PROPOSAL NO. 1
ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
The first proposal on the agenda for the Annual Meeting is the election of M. Christopher Canavan, Jr., Taylor J. Crouch and Frank H. Laukien to serve as
Class I directors for a three-year term beginning at the Annual Meeting and ending at our 2007 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until a successor has been duly elected and
qualified. The Company's Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that the board of directors shall consist of three classes of directors with overlapping three-year
terms. One class of directors is to be elected each year with a term extending to the third succeeding Annual Meeting after election. Directors are assigned to each class in accordance with a
resolution or resolutions adopted by the board of directors, each class consisting, as nearly as possible, of one-third the total number of directors. There are currently ten members of
the board of directors, consisting of three Class I directors, four Class II directors and three Class III directors. The directors in Class I will be elected at the Annual
Meeting to serve for a term expiring at the 2007 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The directors in each of Class II and Class III are serving terms expiring at the Company's Annual
Meeting of Stockholders in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Unless
marked otherwise, proxies received will be voted
FOR
the election of each of the three nominees specified below, who currently
serve as directors with terms extending to the 2004 Annual Meeting or until their successors are elected and qualified. If any such nominee for the office of director is unwilling or unable to serve
as a nominee for the office of director at the time of the Annual Meeting, the proxies may be voted either (1) for a substitute nominee who shall be designated by the present board of directors
to fill such vacancy or (2) for the other nominees only, leaving a vacancy. Alternatively, the size of the board of directors may be reduced so that there is no vacancy. The board of directors
has no reason to believe that any of the nominees will be unwilling or unable to serve if elected as a director. Such persons have been nominated to serve until the 2007 Annual Meeting of Stockholders
and until their successors are elected and qualified.
Our
directors as of April 2, 2004 are as follows:
Name
|
|
Age
|
|
Position
|
|
Frank H. Laukien, Ph.D.
|
|
44
|
|
President, CEO, Chairman
|
|
Dr. Martin Haase
|
|
47
|
|
Senior Vice President, Director
|
|
Richard M. Stein
|
|
52
|
|
Secretary, Director
|
|
M. Christopher Canavan, Jr.
|
|
64
|
|
Director
|
|
Taylor J. Crouch
|
|
44
|
|
Director
|
|
Daniel S. Dross
|
|
45
|
|
Director
|
|
Collin J. D'Silva
|
|
47
|
|
Director
|
|
Bernhard Wangler
|
|
53
|
|
Director
|
|
Richard D. Kniss
|
|
63
|
|
Director
|
|
William A. Linton
|
|
56
|
|
Director
|
2
Set
forth below is biographical information for each person nominated or continuing in office.
Nominees For Election For A Three-Year Term Expiring At The 2007 Annual Meeting
M. Christopher Canavan, Jr.
Mr. Canavan joined the Company's board of directors in June 2000. Mr. Canavan, a financial consultant, is a retired partner of
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Mr. Canavan joined the Boston Office of Coopers & Lybrand in 1961 and became a partner in the Firm in 1972. Effective July 1, 1998 Coopers &
Lybrand merged with Price Waterhouse & Co. to form PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Mr. Canavan served as a partner in the merged firm until his retirement in June 1999.
Mr. Canavan was also appointed to the board of directors and audit committee of Taiwan Fund, a closed end mutual fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in August 2003.
Mr. Canavan holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Boston College.
Taylor J. Crouch
Mr. Crouch joined the former Bruker AXS board of directors in November 2000 and became a member of our board of directors in July 2003 in
connection with the Merger. Since July 2002, Mr. Crouch has been President and Chief Operating Officer of Discovery Partners International, Inc., a leading provider of drug
discovery capabilities to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. From April 1999 to April 2002, Mr. Crouch was the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of
Variagenics, Inc. (now Nuvelo), a pharmacogenomics company. From 1991 to April 1999, Mr. Crouch was Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Strategic Development for
PAREXEL International Corporation, a contract pharmaceutical outsourcing organization. Mr. Crouch received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in
international finance and marketing from the University of Chicago.
Frank H. Laukien, Ph.D.
Dr. Laukien has been the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since the inception of its predecessor company in
February 1991. He also served as Executive Chairman of the former Bruker AXS from August 2002 until the Merger in July 2003. In addition, from October 1997 to
August 2002, he served as the Chairman of the board of directors and, from October 1997 to March 2000, as the Chief Executive Officer, of the former Bruker AXS. Since
December 2002, Dr. Laukien has served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of the worldwide Bruker BioSpin group of companies, affiliates of the Company and the former Bruker AXS. A
part-time professor
of mass spectrometry at the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Laukien holds a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard
University. From October 2002 until October 2003, he was Chairman of ALSSA (Analytical & Life Science Systems Association), an industry association.
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS RECOMMENDS A VOTE FOR THE ELECTION OF THE NOMINEES LISTED ABOVE.
Directors Continuing In Office Until The 2005 Annual Meeting
Daniel S. Dross
Mr. Dross joined the Company's board of directors in July 2003 in connection with the Merger and joined the former Bruker AXS board of directors in
January 2001. Mr. Dross has been a partner of Trinity Hunt Partners, a private equity firm, since June 2002. Mr. Dross was a partner of Thomas Weisel Partners Group LLC
from May 1999 to May 2002. Prior to joining Thomas Weisel Partners, Mr. Dross was a Principal at Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated, a Dallas-based private equity
3
firm,
from 1991 to 1999. Mr. Dross received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Collin J. D'Silva
Mr. D'Silva joined the Company's board of directors in February 2000. Mr. D'Silva is the President and Chief Executive Officer of
Transgenomic, Inc., a life science company involved in SNP discovery, in Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. D'Silva has held these positions since 1997. From 1988 to 1997, Mr. D'Silva was
President and Chief Executive Officer of CETAC Technologies, Inc, a company designing instrumentation for elemental analysis. Mr. D'Silva holds a B.S. degree and a Masters in Industrial
Engineering from Iowa State University as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Creighton University.
Richard M. Stein
Mr. Stein joined the Company's board of directors in February 2000 and is the Company's Secretary. Since January 1993, Mr. Stein has
been a partner with Nixon Peabody LLP, a law firm, or a predecessor entity, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar. Mr. Stein holds a B.A. degree from Brandeis University and a J.D. from Boston
College Law School.
Bernhard Wangler
Mr. Wangler joined the Company's board of directors in February 2000. Mr. Wangler has been a German tax consultant and principal partner with
Kanzlei Wangler in Karlsruhe, Germany since July 1983. He has been a Certified Public Accountant in Germany since 1984. Mr. Wangler holds a Bachelor of Economics and Commerce degree and
a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim, Germany.
Directors Continuing In Office Until The 2006 Annual Meeting
Dr. Martin Haase
Dr. Haase joined the Company as Senior Vice President and a member of the board of directors in July 2003 in connection with the Merger. Prior to
the merger, Dr. Haase, who joined the former Bruker AXS in October 1997, was the President and a director of the former Bruker AXS and the Managing Director of Bruker AXS GmbH from
October 1997 until the Merger in July 2003. Dr. Haase was also the Chief Executive Officer of the former Bruker AXS from November 2000 until the Merger in July 2003.
He also served as the former Bruker AXS' Treasurer from March 2000 to April 2001. Dr. Haase previously held various technical and management positions in the Siemens
X-ray business. Dr. Haase has a degree in education and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Göttingen. Dr. Haase will be resigning as Senior Vice
President of the Company for personal reasons on April 30, 2004. He will continue in his role as a director until December 2004.
Richard D. Kniss
Mr. Kniss joined the Company's board of directors in July 2003 in connection with the Merger and joined the former Bruker AXS board of directors in
June 2001. Mr. Kniss was Senior Vice President and General Manager for Agilent Technologies, Chemical Analysis Group, a producer of gas and liquid chromatographs, mass spectrometers and
spectrophotometers, from August 1999 until March 2001. Prior to the spin-off of Agilent from the Hewlett Packard Company, from 1995 to 1999, Mr. Kniss was Vice
President and General Manager of the Chemical Analysis Group for Hewlett Packard. Mr. Kniss holds a B.S. from Brown University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
4
William A. Linton
Mr. Linton joined the Company's board of directors in February 2000. Mr. Linton serves as the lead director of our board of directors. He was
appointed lead director in March 2004 by the independent members of the board of directors. As lead director, Mr. Linton performs the usual responsibilities of a lead director including
setting the agenda for board meetings and acting as a liaison between management and the board of directors. Mr. Linton is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Promega Corporation, a DNA
consumables company, in Madison, Wisconsin and has held these positions since 1978. Mr. Linton received a B.S. degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1970.
BOARD COMMITTEES AND MEETINGS
There are currently ten members of the board of directors. In accordance with the applicable listing standards of the Nasdaq National Market, the board of
directors has determined that there are currently six independent members on the board of directors, namely, M. Christopher Canavan, Jr., Taylor J. Crouch, Collin J. D'Silva, Richard D. Kniss, Daniel
S. Dross and William A. Linton. During fiscal year 2003, the board of directors of the Company held five meetings and acted by written consent three times. During such periods in 2003 in which they
served as board members, all of the directors attended at least 75% of each of: (1) the total number of meetings of the board of directors and (2) the total number of meetings held by
committees of the board of directors on which they served. It is the policy of our board of directors that at least two directors, including at least one independent director, shall attend the Annual
Meeting, either in person or by telephonic conference. Two directors attended our 2003 Annual Meeting. The board of directors has an Audit Committee, a Compensation Committee and a Transition
Committee. The board of directors does not have a Nominating Committee.
Audit Committee.
The Audit Committee of the board of directors, which, since July 1, 2003, is comprised of M.
Christopher Canavan, Jr., Collin J. D'Silva and Taylor J. Crouch, each of whom satisfy the applicable independence requirements of the SEC rules and regulations and current Nasdaq National Market
listing standards, met thirteen times during the 2003 fiscal year and voted by written consent one time. The board of directors has determined that M. Christopher Canavan, Jr., Chairman of the Audit
Committee, qualifies as an audit committee financial expert pursuant to applicable SEC rules and regulations. The Audit Committee provides assistance to the board of directors in fulfilling its legal
and fiduciary obligations with respect to matters involving the accounting, auditing, financial reporting and internal control functions of the Company and its subsidiaries. The Audit Committee works
extensively with the independent auditors, pre-approves all audit and non-audit services provided to the Company by its independent auditors, reviews the performance of the
independent auditors and replaces or terminates the independent auditors when circumstances warrant. The Audit Committee is also charged with establishing and monitoring procedures for (i) the
receipt, retention or treatment of complaints received by the Company regarding accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters, and (ii) the confidential submission by the
Company's employees of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters. None of the members of the Audit Committee have participated in the preparation of any financial statements of
the Company at any time during the last three fiscal years.
Compensation Committee.
The Compensation Committee, which, since July 1, 2003, is comprised of Daniel S. Dross,
Richard D. Kniss and William A. Linton, all of whom meet the independence requirements of the current listing standards of the Nasdaq National Market, met four times during the 2003 fiscal year and
acted by written consent six times during the 2003 fiscal year. Mr. Linton is the Chairman of the Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee administers the Company's stock option plan,
determines the chief executive officer's salary, bonus, and equity-based compensation, oversees the executive compensation program for the Company's other executive officers
5
and
determines such compensation, reviews general policy matters relating to compensation and employee benefits and makes recommendations concerning these matters to the board of directors.
Transition Committee.
The temporary Transition Committee, which was established on July 1, 2003 in connection with our
Merger with the former Bruker AXS, is comprised of Taylor J. Crouch, Richard M. Stein, Richard D. Kniss and William A. Linton. Mr. Kniss serves as the Chairman of the Transition Committee. The
Transition Committee met two times during the 2003 fiscal year. The Transition Committee oversees and monitors management's implementation of common information and financial systems and reporting
processes for the merged company, assists management's identification of incremental marketing and sales opportunities, and facilitates management's identification and realization of synergies and
cost savings following the Merger. The Transition Committee will be dissolved on June 30, 2004.