Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
On April 15, 2024, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of CARGO Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Company”), upon the recommendation of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board, approved an increase in the number of authorized directors on the Board from six to seven and appointed Kapil Dhingra to the Board to fill the vacancy resulting from such increase. Dr. Dhingra was appointed as a Class II director with his term expiring at the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders or until his successor is elected and qualified or his earlier death, resignation, disqualification, retirement or removal.
Dr. Dhingra, age 64, currently serves as the Managing Member of KAPital Consulting, LLC, a healthcare consulting firm that he founded in 2008. Dr. Dhingra also currently serves on the boards of directors of LAVA Therapeutics B.V., where he has served as Chairman since 2021, Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed precision oncology medicine company since January 2021, Median Technologies Inc., since 2017, and Replimune Group, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed oncolytic immunotherapy company since August 2017. Dr. Dhingra previously served as a member of the boards of directors of Autolus Therapeutics plc, Five Prime Therapeutics Inc., until its acquisition by Amgen, Inc., Micromet, Inc., until its acquisition by Amgen, Inc., Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., until its acquisition by Novartis AG, and YM Biosciences Inc., until its acquisition by Gilead Sciences, Inc., each of which was a public company during Dr. Dhingra’s service as a director. From 1999 to 2008, Dr. Dhingra worked at F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. where he served as Vice President, Head of the Oncology Disease Biology Leadership Team and Head of Oncology Clinical Development. From 2000 to 2008, he held a Clinical Affiliate appointment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. From 1996 to 1999, Dr. Dhingra worked at Eli Lilly & Co. where he served as Senior Clinical Research Physician. Dr. Dhingra also served as a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine from 1997 to 1999. Prior to Eli Lilly & Co., Dr. Dhingra was a member of the faculty of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1989 to 1996. Dr. Dhingra received his M.B.B.S. from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center and New York Medical College and completed his fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine.
Pursuant to the Company’s non-employee director compensation program, as a non-employee director, Dr. Dhingra will receive (i) a $40,000 annual retainer for his service on the Board, prorated for the remainder of 2024, and (ii) an initial option grant to purchase up to 50,000 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Initial Grant”); provided that in the event the fair value of the Initial Grant exceeds $800,000, the number of shares subject to the Initial Grant shall automatically be reduced to the maximum number of shares that results in the Initial Grant having a grant date fair value of $800,000 or less, with the grant date fair value determined consistently with the Company’s financial statements. The foregoing description is qualified in its entirety by reference to the text of the Company’s non-employee director compensation program, which was filed as Exhibit 10.21 to the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (the “Form 10-K”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 21, 2024.
Dr. Dhingra has no relationships requiring disclosure under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K. Dr. Dhingra is not a party to any arrangement or understanding with any other person pursuant to which he was selected as a director.
In addition, Dr. Dhingra will enter into the Company’s standard indemnification agreement for directors and executive officers, the form of which was filed as Exhibit 10.18 to the Form 10-K.
