NCR is writing to supplement the information in its proxy statement dated March 22, 2022 for the 2022 annual meeting (the “NCR 2022 Proxy Statement”) to be held on May 2, 2022.
As described in the NCR 2022 Proxy Statement, at our 2021 Annual Meeting, 15.8% of our stockholders voted in support of our 2020 executive compensation program. The Board and our Compensation and Human Resource Committee recognized the dissatisfaction expressed by our stockholders. As a result, we conducted an extensive Board-led stockholder outreach program throughout 2021 to seek feedback on our executive compensation program and other matters relating to NCR. We reached out to 31 stockholders owning approximately 57% of our outstanding shares and spoke with 12 stockholders owning approximately 36% of our outstanding shares1. All such meetings were attended by one or more of the following independent directors: Chair of the Compensation and Human Resource Committee Matthew Thompson, Committee member Kirk Larsen and Lead Independent Director Mark Begor. All feedback from this stockholder engagement initiative was shared with the full Board.
As a result of this stockholder engagement and as described in our proxy materials, multiple enhancements requested by stockholders were made by our Compensation and Human Resource Committee to our 2021 and 2022 executive compensation programs, in direct response to stockholder concerns and in order to strengthen the link between management and stockholder interests.
NCR is supplementing our proxy statement disclosure to provide more specific detail about the stockholder feedback received and concerns raised, in order to demonstrate that the actions disclosed in the NCR 2022 Proxy Statement are in direct response to this feedback and these concerns.
Specifically, the feedback and concerns raised by stockholders, and responses taken in 2021 and/or for 2022, as applicable, include the following (the below feedback and actions are also described on pp. 45-47 of the NCR 2022 Proxy Statement):
| 1) | Stockholder Feedback: Concerns about the use of one-time, special incentive plans. |
| • | | Discontinued the use of special one-time and off-cycle incentive plans and awards |
| • | | The Compensation and Human Resource Committee clarified that it does not expect to adopt any non-routine, special incentive plans for our named executives in the future absent extraordinary circumstances |
| 2) | Stockholder Feedback: Concerns that the 2020 Performance share RSU grants were issued at a relatively low stock price, and stockholders would like to see more risk associated with a grant of this nature. |
Actions:
| • | | Amended the outstanding 2020 Performance share RSU grants with the consent of our CEO, COO, and other named executives who received such awards by subjecting the RSUs to greater downside risk and extending by 12 months the vesting period during which the first tranche of these RSUs are subject to a risk of forfeiture |
| • | | Extended the period over which stock price performance will be measured from 18 to 30 months, so any share gains must be sustained until then |
| • | | Performance had been achieved at maximum at the time of the amendment and at the original performance measurement date (200% of the target awards would have been earned, as of both dates), so the amendment created meaningful downside risk and no additional upside opportunity (because the final earned award can range from 0% to 200% of the target units, and is capped at 200%) |
| • | | Extended the vesting period for the first tranche by approximately 12 months, so any earned shares will vest in a single installment after 30 months, which meaningfully extends the period during which these RSUs remain subject to a risk of forfeiture |
1 | The calculation of the above percentages represents stockholder outreach throughout 2021 but is based on the number of outstanding Company shares as of December 31, 2021 and stock ownership reported in publicly available filings as of December 31, 2021 and so these percentages may include stockholder outreach to persons who held stock at the time of the outreach, but no longer held stock as of December 31, 2021. |