(v)a Participant’s knowing and substantial breach of any contract or agreement with the Company or its Subsidiaries;
(vi)a Participant’s knowing violation of any policy of the Company or its Subsidiaries concerning hedging, trading, or confidential or proprietary information, or a Participant’s knowing and substantial violation of any other policy of the Company or of any of its Subsidiaries as in effect from time to time;
(vii)a Participant’s knowing and substantial unauthorized use, taking, mis-appropriation, conversion, or disclosure of tangible or intangible property, including information, of the Company, any of its Subsidiaries, or of any Associate, director, customer, or client of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries;
(viii)a Participant’s deliberate engagement in any act or deliberate making of any statement which substantially impairs, impugns, denigrates, disparages, or negatively reflects upon the name, reputation, or business interests of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries, or upon the name, reputation, or business interests of any Associate, director, customer, or client of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries; or
(ix)a Participant’s deliberate engagement in any conduct substantially detrimental to the Company or its Subsidiaries.
The determination as to whether Cause has occurred in any given instance will be made in the sole discretion of: (a) for a Participant who is a Section 16 Executive, by the Committee or, if so determined by the Board, by the Board; (b) for any other Participant, by management of the Company under the oversight of the Committee or, if so determined by the Committee, by the Committee. The Board, Committee, or management, as the case may be, also has the authority in its sole discretion to waive the consequences under the Plan or any Award or Award Program of the existence or occurrence of any of the events, acts or omissions constituting Cause.
“Change in Control” means, unless otherwise defined in the applicable Award or Award Program and except as defined in Section 9(F) for the purposes of certain tax matters, the occurrence of any one of (and will be deemed to have occurred on the date of the earliest to occur of) the following events:
(i)individuals who, on January 26, 2021, constitute the Board (the “Incumbent Directors”) cease for any reason to constitute at least a majority of the Board, provided that any person becoming a director subsequent to that date, whose election or nomination for election was approved by a vote of at least three-fourths (3/4) of the Incumbent Directors then on the Board (either by a specific vote or by approval of the proxy statement of the Company in which such person is named as a nominee for director, without written objection to such nomination) will be deemed to be an Incumbent Director; provided, however, that no individual elected or nominated as a director of the Company initially as a result of an actual or threatened election contest with respect to directors or as a result of any other actual or threatened solicitation of proxies or consents by or on behalf of any person other than the Board will be deemed to be an Incumbent Director;
(ii)any “Person” (for purposes of this definition only, as defined under Section 3(a)(9) of the Exchange Act as used in Section 13(d) or Section 14(d) of the Exchange Act) is or becomes a “beneficial owner” (as defined in Rule 13d-3 under the Exchange Act), directly or indirectly, of securities of the Company representing 20% or more of the combined voting power of the Company’s then outstanding Company Voting Securities; provided, however, that the event described in this paragraph (ii) will not be deemed to be a Change in Control by virtue of any of the following acquisitions: (A) by the Company or any Subsidiary, (B) by an Associate stock ownership or Associate benefit plan or trust sponsored or maintained by the Company or any Subsidiary, (C) by any underwriter temporarily holding securities pursuant to an offering of such securities, or (D) pursuant to a Non-Qualifying Transaction (as defined in paragraph (iii) hereof);
(iii)consummation of a merger, consolidation, share exchange or similar form of corporate transaction involving the Company or any of its Subsidiaries that requires the approval of the Company’s shareholders, whether for such transaction or the issuance of securities in the transaction (a “Business Combination”), unless immediately following such Business Combination: (A) more than 50% of the total voting power of (x) the corporation resulting