Item 5.02. |
Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. |
Appointment of Owen Hughes as Interim Chief Executive Officer, Director and Executive Chairman
On December 30, 2022, the board of directors (the “Board”) of XOMA Corporation appointed Owen Hughes as our Interim Chief Executive Officer and principal executive officer and as a member of our Board and Executive Chairman of our Board, effective as of January 1, 2023.
Mr. Hughes, age 48, has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Sail Bio, Inc., a private biotechnology company focused on addressing toxic proteinopathies, since February 2022 and served as the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Cullinan Oncology, Inc., a publicly-traded oncology company, from September 2017 to October 2021. Previously, Mr. Hughes served as the Chief Business Officer and Head of Corporate Development at Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on type II diabetes, from February 2013 to August 2017. Prior to his operating roles, Mr. Hughes spent 16 years on Wall Street in various capacities, including roles at Brookside Capital, an operating division of Bain Capital and Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments Company. Mr. Hughes has served on the board of directors of Ikena Oncology, Inc., a publicly-traded oncology company, since December 2022. Mr. Hughes served on the board of directors of Radius Health, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, from April 2013 to August 2022 until its sale to Gurnet Point Capital and Patient Square Capital; Translate Bio, Inc., a messenger RNA therapeutics company, from July 2016 until its acquisition by Sanofi in September 2021; and FS Development Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Foresite Capital, from February 2021 to December 2021. Mr. Hughes received a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College.
Pursuant to Mr. Hughes’ employment agreement with us, he will receive an annual base salary of $125,000. He will also be eligible to receive an annual discretionary cash bonus, with a target amount equal to 55% of his then-current annual base salary, upon the achievement of annual performance milestones to be established by the Board.
Pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement, on January 3, 2023 we granted Mr. Hughes two separate non-qualified stock options to purchase: (i) 100,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price of $18.66 per share (the “First Hughes Inducement Award”) and (ii) 75,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at an exercise price of $30.00 per share (the “Second Hughes Inducement Award” and together with the First Hughes Inducement Award, the “Hughes Inducement Awards”). The First Hughes Inducement Award will vest in a series of four equal installments on March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023, September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2023. The Second Hughes Inducement Award will vest in a series of 36 successive equal monthly installments measured from January 1, 2023. The Hughes Inducement Awards are subject to the terms and conditions of the Company’s Amended and Restated 2010 Long Term Incentive and Stock Award Plan (the “Plan”), but were granted outside the Plan as an inducement material to Mr. Hughes entering into employment with us in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
Pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement, Mr. Hughes is subject to certain confidentiality obligations and is obligated to sign and comply with an agreement relating to proprietary information and inventions. Mr. Hughes’ employment is “at will” and may be terminated at any time, with or without cause or advanced notice. Pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement, if Mr. Hughes’ employment automatically terminates due to a new chief executive officer commencing employment within one year after the effective date of his employment agreement, then we will pay Mr. Hughes severance in the form of base salary continuation at the rate then in effect through the one-year anniversary of the effective date of his employment agreement.
We have entered into our standard indemnity agreement with Mr. Hughes, the form of which was previously filed as Exhibit 10.56 to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2021.
There is no arrangement or understanding between Mr. Hughes and any other person pursuant to which he was appointed as an officer or director of our company, there is no family relationship between Mr. Hughes and any of our directors or other executive officers, and Mr. Hughes is not a party to any transactions of the type listed in Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.