Boston Beer's interim finance chief is promised $700,000 if somebody else gets the job, and less than that if he gets it himself

Matthew Murphy has done this job before.

He was interim treasurer and chief financial officer of the Boston Beer Company from March to September 2023, and on 20 August the board appointed him to the same two posts again, effective 15 September. He keeps his existing title of chief accounting officer while he holds them. Diego Reynoso, who has been the permanent holder, told the company on 17 August that he was stepping down, and the filing states that his departure is not related to any disagreement over operations, policies or practices. He remains at the company through 30 September, and the board has begun a formal search.

Murphy's pay for taking the additional job is unchanged. Base salary stays at $419,359.41. The bonus target stays at 50 percent of base at the 100 percent payout level, on a scale running from zero to 250 percent. The target annual value of his equity awards stays at $250,000. All three are described in the filing as identical to what he was already receiving.

The transition bonus, and the two ways it ends

What is new is a cash award the letter calls an Interim CFO Transition Bonus, worth up to $700,000 and paid in four instalments if he serves through 1 March 2028: $117,000 on 31 December 2026, $116,000 on 1 March 2027, $234,000 on 1 September 2027 and $233,000 on 1 March 2028. Each instalment requires him to be employed on the payment date.

Then the letter sets out what happens if the search ends early, and the two outcomes are not symmetrical.

If Boston Beer hires somebody else as chief financial officer before 1 March 2028, Murphy is still entitled to the whole $700,000, with the unpaid balance falling due as a lump sum on the new officer's start date. If Boston Beer appoints Murphy himself before that date, the arrangement terminates on his appointment date and he keeps only the instalments already paid. The letter works both branches through with worked examples. On a permanent hire made on or before 1 March 2027, an outside appointment pays him $700,000 in total and his own appointment pays him $117,000.

The letter attaches a qualifier to that second figure. Appointment to the permanent role, it says, would constitute a promotion, with compensation to be addressed separately by the compensation committee and the board. So the $117,000 is what the transition bonus would pay, not what the year would pay, and the letter makes no commitment about the rest.

Murphy has been at the company since at least September 2006, when he became corporate controller, and has been chief accounting officer since 2015. The 8-K is signed by C. James Koch, the founder, who holds the titles of chairman, president and chief executive.