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Independence of the Board

The Board is comprised of a substantial majority of Directors who qualify as independent Directors. The Board will make a determination as to each Director's independence broadly considering all relevant facts and circumstances. However, the Board has adopted categorical standards to assist it in making the independence determination. Under these categorical standards, a Director shall be presumed not to have a material relationship with the Company or any of its consolidated subsidiaries, and thus be presumed to be independent, if:

  • He or she meets all the bright-line independence and other applicable requirements under the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and all other applicable laws, rules and regulations regarding director independence, in each case from time to time in effect;

  • He or she is not a current employee (and none of his or her "immediate family members", is employed as an "executive officer", each as defined by the NYSE Corporate Governance Rules) of a company that has made payments to, or received payments from, the Company or any of its consolidated subsidiaries for property or services in an amount which, in any of the last three fiscal years, exceeds the greater of $1 million or one percent of such other company's consolidated gross revenues; and

  • In the event that he or she serves as an executive officer or director of a charitable organization, the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries donated less than five percent of that organization's charitable receipts (provided that if within the preceding three years the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries donated annual aggregate contributions in excess of $1 million or 2% of the annual consolidated gross revenue of the charitable organization, such contributions must be disclosed in the Company's proxy statement).

The Corporate Governance Committee as well as the Board annually review the relationships that each Director has with the Company (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the Company) to insure compliance with NYSE listing standards and requirements otherwise imposed by law or regulation and the foregoing categorical standards. Following this review, only those Directors who the Board affirmatively determines have no material relationship with the Company (either directly or as a partner, shareholder or officer of an organization that has a relationship with the Company) will be considered independent Directors under such standards, law or regulation and such categorical standards.

Our Board has determined that based upon this standard 80% of our directors are independent. The independent Directors are Philip Giordano, Scott Letier, Nichelle Maynard-Elliott and Margarita Paláu-Hernández. Steve Bandrowczak, our Chief Executive Officer, is the only director who is not independent.

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