Elements of Executive Compensation
The compensation of executives of the Company includes three main elements: (i) base salary; (ii) an annual bonus; and (iii) long-term equity incentives. Perquisites and personal benefits are not a significant element of compensation for the Company’s executive officers.
Base Salaries
Base salary is provided as a fixed source of compensation for the Company’s executive officers. Adjustments to base salaries are reviewed annually and as warranted throughout the year to reflect promotions or other changes in the scope of an executive officer’s role or responsibilities, as well as to maintain market competitiveness.
On February 4, 2021, from fiscal year 2020 to 2021, Mr. Gregoriou’s annual base salary was increased from $170,000 to $800,000; Mr. Kaskavelis’s annual base salary was increased from $120,000 to $358,186; and Mr. De Castro’s annual base salary was increased from $150,000 to $350,000.
As of December 31, 2020, an aggregate of $613,970, $120,000, and $426,422 was due in unpaid compensation for prior service to, respectively, Messrs. Gregoriou, Kaskavelis, and De Castro. These amounts were repaid to Messrs. Gregoriou, De Castro, and Kaskavelis in connection with the Business Combination.
Annual Bonuses
In 2021, the named executive officers were each eligible to receive an annual cash incentive award, based on the achievement of pre-approved key performance objectives determined by the Compensation Committee.
As provided in their respective employment agreements, the target bonus amount for Mr. Gregoriou was 150% of his base salary and for Messrs. Kaskavelis and De Castro were 100% of their base salaries. Actual bonus payouts vary based on Compensation Committee assessment of executive performance versus pre-established key performance indicators.
In January 2022, the Compensation Committee reviewed the Company’s performance in 2021 relative to these performance objectives, and approved bonuses for the named executive officers equal to 100% of the bonus targets. The bonuses, which were paid in February 2022, were as follows: (i) Mr. Gregoriou, $1,200,000, (ii) Mr. Kaskavelis, $358,186, and (iii) Mr. De Castro, $350,000.
Equity Compensation
In 2021, the Company adopted the Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. 2020 Incentive Plan (the “Equity Incentive Plan”). The Equity Incentive Plan advances the Company’s interests by providing for the grant to our employees, directors, consultants and advisors of stock options, SARs, restricted and unrestricted stock and stock units, performance awards and other awards that are convertible into or otherwise based on our common stock.
Following the Business Combination, on June 11, 2021, the Compensation Committee made grants to select senior executives. The grants were made to recognize each executive’s role and contributions to date, including outstanding efforts towards a successful transaction, as well as to incentivize and to retain the executives, and to further align them with the post-Business Combination stockholders. Specifically, the Company granted 922,118 time-vested restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and stock options to purchase 922,118 shares of common stock to Vassilios Gregoriou and 345,794 RSUs and stock options to purchase 345,794 shares of common stock to each of Christos Kaskavelis and Emory De Castro. The stock options have an exercise price of $10.36 per share and all of the awards vest 25% upon each annual anniversary of February 4, 2021, the vesting commencement date, until the fourth anniversary of the vesting commencement date.
In recognition of past service, in 2020, each of our executive officers was granted shares of common stock of Advent Technologies Inc. at a discounted purchase price of $0.01 per share. These shares were issued pursuant to the terms of either the Advent Technologies Inc. 2018-2020 Stock Grant Plan or the Advent Technologies Inc. 2020-2023 Stock Grant Plan (collectively, the “Stock Grant Programs”). Pursuant to the Stock Grant Programs, Mr. Gregoriou was granted 512,080 shares on March 26, 2020 and 297,834 shares on September 9, 2020, and each of Messrs. Kaskavelis and De Castro was granted 256,040 shares on March 26, 2020 and 178,701 shares on September 9, 2020. In general, under the Stock Grant Programs, if the employee ceased to be employed with Advent for any reason prior to December 31, 2020, Advent had a limited repurchase period to repurchase the granted shares at a price of $0.01 per share. This limited repurchase right lapsed on December 31, 2020.