3.1. | General. The Plan shall be administered by the Committee, which shall have the full power and authority to interpret, construe and administer the Plan and any Individual Award Opportunity granted hereunder (including reconciling any inconsistencies, correcting any defaults and addressing any omissions). The Committee’s interpretation, construction and administration of the Plan and all its determinations hereunder shall be final, conclusive and binding on all persons for all purposes. |
3.2. | Powers and Responsibilities. The Committee shall have the following discretionary powers, rights and responsibilities in addition to those described in Section 3.1: |
(a) | to designate within the Determination Period the Participants for a Performance Period; |
(b) | to establish within the Determination Period the performance goals and other terms and conditions that are to apply to each Participant’s Individual Award Opportunity, including the extent to which any incentive payment shall be made to a Participant in the event of (A) the Participant’s termination of employment with the Company due to disability, retirement, death or any other reason or (B) a change in control of the Company; |
(c) | to determine the form of payment of Individual Award Opportunities, which may include, without limitation, cash, shares of Company common stock or stock-based awards granted under the Company’s equity incentive plan as in effect from time to time, or any other property approved by the Committee; |
(d) | to determine and certify in writing prior to the payment under any Individual Award Opportunity that the performance goals for a Performance Period and other material terms applicable to the Individual Award Opportunity have been satisfied; |
(e) | subject to the requirements of Section 409A of the Code, to decide whether, and under what circumstances and subject to what terms, Individual Award Opportunities are to be paid on a deferred basis, including whether such a deferred payment shall be made solely at the Committee’s discretion or whether a Participant may elect deferred payment; and |
(f) | to adopt, revise, suspend, waive or repeal, when and as appropriate, in its sole and absolute discretion, such administrative rules, guidelines and procedures for the Plan as it deems necessary or advisable to implement the terms and conditions of the Plan. |
3.3. | Delegation of Power. The Committee may delegate some or all of its power and authority hereunder to the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer or other executive officer of the Company as the Committee deems appropriate; provided, however, that with respect to any person who is a “covered employee” within the meaning of Section 162(m) of the Code or who, in the Committee’s judgment, is likely to be a covered employee at any time during the applicable Performance Period, only the Committee shall be permitted to (i) designate such person to participate in the Plan for such Performance Period, (ii) establish performance goals and Individual Award Opportunities for such person, and (iii) certify the achievement of such performance goals. |
4.1. | Establishing Performance Goals. The Committee shall establish within the Determination Period of each Performance Period one or more objective performance goals for each Participant or for any group of Participants (or both), provided that the outcome of each goal is substantially uncertain at the time the Committee establishes such goal. Performance goals shall be based exclusively on one or more of the following objective corporate-wide or subsidiary, division, operating unit or individual measures, stated in either absolute terms or relative terms, such as rates of growth or improvement or the performance of other companies or indices: the attainment by a share of common stock of a specified fair market value for a specified period of time, earnings per share (determined on a fully diluted basis), total stockholder return, return on assets, return on equity, earnings of the Company before or after taxes and/or interest, sales, revenue, market share, free cash flow, cash flow return on investment, cash on hand, expense reduction, interest expense after taxes, return on investment, return on invested capital, economic value added, operating margin, net income before or after taxes, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, pretax operating earnings after interest expense and before incentives, and/or extraordinary or special items, operating income, net cash provided by operations, total liquidity, net debt, operating working capital and strategic business criteria consisting of one or more objectives based on meeting specified goals relating to market penetration, geographic business expansion, cost targets, customer satisfaction, reductions in errors and omissions, reductions in lost business, management of employment practices and employee benefits, supervision of litigation and information technology, quality and quality audit scores, productivity, efficiency, safety and acquisitions or divestitures, or any |
4.2. | Impact of Extraordinary Items or Changes in Accounting. The measures utilized in establishing performance goals under the Plan for any given Performance Period shall be determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), where applicable, and in a manner consistent with the methods used in the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements, without regard to (i) extraordinary or other nonrecurring or unusual items, or restructuring or impairment charges, such as restructuring, exit and impairment charges, tax items and loss on debt extinguishment costs, as determined by the Company’s independent public accountants in accordance with GAAP or (ii) changes in accounting, unless, in each case, the Committee decides otherwise within the Determination Period or as otherwise required under Section 162(m) of the Code. |
5.1. | Terms. At the time performance goals are established for a Performance Period, the Committee also shall establish an Individual Award Opportunity for each Participant or group of Participants, which shall be based on the achievement of one or more specified targets of performance goals. The targets shall be expressed in terms of an objective formula or standard which may, at the discretion of the Committee, be based upon the Participant’s annual base salary or a multiple thereof. In all cases the Committee shall have the sole and absolute discretion to reduce the amount of any payment under any Individual Award Opportunity that would otherwise be made to any Participant or to decide that no payment shall be made, and the Committee may in its sole discretion establish secondary performance goals, that need not be specified in Section 4.1 of the Plan, which the Committee may use as guidelines in making the decision whether to reduce any such payment. No Participant shall receive a payment under the Plan with respect to any fiscal year of the Company in excess of $5,000,000, which maximum amount shall be proportionately increased or decreased with respect to Performance Periods that are more or less than one year in duration. |
5.2. | Incentive Payments. Subject to Section 3.2(e), payments under Individual Award Opportunities shall be made within 2½ months after the end of the Performance Period for which the incentive awards are payable, except that no such payment shall be made unless and until the Committee, based to the extent applicable on the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements for such Performance Period (as prepared and reviewed |
6.1. | Effective Date and Term of Plan. The Plan shall be submitted to the stockholders of the Company for approval at the 2013 annual meeting of stockholders and, if approved by the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares of common stock of the Company present in person or represented by proxy at such meeting, shall become effective for Performance Periods beginning on and after January 1, 2013. This Plan may be terminated at any time by the Committee. In the event that this Plan is not approved by the stockholders of the Company, this Plan shall be null and void. |
6.2. | Amendment or Termination of Plan. The Committee may amend or terminate this Plan as it shall deem advisable, subject to any requirement of stockholder approval required by applicable law, rule or regulation, including Section 162(m) of the Code. |
6.3. | Non-Transferability of Awards. No award under the Plan shall be transferable other than by will, the laws of descent and distribution or pursuant to beneficiary designation procedures approved by the Company. Except to the extent permitted by the foregoing sentence, no award may be sold, transferred, assigned, pledged, hypothecated, encumbered or otherwise disposed of (whether by operation of law or otherwise) or be subject to execution, attachment or similar process. Upon any attempt to sell, transfer, assign, pledge, hypothecate, encumber or otherwise dispose of any such award, such award and all rights thereunder shall immediately become null and void. |
6.4. | Tax Withholding. The Company shall have the right to require, prior to the payment of any amount pursuant to an award made hereunder, payment by the Participant of any Federal, state, local or other taxes which may be required to be withheld or paid in connection with such award. |
6.5. | No Right of Participation or Employment. No person shall have any right to participate in this Plan. Neither this Plan nor any award made hereunder shall confer upon any person any right to continued employment by the Company, any subsidiary or any affiliate of the Company or affect in any manner the right of the Company, any subsidiary or any affiliate of the Company to terminate the employment of any person at any time without liability hereunder. |
6.6. | Designation of Beneficiary. If permitted by the Company, a Participant may file with the Company a written designation of one or more persons as such Participant’s beneficiary or beneficiaries (both primary and contingent) in the event of the Participant’s death. Each beneficiary designation shall become effective only when filed in writing with the Company during the Participant’s lifetime on a form prescribed by the Company. The spouse of a married Participant domiciled in a community property jurisdiction shall join in any designation of a beneficiary other than such spouse. The filing with the Company of a |
6.7. | Governing Law. This Plan and each award hereunder, and all determinations made and actions taken pursuant thereto, to the extent not otherwise governed by the Code or the laws of the United States, shall be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and construed in accordance therewith without giving effect to principles of conflicts of laws. |
6.8. | Other Plans. Neither the adoption of the Plan nor the submission of the Plan to the Company’s stockholders for their approval shall be construed as limiting the power of the Board or the Committee to adopt such other incentive arrangements as it may otherwise deem appropriate. |
6.9. | Binding Effect. The Plan shall be binding upon the Company and its successors and assigns and the Participants and their beneficiaries, personal representatives and heirs. If the Company becomes a party to any merger, consolidation or reorganization, then the Plan shall remain in full force and effect as an obligation of the Company or its successors in interest, unless the Plan is amended or terminated pursuant to Section 6.2. |