon the face of the certificate in every particular, without
    alteration or enlargement or any change whatever.

 

Signature(s)
Guaranteed:

 

	THE SIGNATURE(S)
    MUST BE GUARANTEED BY AN ELIGIBLE GUARANTOR INSTITUTION (BANKS, STOCKBROKERS, SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS AND CREDIT UNIONS WITH
    MEMBERSHIP IN AN APPROVED SIGNATURE GUARANTEE MEDALLION PROGRAM, PURSUANT TO S.E.C. RULE 17Ad-15 (OR ANY SUCCESSOR RULE) UNDER THE
    SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED).

 

In
each case, as more fully described in the Company’s final prospectus dated [   ], 2022, the holder(s) of this certificate
shall be entitled to receive a pro rata portion of certain funds held in the trust account established in connection with its initial
public offering only in the event that (i) the Company redeems the Class A ordinary shares sold in its initial public offering and liquidates
because it does not consummate an initial business combination by a date calculated by reference to the Company’s Amended and Restated
Memorandum and Articles of Association, (ii) the Company redeems the Class A ordinary shares sold in its initial public offering in connection
with a shareholder vote to amend the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association (a) to modify the substance
or timing of the Company’s obligation to redeem 100% of the Class A ordinary shares if it does not consummate an initial business
combination by a date calculated by reference to the Company’s Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association or (b)
with respect to any other provision relating to shareholders’ rights or pre-initial business combination activity, or (iii) if
the holder(s) seek(s) to redeem for cash his, her or its respective Class A ordinary shares in connection with a tender offer (or proxy
solicitation, solely in the event the Company seeks shareholder approval of the proposed initial business combination) setting forth
the details of a proposed initial business combination. In no other circumstances shall the holder(s) have any right or interest of any
kind in or to the trust account.

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