We Value Your Support at Our 2023 Annual Meeting (continued) 14 Shareholder Proposal on Workplace Non-Discrimination Audit After careful consideration, the Board believes the proposal is not in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. Our dedication to building and prioritizing a diverse workforce and highlighting our employee’s differences gives us access to a broad range of scientific and business insights, strengthens our competitive advantage, and helps us achieve our patient-centered mission most effectively and efficiently. Our Inclusion & Diversity representation goals and Health Equity commitments are designed to address systemic inequities in health equity and drive meaningful change. In 2022, we made significant progress, nearly reaching gender parity at our executive level globally and increasing executive representation of both Black/African American employees and Latino/Hispanic employees in the U.S. The proponent mischaracterizes the Company’s efforts and the means by which it seeks to achieve them by suggesting that the Company’s policies are discriminatory. The opposite is true. BMS has been and will continue to be an equal opportunity employer. To assure full implementation of our EEO policies, we take steps to assure that: Persons are recruited, hired, assigned, and promoted without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations; All other employee actions, such as compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs and recall from layoffs, access to training, education, tuition assistance and social recreation programs are administered without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations; and Employees and applicants shall not be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats, coercion or discrimination because they have: (1) filed a complaint; (2) assisted or participated in an investigation, compliance review, hearing or any other activity related to the administration of any federal, state or local law requiring equal employment opportunity; (3) opposed any act or practice made unlawful by any federal, state or local law requiring equal opportunity or (4) exercised any other right protected by federal, state or local law requiring equal opportunity. In addition, we are committed to maintaining a work environment where people can ask questions, voice concerns, and make appropriate suggestions regarding business practices. After careful consideration, the Board believes the proposal is not in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders. The Board believes different board structures are appropriate for the Company at different times. Over the last two decades, the Board has had different leadership structures depending on the needs of the Board and the company at the time. At our 2017 annual meeting, our CEO, Dr. Giovanni Caforio, was elected to become Chairman of the Board. The Board took numerous factors into account in approving this structure. These included: Shareholder interests are best served when the Board has the flexibility to make leadership choices that reflect the Company’s needs and circumstances at any given time; Eliminating this flexibility is unnecessarily rigid and would deprive the Board of the ability to select the most qualified and appropriate individual to lead the Board as Board Chair; The strong roles played by our Lead Independent Director and the independent chairs of each of our key Board committees, and other corporate governance practices, already provide the independent leadership and management oversight requested by this proposal; and The independence-protecting features of our corporate governance policies and practices, including 91% director independence, fully independent Board committees, continued Board refreshment, regular executive sessions with the independent directors and independent evaluation of CEO performance. The Board believes having Dr. Caforio serve in both roles effectively drives future strategy and decision-making for the Company and ensures that the Company presents its message and strategy to all stakeholders with a unified voice. Dr. Caforio not only has extensive industry experience but also deep institutional knowledge of the Company. His breadth of knowledge and deep understanding of our evolving industry, reinforces the Board’s belief that having the Chief Executive Officer serve as Board Chair is highly advantageous for the Company at this time. Shareholder Proposal on the Adoption of a Board policy that the Chairperson of the Board be an Independent Director Accordingly, our Board recommends a vote AGAINST these shareholder proposals.