DEF 14A of Ispire Technology Inc.
Filed May 13, 2025 · FY20240001213900-25-042145
ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
General
General Our Bylaws provide that the Board shall consist of not less than one nor more than nine members, and that any newly created directorship that results from an increase in the number of directors or any vacancy on the Board will be filled solely by the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors then in office. A director elected by the Board in the case of a newly created directorship will hold office for his or her full term until his or her successor is elected and qualified. A director elected by the Board in the case of a vacancy will hold office for the remaining term of his or her predecessor until his or her successor is elected and qualified. Our Board currently consists of five directors. Each of the director nominees identified below has confirmed that he or she is able and willing to serve as a director if elected. If any of the director nominees becomes unable or unwilling to serve, your proxy will be voted for the election of a substitute director nominee recommended by the current Board. Upon recommendation of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, the Board has nominated Tuanfang Liu, Jiangyan Zhu, Christopher Robert Burch, Brent Cox, and John Fargis for election at the Annual Meeting, each to serve for a one-year term until the conclusion of the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders or until their successor is duly elected and qualified. Please see “Directors” below for more information, including the background and business experience of each director nominee taken into consideration by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
Required Vote and Recommendation
Required Vote and Recommendation The election of directors requires the affirmative (“FOR”) vote of a majority of votes cast by shares of our Common Stock present or represented by proxy and entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. The five director nominees receiving a majority of affirmative votes cast will be elected. Unless otherwise instructed on the proxy or unless authority to vote is withheld, shares represented by executed proxies will be voted “FOR” the election of each of the below director nominees. Any abstentions or broker non-votes are not counted as votes cast and will not affect the outcome of this proposal, although they will be counted for purposes of determining whether there is a quorum present. OUR BOARD RECOMMENDS A VOTE “FOR” THE ELECTION OF MESSRS. LIU, BURCH, COX, AND FARGIS, AND MS. ZHU UNDER PROPOSAL ONE.
Directors and Executive Officers
Directors and Executive Officers Listed below are the names of the directors and executive officers of the Company, their ages as of the Record Date, and their positions held.
Directors and Executive Officers
| Name | Age | Position/Title | | Tuanfang Liu(3) | 51 | Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chairman | | Michael Wang | 61 | Co-Chief Executive Officer and President of Aspire North America | | James Patrick McCormick | 58 | Chief Financial Officer | | Steven Przybyla | 39 | Chief Legal Officer and Secretary | | Jiangyan Zhu | 48 | Director | | Christopher Robert Burch(1),(2),(3) | 56 | Independent Director | | Brent Cox(1),(2) | 41 | Independent Director | | John Fargis(1),(2),(3) | 58 | Independent Director |
Directors and Executive Officers
____________ (1) Member of the Audit Committee (2) Member of the Compensation Committee (3) Member Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Tuanfang Liu has been serving as our chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer since our organization and co-chief executive officer since August 7, 2023. Mr. Liu has also served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Aspire Global, a position he has held since its organization. Mr. Liu also serves as chairman of Shenzhen Yi Jia since he founded the company in June 2010. He is responsible for our daily operations and research and development of the e-cigarette and cannabis vaporizer technology products. Mr. Liu has served as the vice-chairman of the European Union E-cigarette Association since 2019, vice-chairman and founding member of the Canada E-cigarettes Association since 2019, vice chairman of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce since 2017, and executive vice-chairman and founder of the Shenzhen E-Vapor Industry Association since October 2017. He received “Shenzhen High-level Professionals” award in 2019. Mr. Liu holds doctorate degrees in business management from Victoria University School of Management in Switzerland and EuroPort Business School in the Netherlands, respectively. He has more than 14 years of experience in research and development of the e-cigarette products and quality control management. Mr. Liu is the spouse of Jiangyan Zhu. We believe Mr. Zhu’s extensive leadership experience in our industry qualifies him to serve as a member of the Board. Michael Wang has been serving as co-chief executive officer since August 7, 2023, having served as our chief financial officer from our organization until August 7, 2023, and he has served as president of Aspire North America since its organization in 2020. Mr. Wang served chief financial officer of Aspire Global from August 2020 until his resignation in September 2022. Mr. Wang is an experienced chief executive officer, chief operating officer and president of various companies with leadership skills in profit and loss management, finance, human resources, products, technology, sales and operations. Mr. Wang has approximately 12 years of internet technology and e-commerce experience. From September 2018 through August 2020, he was the president, chief operating officer and co-chief executive officer of The Pharm/Sunday Goods (located in California and Arizona), a vertically integrated leader in the cannabis cultivation, processing, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, and retail industry. Mr. Wang managed and transformed the cultivation, manufacturing and wholesale divisions. Mr. Wang was with Onestop Commerce, a leading e-commerce technology and service company, as president and chief operating officer from February 2013 to July 2015 and as chief executive officer from July 2015 to June 2018. Onestop Commerce managed omni-channel-commerce for major lifestyle brands and retailers. From May 2005 through June 2010, he was the chief operating and fulfillment officer and an investor in Zazzle, a leader in online customization and personalization service. He started his career in 1992 at Honeywell and also worked at Technicolor, ESS Technology and Vitec Group. Mr. Wang received bachelor of science and master of science degrees in aerospace engineering in 1983 and 1985 respectively, from the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics also known as Beihang University. In 1987, he received a master of science degree in systems engineering from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. In 1992, Mr. Wang received an MBA in Finance and General Management from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. James McCormick has been our chief financial officer since May 17, 2024. Mr. McCormick started his career in public accounting with KPMG Peat Marwick in 1989, transitioning to consumer goods with Mid-America Pepsi-Cola and later joining British American Tobacco’s (BAT) associate company Brown & Williamson Tobacco in 1992. For more than a dozen years at BAT, he held various international general management and CFO positions across Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Northern Africa. In 2009, he returned to the US, holding CFO roles in Federal Flange Inc. and Sodexo’s Corporate Service division. He later joined ECIG, a publicly traded vaping products company, before serving as COO and CFO of KushCo Holdings Inc. from August 2017 to January 2019, and as president of Ignite International Inc. until December 2019. Most recently, he has provided consultancy services to several companies, including UMBRLA, Inc., Redbird Bioscience, Cars & Credit Master, Abstrax Tech Inc., and Thought Leaders, Inc., focusing on the heated tobacco sector. Jim holds a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Eastern Illinois University in 1988 and an MBA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 1992. Steven Przybyla has been the chief legal officer since September 1, 2023 and secretary since January 1, 2024. Steven brings to Ispire 10 years of experience in the regulated cannabis industry, and nearly half a decade of experience in nicotine/tobacco product regulation. Steven was previously General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of 22nd Century Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:XXII) and helped to secure the only Modified Risk Tobacco Product approval for a combustible cigarette ever authorized by FDA. He has previously helped build, scale and take-public companies such as Jushi, Inc. (CSE: JUSH) where he was among the initial employees and helped oversee Jushi’s growth to 1,500 employees while serving as President of Jushi’s medical division. Steven has also held roles as General Counsel of the Dent Neurologic Institute and the Seneca Development Corporation where he oversaw a variety of both cannabis and corporate legal initiatives. Steven started his career as a corporate and regulatory attorney at Phillips Lytle LLP. Steven received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Washington & Lee University and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. Jiangyan Zhu has been serving as our director since inception. Ms. Zhu is one of the founders of Aspire Global and is a director of Aspire Global, and, since 2013, she has served as vice president of finance of Shenzhen Yi Jia, where she is responsible for financial management, assisting in human resources management and establishing and improving the automated office system. Ms. Zhu holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Jiangxi University of Technology. She also holds a Business Management certificate from the College of Continuing Education Graduate School of Shenzhen Tsinghua University. Ms. Zhu is the spouse of Mr. Tuanfang Liu. We believe Ms. Zhu’s experience in leadership positions within our industry qualifies her to serve as a member of our Board.
Directors and Executive Officers
Christopher Robert Burch has been serving as a director since July 2023. He has worked in the finance and venture capital industries for more than 15 years. Currently, Mr. Burch is consulting for Bioglobal Inc., a biopesticides company. From September 2020 to May 2022, Mr. Burch served as Chief Financial Officer at Braun Bio-Technology (Shan Dong) Co. Ltd. in China where he was responsible for fundraising and corporate strategies. Prior to that, from January 2020 to September 2020, Mr. Burch served as Chief Financial Officer at Waton Corporation Limited where he was responsible for fundraising, financial planning, cash flow management, investor relations, banking relations, securities licensing, and strategy direction. From July 2019 to November 2019, Mr. Burch worked at Zhejiang Panshi Information Technology Co. Ltd. as a Vice President responsible for corporate strategic investment. From March 2017 to July 2019, Mr. Burch served as a Managing Director at Feiyang Group Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong and China where he was responsible for fundraising and providing advisory services to the sector. Prior to joining the Company, from October 2008 to October 2014 Mr. Burch served on the board of directors of KeenHigh Technologies Limited, listed on Taiwan’s Emerging Stock Market (TW:3651). In 2006, Mr. Burch received a Master of Business Administration with a focus on technology management from Tsinghua University. In 1993, Mr. Burch received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with concentration in decision sciences from Georgia State University. In 1991, Mr. Burch received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with concentration in finance from University of Georgia. We believe that Mr. Burch is well qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors because of his experience in finance, operations of public companies and corporate fundraising and strategy. Brent Cox has been serving as a director since April 2023. Mr. Cox is currently a member of the Board of Directors of CleanCore Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: ZONE) and has served in such capacity since April of 2024. He also serves as the co-founder and managing partner of The Inception Companies, a private investment firm, a position he has held since 2016. From September 2008 to April 2016, he served as a principal investor of the Yucaipa Companies, a Los Angeles, California based private equity firm where he was responsible for sourcing, analyzing and executing investment opportunities, structuring financing for investments and monitoring the performance and strategic initiatives of its portfolio companies. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Cox served as an investment banking analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group of Jefferies & Co. a multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Mr. Cox received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Southern California. Mr. Cox previously served on the boards of Medmen Enterprises Inc. (OTC: MMNFF), The Pharm, LLC, Pacific Dutch Group, LLC, and has also served as a board observer for Soho House & Co Inc. (NYSE: SHCO), Americold Realty Trust (NYSE: COLD), Versacold International Corp, Stephen Webster Limited, Garrard & Co. Limited, and Eimskipafélag Íslands hf. (IC: EIM). We believe Mr. Cox is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his experience in investment banking and prior corporate governance experience having served on corporate boards of directors. John Fargis has been serving as a director since April 2023. He is the co-founder and principal of BYG Advantage since June 2014, a Beijing-based platform that outsources business development, sales acceleration bridging best in class technology into the Asia Pacific region. Clients include Hashicorp, Trustonic, Tomorrow.io, and EF. Its services include market analysis, market entry, market acceleration, government relations and special vehicle creation across the region. Mr. Fargis founded and runs Dustybrine LLC, a market entry consulting firm in New York State. Mr. Fargis has been serving as the professor of management, strategy, and emerging markets at Hult International Business School since February 2014, where he teaches courses including strategy, management, emerging markets, leadership, operations and big data. Mr. Fargis has been also serving as the Adjunct Professor of Strategy and China History since January 2014 in Shanghai, China. Mr. Fargis has been serving as the principal Asia-Pacific of Hortonworks since 2014. From March 2010 to December 2013, Mr. Fargis served as the executive vice president and general manager at Kaseya where he incorporated, staffed and ran offices for Kaseya in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The company was purchased by Insight Venture Partners in June 2013. From 2007 to April 2010, Mr. Fargis served as the vice president sales and general manager of Asia of On2 Technologies which was purchased by Google in February 2010. From August 2005 to October 2007, Mr. Fargis served as the general manager Asia Pacific of Global IP Solutions (GIPS), where he oversaw sales and business development strategy for Global IP Sound (GIPS) in Asia. GIPS provides premiere quality speech processing technology for Voice Over IP (VOIP) networks, and its software enables numerous clients including application providers such as Skype, Google, AOL, Tencent, etc. From January 2004 to July 2005, Mr. Fargis served as the chief executive officer of SiMa Systems, where he oversaw funding and alliance strategy and general management for this digital clipboard solutions company. In 1998, Mr. Fargis received his master of arts in law and diplomacy degree in international consulting at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. In 1992, Mr. Fargis received his master’s degree in special education at Hunter College. In 1988, Mr. Fargis received his bachelor’s degree in medieval studies at Wesleyan University. We believe Mr. Fargis is well-qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his experience in business strategy, emerging markets, and his contacts and relationships.
Summary Compensation Table5
Summary Compensation Table5
Summary Compensation Table5
| Name and Principal Position | Fiscal Year Ending, June 30 | Salary ($) | Bonus ($) | Stock Awards ($)(4) | Option Awards ($)(4) | Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation ($) | Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Earnings ($) | All Other Compensation ($) | Totals ($) | | Tuanfang Liu, | 2024 | 245,568 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 245,568 | | Co-Chief Executive Officer(1)(2) | 2023 | 206,720 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 206,720 | | Michael Wang, | 2024 | 350,000 | — | 2,760,001 | 5,537,903 | — | — | — | 8,647,904 | | co-Chief Executive Officer(2) | 2023 | 393,447 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 393,447 | | Tirdad Rouhani, | 2024 | 297,500 | 300,000 | 1,134,509 | 1,661,371 | — | — | — | 3,393,380 | | President(3) | 2023 | 233,493 | 25,000 | — | — | — | — | — | 258,493 | | Steven Przybyla, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary | 2024 | 216,039 | 40,000 | — | 553,790 | — | — | — | 809,829 | | Daniel Machock (Chief Financial Officer)(6) | 2024 | 234,936 | 20,000 | — | — | — | — | — | 254,936 | | James Patrick McCormick (Chief Financial Officer)(7) | 2024 | 32,500 | — | — | 819,029 | — | — | — | 851,529 |
Summary Compensation Table5
____________ (1) Mr. Liu’s compensation is paid in Hong Kong dollars, which are converted into U.S. dollars at the average exchange rates during the period, which was 7.8367 Hong Kong dollars to $1.00 for the year ended June 30, 2023 and 7.8186 Hong Kong dollars to $1.00 for the year ended June 30, 2024. (2) Mr. Liu and Mr. Wang are currently co-chief executive officers. (3) Mr. Rouhani was appointed as President on May 20, 2024. Effective February 27, 2025, Mr. Tirdad Rouhani is no longer the President of the Company (4) Amounts reflect the full grant-date fair value of RSUs and stock options granted during our most recently completed fiscal year computed in accordance with ASC Topic 718, rather than the amounts paid to or realized by the named individual. (5) Grants represent a one-time grant recognition of the executive’s efforts from 2020 through our initial public offering and is not necessarily reflective of our compensation program going forward. (6) On May 15, 2024, Mr. Machock’s service to the Company as Chief Financial Officer ended. (7) Mr. McCormick was appointed as Chief Financial Officer of the Company and Aspire North America LLC on On May 17, 2024
Director Compensation
Director Compensation The following table shows the compensation paid to our directors who are not Named Executive Officers during the year ended June 30, 2024.
Director Compensation
| Name | Fees Earned or Paid in Cash ($) | Stock Awards(3) ($) | Option Awards ($) | Nonequity incentive plan compensation ($) | Nonqualified deferred compensation earnings ($) | All other compensation ($) | Total ($) | | Jiangyan Zhu(1) | $92,088 | | | | | | $92,088 | | Christopher Robert Burch | 48,000 | 36,000 | | | | | 84,000 | | Brent Cox | 60,000 | 60,000 | | | | | 120,000 | | John Fargis | 36,000 | 48,000 | | | | | 84,000 | | Joel Paritz(2) | | 15,000 | | | | | |
Director Compensation
____________ (1) Ms. Zhu’s compensation is paid in Hong Kong dollars, which are converted into U.S. dollars at the average exchange rates during the period, which was 7.8186 Hong Kong dollars to $1.00 for the year ended June 30, 2024. (2) Mr. Paritz resigned as a director on July 1, 2023. (3) As of June 30, 2024: • Mr. Burch has received 3,631 shares of stock awards • Mr. Cox has received 6,141 shares of stock awards • Mr. Fargis has received 4,912 shares of stock awards • Mr. Paritz has received 1,601 shares of stock awards • Ms. Zhu has received 0 shares of stock awards • Mr. Liu has received 0 shares of stock awards We have an agreement with Ms. Zhu pursuant to which we pay her annual compensation of 720,000 Hong Kong dollars. Ms. Zhu is also a director of Aspire Global, and she does not receive compensation from Aspire Global. The Compensation Committee engaged the compensation consulting firm Korn Ferry in May 2024 to provide broad executive compensation benchmarks based upon surveys of public companies which were similarly sized to us. Based upon these survey results, the Committee adopted a comprehensive executive compensation structure that it believed would best align the interests of our management with those of our stockholders. Our board of directors approved an updated non-employee compensation policy on December 2, 2024, which represents director compensation in line with the 25th percentile of its peer group from the Korn Ferry market study. Pursuant to the non-employee director compensation policy: • Each outside director (i.e. a director who is not also serving as an employee of ours or any of our subsidiaries) shall receive an annual cash retainer of $50,000 for his or her service on our board of directors. The retainer is prorated if such outside director is not an outside director for the entire quarter. • Each outside director automatically will be granted fully vested shares of the common stock equal in value to $41,250 for the calendar quarter. Outside directors serving on the Audit Committee will be granted fully vested shares of the our common stock equal in value to $2,500 for the calendar quarter. Outside directors serving on the Compensation Committee will be granted fully vested shares of our common stock equal in value to $1,875 for the calendar quarter. Outside directors serving on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee will be granted fully vested shares of our common stock equal in value to $1,250 for the calendar quarter. The number of shares granted shall be equal to: (A) the retainer earned by the outside director for such calendar quarter, divided by (B) the volume-weighted average price, generally known as VWAP, of our common stock on the principal trading market on which our common stock trades during each trading day of the preceding calendar quarter, rounded down to the nearest whole share. To be eligible for a quarterly share grant an outside director must be serving as an outside director on the last day of the calendar quarter. The shares shall be granted pursuant to our Amended and Restated 2022 Equity Incentive Plan or any successor plan. Such compensation policy is effective commencing with the quarter beginning October 1, 2024.