Fermi has a single chief executive again, and his $3m share award vests in full on the sixtieth day after the board appoints his successor

Read the vesting schedule before the salary.

Fermi Inc. appointed Lee McIntire chief executive on 11 August, effective the same day, and filed the terms in a Form 8-K accepted at 19:19 Eastern on Thursday. The appointment runs, in the filing's own words, until a successor chief executive is appointed by the board. McIntire was already a director of the Texas company, which is listed on Nasdaq as FRMI and has its principal office in Amarillo, and he stays on the board without extra pay for it.

The award

He is to receive restricted stock units with a grant date fair market value of $3,000,000 under the company's 2025 long term incentive plan. All of them cliff vest on the first anniversary of grant, provided he is still employed on that date.

Four events vest them early instead. A change in control in which the award is not assumed or continued. A termination without cause within twelve months of a change in control. Death or disability. And the sixtieth day after the board appoints a successor chief executive.

That fourth one is the term worth reading twice. The appointment is written to end when a successor arrives, and the arrival of a successor vests the whole award sixty days later.

The cash

Base salary is $750,000 a year. The target bonus is 100 percent of that with a maximum of 200 percent of target, and it is prorated by the number of days he actually serves as chief executive in the year. There is a housing allowance of $15,000 a month.

Severance, outside the change in control cases, is accrued obligations only: unpaid salary, unused vacation, vested benefits and unreimbursed expenses.

The form of award agreement filed as an exhibit carries the unit count in square brackets, at 485,437. A bracketed figure in a form is a placeholder for the number to be filled in, so the filing does not establish how many units were actually granted.

What came before

Until this week the company had no single chief executive at all. A Form 8-K filed on 23 July records that the board appointed four officers on 20 July, effective 22 July: George Wentz as general counsel, Anna Bofa as chief commercial officer, Jacobo Ortiz as chief operating officer and Rob Masson as chief financial officer. That filing states that Bofa and Ortiz would continue as co-chairs of the Interim Office of the CEO.

Thursday's filing names no departing chief executive. On the company's own record there was not an individual holding the title to depart.