rules of the SEC applicable to solicitations of proxies with respect to nominees for election as directors. These and other provisions in our Amended and Restated Bylaws as to the form and content of a stockholder’s notice may impede stockholders’ ability to bring matters before, or to make nominations for directors at, an annual meeting of stockholders.
Stockholders who wish to send communications on any topic to the Board, the non-employee directors as a group, or to the presiding director of the executive sessions of the independent members of the Board, Mr. Jolliffe, may do so by writing to StealthGas Inc. at 331 Kifissias Avenue, Erithrea 14561 Athens, Greece.
Compensation Discussion and Analysis
The Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors has the responsibility to review, discuss and recommend for approval management compensation arrangements. The Compensation Committee is comprised of directors who are independent under Nasdaq Stock Market rules, applicable SEC requirements and the Company’s requirements for independent directors. The members of the Compensation Committee are Michael Jolliffe, who serves as Chairman, Markos Drakos and John Kostoyannis.
The policy of the Compensation Committee is to structure officers’ and the directors’ compensation arrangements so as to enable the Company to attract, motivate and retain high performance executives who are critical to our long-term success. The policy is designed to link compensation to how successfully our business plans are executed and meet a number of corporate, financial and operational goals. This design is intended to provide key management personnel with increased compensation when we do well and to provide less compensation when we do not.
Salary and Cash Bonus
Mr. Vafias serves as the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer and since January 2014, its Chief Financial Officer. He is an employee of the management company and, except for any awards of stock options, restricted stock or other equity awards that may be granted to such individual, as discussed below, are not directly compensated by the Company.
We do not pay any direct cash compensation to our executive officers. Under our management agreement with Stealth Maritime, we reimburse Stealth Maritime for its payment of the cash compensation to our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Internal Auditor and our Chief Technical Officer, as well as prior to August 31, 2019, our Deputy Chairman and Executive Director. The aggregate of such cash compensation for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2020 and 2021 were $1.1 million, $1.0 million and $1.0 million, respectively.
Our executive officers and directors are also eligible to receive awards under our equity compensation plan described below under “—Equity Compensation Plan.” We did not grant any awards under our equity compensation plan to directors or officers of the Company during the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020. In 2021, we granted restricted shares and stock options, including to our officers and directors, as described below under “— Equity Compensation Plan.” We recognized share-based compensation expense of $0.6 million, nil and $0.6 million in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The Chairman of our Board of Directors receives annual fees of $70,000, plus reimbursement for his out-of-pocket expenses, while our other independent directors receive fees of $60,000 per annum in the aggregate, plus reimbursement of their out-of-pocket expenses. Executive directors receive no compensation for their services as directors.
Equity Awards
The Company’s directors and officers and employees of the management company are also eligible to receive compensation directly from the Company in the form of stock options, stock grants or other equity
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