Re: Employment Agreement
Exhibit 10.3
July 28, 2014
BY EMAIL
Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx
Re: | Employment Agreement |
Dear Xxxxx:
On behalf of Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), I am pleased to offer you the position of the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”). The terms of your employment are set forth below.
1. Position. As the Company’s CEO you will report to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”). This is a full-time employment position. It is understood and agreed that, while you render services to the Company, you will not engage in any other employment, consulting or other business activities (whether full-time or part-time), provided that you may engage in religious, charitable and other community activities (including serving on the Board of Overseers at the Xxxx Xxxx Business School) and serve on two outside board of directors (presently PTC Therapeutics and THL Credit, Inc.) so long as such activities do not interfere or conflict with your obligations to the Company. During your employment, you also shall serve as a member of the Board. Upon the ending of your employment as CEO, you shall immediately resign from the Board as well as from any other position(s) to which you were elected or appointed in connection with your position as CEO.
2. Start Date. Your employment with the Company will begin on July 28, 2014, unless another date is mutually agreed upon by you and the Company. For purposes of this Agreement, the actual first day of your employment with the Company shall be referred to as the “Start Date.”
3. Salary. The Company will pay you a base salary at the rate of $300,000 per year, payable in accordance with the Company’s standard payroll schedule and subject to applicable deductions and withholdings. Your base salary will be subject to periodic review and upward adjustments at the Company’s discretion. If you continue to be the Company’s CEO at the time the Company completes its Initial Public Offering (“IPO”), the Board or the Compensation Committee of the Board (the “Compensation Committee”) will review your salary and make adjustments to the extent that it determines in its reasonable good faith discretion that such adjustments are appropriate to match market conditions.
4. Bonus Compensation. You will be eligible to receive an annual performance bonus of up to 30% of your base salary (the “Target Bonus Percentage”), pro-rated for 2014 based on the
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Start Date. The actual bonus is discretionary, will be subject to assessment of your performance, as well as business conditions at the Company as determined by the Board or the Compensation Committee, and, if awarded, will be paid on or before March 15 following the applicable bonus year. You must be employed by the Company on the date a bonus is paid to earn any part of a bonus. If you continue to be the Company’s CEO at the time the Company completes its IPO, the Board or the Compensation Committee will review the Target Bonus Percentage and make adjustments to the extent that it determines in its reasonable good faith discretion that such adjustments are appropriate to match market conditions.
5. Incentive Compensation
(a) | As of the Start Date, you will become a Covered Employee under the terms of the Company’s Amended and Restated 2014 Management Incentive Plan (the “MIP”). Pursuant to and subject to the terms and conditions of the MIP, you will be awarded 28.572% of the Bonus Pool if the Transaction Proceeds from a pre-IPO Change in Control fall within Tier 1 of the MIP; 31.428% of the Bonus Pool if the Transaction Proceeds from a pre-IPO Change in Control fall within Tier 2 of the MIP; and 33.333% of the Bonus Pool if the Transactions proceeds from a pre-IPO Change in Control fall within Tier 3 of the MIP. In the interest of clarity, the MIP expires upon an IPO and if a Change in Control occurs after an IPO you will not be entitled to any payments under the MIP. Unless otherwise defined, capitalized terms in this Section 5(a) shall be the same as those in the MIP and to the extent there are inconsistencies between this Section 5(a) and the MIP, the MIP shall control. |
(b) | The Company shall grant you with a stock option to purchase a number of shares of the Company’s common stock, which equals approximately 4% of the Company’s currently outstanding equity on a fully-diluted basis, including for such purposes the conversion of all convertible securities (and any dividends accrued or to be accrued thereon as of an agreed upon date) and all shares reserved for issuance under the Company’s equity incentive plans as of the date of this Agreement (the “Initial Time Based Equity Award”). The Initial Time Based Equity Award shall be issued at a strike price equal to the fair market value of the shares as of the grant date of the award as determined by the Board and shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation 2014 Stock Option and Incentive Plan, as amended and supplemented from time to time (the “Plan”) and the associated stock option agreement (the “Award Agreement”), including a four-year vesting schedule with 25% of the Initial Time Based Equity Award vesting on the one-year anniversary of the Start Date and the remainder vesting ratably on a monthly basis over the following 36 months, subject to your continued employment. Notwithstanding the above, in the event your employment with the Company is terminated by the Company without Cause or you terminate your employment for Good Reason (both as defined below) within twelve months after a Change in Control (as defined in the MIP) that occurs after an IPO, you shall vest in all of your then outstanding time based equity awards as of the last day of your employment (“Date of Termination”). |
(c) | The Board may also, in its discretion, award you additional equity based awards subject to time based and/or performance based vesting. The terms of the Plan and any Award Agreement (collectively the “Equity Documents”) shall apply to any equity grant. In the event of any conflict between the terms set forth in this Agreement and the terms of the Equity Documents, the terms of the Equity Documents shall control. |
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6. Benefits/Vacation. You will be eligible to participate in the employee benefits and insurance programs generally made available to the Company’s full-time employees, including with respect to health insurance. Details of such benefits programs, including mandatory employee contributions and waiting periods, if applicable, will be made available to you when such benefit(s) become available. You will be entitled to vacation consistent with Company policy.
7. At-Will Employment; Accrued Obligations. Your employment is “at will,” meaning you or the Company may terminate it at any time for any or no reason. In the event of the ending of your employment for any reason, the Company shall pay you (i) your base salary plus any accrued but unused vacation through the Date of Termination, (ii) the amount of any documented expenses properly incurred by you on behalf of the Company prior to any such termination and not yet reimbursed, (collectively, the “Accrued Obligations”).
8. Termination Benefits. In the event that: (A) the Company terminates your employment without Cause or you resign for Good Reason, both as defined below, and (B) the Date of Termination occurs after the earlier of (i) nine months from the Start Date, or (ii) the completion of an IPO (in either case the “Severance Commencement Date”); and (C) you enter into, do not revoke and comply with the terms of a separation agreement containing customary terms in a form provided by the Company which shall include a general release of claims against the Company and related persons and entities (the “Release”) and a ratification of your obligations under the Restrictive Covenant Agreement attached to this letter and nondisparagement, but which shall not otherwise impose any new obligations on you, then in addition to the Accrued Obligations, the Company will provide you with either: (y)(A) base salary and COBRA continuation (of the employer’s portion of the premium cost) for the twelve month period immediately following the Date of Termination; and (B) accelerated vesting of any then outstanding time based equity awards so that shares that would have vested at any time on or before the one year anniversary of the Date of Termination shall become vested as of the Date of Termination (Section 8(y) A and B are collectively “Severance Option 1”), or (z) one lump sum payment be equal to eighteen (18) months of your base salary in effect on the Date of Termination (“Severance Option 2”). Severance Option 1 shall apply unless the Date of Termination occurs after all of the following have occurred: the Severance Commencement Date, an IPO and a Change in Control in which case Severance Option 2 shall apply. The first (or only) severance payment shall be made within 45 days after the Date of Termination. If Severance Option 1 applies and you miss a regular payroll period between the Date of
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Termination and first severance payment date, the first severance payment shall include a “catch up” payment. Solely for purposes of Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), each severance payment is considered a separate payment. For the avoidance of doubt, in the event your employment terminates for any reason other than a termination by the Company without Cause or your resignation for Good Reason, in either case after the Severance Commencement Date, you will be entitled to the Accrued Obligations but you will not be entitled to any of the Termination Benefits described in this Section 8. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, in the event of the termination of of your employment for any reason, the terms of the MIP shall govern whether and to what extend you are entitled to receive any amounts in respect of the MIP thereafter.
For purposes of this Agreement,
“Cause” shall mean the occurrence of any one or more of the following events: (i) your material misconduct, deliberate and material violation of the rules or policies of the Company, or breach of a fiduciary duty owed to the Company; (ii) your commission of an act of fraud, theft, misappropriation or embezzlement; (iii) your violation of federal or state securities laws; (iv) your conviction of, or pleading nolo contendere to, a felony or any other crime involving moral turpitude; (v) your failure to use his or her reasonable best efforts to consummate a potential Change of Control with one or more potential Acquirers, following the initiation of a Change of Control process supported by the Board; or (vi) your material breach of any written agreement between the Company and you, which breach is not cured by you within ten (10) days of written notice by the Company to you specifying in reasonable detail such breach.
“Good Reason” shall mean that you have complied with the “Good Reason Process” (hereinafter defined) following the occurrence of any of the following events: (i) a reduction of your base salary without your prior consent (other than in connection with, and substantially proportionate to, reductions by the Company of the compensation of the Company’s management employees); (ii) material diminution in your duties, responsibilities and authorities with the Company, without your prior consent; (iv) relocation of the Company’s offices more than 50 miles away from the current location without your prior consent. “Good Reason Process” shall mean that (i) you have reasonably determined in good faith that a “Good Reason” condition has occurred; (ii) you have notified the Company in writing of the first occurrence of the Good Reason condition within 90 days of the first occurrence of such condition; (iii) you have cooperated in good faith with the Company’s efforts, for a period not less than 30 days following such notice (the “Cure Period”), to remedy the condition; (iv) notwithstanding such efforts, the Good Reason condition continues to exist; and (v) you terminate your employment within 30 days after the end of the Cure Period. If the Company cures the Good Reason condition during the Cure Period, Good Reason shall be deemed not to have occurred.
9. Confidential Information and Restricted Activities. By signing this Agreement, you represent that you have carefully read and considered all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, including the restraints imposed on you pursuant to the Company’s Non-Compete,
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Non-Solicitation, Confidentiality and Assignment Agreement (the “Restrictive Covenant Agreement”) attached as Exhibit 1, the terms of which are incorporated by reference herein. You agree without reservation that these restraints are necessary for the reasonable and proper protection of the Company and its affiliates, and that each and every one of the restraints is reasonable in respect to subject matter, length of time and geographic area. You further agree that, if were you to breach (and, if curable, did not promptly cure such breach following reasonable notice of such breach) any of the covenants contained in this Agreement or the Restrictive Covenant Agreement, in addition to the Company’s other legal and equitable remedies, the Company may suspend or cease any Termination Benefits to which you might otherwise be entitled. Any such suspension or termination of the Termination Benefits by the Company in the event of a breach by you shall not affect your ongoing obligations to the Company.
10. Taxes; Section 409A
(a) | All forms of compensation referred to in this Agreement are subject to reduction to reflect applicable withholding and payroll taxes and other deductions required by law. You hereby acknowledge that the Company does not have a duty to design its compensation policies in a manner that minimizes your tax liabilities, and you will not make any claim against the Company or its board of directors related to tax liabilities arising from your compensation. |
(b) | Anything in this Agreement to the contrary notwithstanding, if at the time of your separation from service within the meaning of Section 409A of the Code, the Company determines that you are a “specified employee” within the meaning of Section 409A(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Code, then to the extent any payment or benefit that you become entitled to under this Agreement on account of your separation from service would be considered deferred compensation subject to the 20% additional tax imposed pursuant to Section 409A(a) of the Code as a result of the application of Section 409A(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Code, such payment shall not be payable and such benefit shall not be provided until the date that is the earlier of (A) six months and one day after your separation from service, or (B) your death. If any such delayed cash payment is otherwise payable on an installment basis, the first payment shall include a catch-up payment covering amounts that would otherwise have been paid during the six-month period but for the application of this provision, and the balance of the installments shall be payable in accordance with their original schedule. All in-kind benefits provided and expenses eligible for reimbursement under this Agreement shall be provided by the Company or incurred by you during the time periods set forth in this Agreement. All reimbursements shall be paid as soon as administratively practicable, but in no event shall any reimbursement be paid after the last day of the taxable year following the taxable year in which the expense was incurred. The amount of in-kind benefits provided or reimbursable expenses incurred in one taxable year shall not affect the in-kind benefits to be provided or the expenses eligible for |
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reimbursement in any other taxable year. Such right to reimbursement or in-kind benefits is not subject to liquidation or exchange for another benefit. To the extent that any payment or benefit described in this Agreement constitutes “non-qualified deferred compensation” under Section 409A of the Code, and to the extent that such payment or benefit is payable upon your termination of employment, then such payments or benefits shall be payable only upon your “separation from service.” The determination of whether and when a separation from service has occurred shall be made in accordance with the presumptions set forth in Treasury Regulation Section 1.409A-1(h). The Company and you intend that this Agreement will be administered in accordance with Section 409A of the Code. To the extent that any provision of this Agreement is ambiguous as to its compliance with Section 409A of the Code, the provision shall be read in such a manner so that all payments hereunder comply with Section 409A of the Code. The Company makes no representation or warranty and shall have no liability to you or any other person if any provisions of this Agreement are determined to constitute deferred compensation subject to Section 409A of the Code but do not satisfy an exemption from, or the conditions of, such Section. |
11. Interpretation, Amendment and Enforcement. This Agreement, including the Restrictive Covenant Agreement, the MIP and the Equity Documents, constitutes the complete agreement between you and the Company, contains all of the terms of your employment with the Company and supersedes any prior agreements, representations or understandings (whether written, oral or implied) between you and the Company. The terms of this Agreement and the resolution of any disputes as to the meaning, effect, performance or validity of this Agreement or arising out of, related to, or in any way connected with this Agreement, your employment with the Company or any other relationship between you and the Company (the “Disputes”) will be governed by Massachusetts law, excluding laws relating to conflicts or choice of law. You and the Company submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the federal and state courts located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in connection with any Dispute or any claim related to any Dispute.
12. Assignment. Neither you nor the Company may make any assignment of this Agreement or any interest in it, by operation of law or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the other; provided, however, that the Company may assign its rights and obligations under this Agreement (including the Restrictive Covenant Agreement) without your consent to any affiliate or to any person or entity with whom the Company shall hereafter effect a reorganization, consolidate with, or merge into or to whom it transfers all or substantially all of its properties or assets. This Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon you and the Company, and each of your and its respective successors, executors, administrators, heirs and permitted assigns.
13. Miscellaneous. This Agreement may not be modified or amended, and no breach shall be deemed to be waived, unless agreed to in writing by you and another Board member of the
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Company. The headings and captions in this Agreement are for convenience only and in no way define or describe the scope or content of any provision of this Agreement. The words “include,” “includes” and “including” when used herein shall be deemed in each case to be followed by the words “without limitation.” This Agreement may be executed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be an original and all of which together shall constitute one and the same instrument.
14. Other Terms. This offer is contingent on the completion of successful background checks, as determined by the Company. By signing this Agreement, you represent to the Company that you have no contractual commitments or other legal obligations that would or may prohibit you from performing your duties for the Company. As with any employee, you must submit satisfactory proof of your identity and your legal authorization to work in the United States.
Please acknowledge, by signing below, that you have accepted this Agreement.
Very truly yours, | ||
By: | /s/ Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx | |
Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx |
I have read and accept this employment offer:
/s/ Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx | ||
Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx | ||
Dated: | August 11, 2014 |
Exhibit 1
Non-Competition, Non-Solicitation, Confidentiality and Assignment Agreement
I, Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx, enter into this Agreement with Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation (the “Company”) as a condition of my employment with the Company. I understand and agree that the terms of this Non-Competition, Non-Solicitation, Confidentiality and Assignment Agreement (“NNCA”) are being incorporated by reference into the Employment Agreement that I entered into with the Company dated August , 2014 (the “Employment Agreement”) and that the provisions of this NNCA shall survive the Employment Agreement as well as the termination of my employment for any reason. With those understandings, I agree as follows:
EXHIBIT A
To: | Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation |
From: | Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx |
Date: |
SUBJECT: | Prior Inventions |
The following is a complete list of all inventions or improvements relevant to the subject matter of my employment by the Company that have been made or conceived or first reduced to practice by me alone or jointly with others prior to my engagement by the Company:
¨ | No inventions or improvements |
¨ | See below: |
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Additional sheets attached |
The following is a list of all patents and patent applications in which I have been named as an inventor:
¨ | None |
¨ | See below: |
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