Christine Bellon

About Christine Bellon

Christine Bellon, Ph.D., J.D., serves as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at Beam Therapeutics, a role she has held since April 2019; age 60 as of April 18, 2025 . She holds a B.S. in Chemistry (Yale), a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (MIT, Sharpless lab), and a J.D. (Columbia Law School) . Company performance context during her tenure (public-company period): Revenues have remained R&D-collaboration driven and volatile, with FY 2021–FY 2024 revenues of ~$51.8M, $60.9M, $377.7M, and $63.5M, respectively; EBITDA was negative throughout, reflecting pipeline investment (see table below; EBITDA values from S&P Global) . Pay-versus-performance disclosure shows cumulative TSR value of $132.27 for a $100 investment as of FY 2024, evidencing significant volatility since listing .

Values retrieved from S&P Global.
*EBITDA values marked with an asterisk are from S&P Global consensus/standardized data.

Past Roles

External Roles

Fixed Compensation

Performance Compensation

Beam operates a pay-for-performance framework with annual bonuses governed by corporate goals and long-term equity (options + RSUs at a 2:1 ratio) .

• 2024 corporate goal categories included: clinical advancement (patient dosing/results), R&D pipeline progress, manufacturing supply/on-time delivery, commercial planning, organization/talent, and cash runway extension .
• 2024 payout: 120% of target for NEOs (including Bellon) based on overall performance .

Long-term equity design: options (value only if stock rises) plus RSUs (value retention in downturns); 2024 awards granted at fixed ratio (2 options per RSU) .

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• Beneficial ownership: 184,798 shares (less than 1% of outstanding as of March 31, 2025; 100,557,094 shares outstanding) .
• Insider trading arrangements: Adopted a Rule 10b5-1 plan on September 16, 2025 for sales up to 20,000 shares through September 16, 2026 (orderly, pre-set selling) .
• Hedging/pledging: Company policy prohibits hedging, short sales, derivatives, and pledging of company stock (alignment positive) .
• Clawback: SEC- and Nasdaq-compliant clawback policy encompassing financial restatements and misconduct; potential recovery up to 100% in misconduct cases .

RSUs outstanding (as of Dec 31, 2024)

Options outstanding (as of Dec 31, 2024)

2024 annual equity awards (grant-date values): 55,000 options and 27,500 RSUs to Bellon; options granted 1/31/2024 at $24.40 strike; RSUs granted 3/31/2024 .

Employment Terms

• Agreement type: Amended and restated letter agreement; non-solicitation, confidentiality, and IP assignment; 1-year post-termination non-solicit for employees/contractors/etc. .
• Severance (no cause): 12 months base salary and employer-portion COBRA for 12 months (subject to COBRA election) .
• Change-in-control (double trigger or within 30 days prior): 12 months base salary, target annual bonus, employer-portion COBRA for 12 months, and immediate vesting of all unvested equity .
• Golden parachute tax gross-up: None (benefits subject to 280G cutback to avoid excise tax) .
• Clawback and insider trading policies: Robust clawback; strict anti-hedging/anti-pledging; blackout periods, pre-clearances, and plan timing controls .
• 2024 say-on-pay support: ~98% approval; committee maintained approach into 2025 .

Compensation Structure Notes

• Mix shift and risk: Beam uses a combination of options (higher risk/return) and RSUs (retention/value floor); 2024 maintained a 2:1 options-to-RSU ratio, balancing upside incentives with retention .
• Peer benchmarking: Uses a biotech peer set (e.g., CRISPR, Intellia, Blueprint, Denali, Rocket, Arrowhead, etc.) reflecting similar stage/market cap for pay setting and design .
• Discipline features: No guaranteed increases/bonuses; no SERP; no tax gross-ups; no option re-pricing without shareholder approval; ownership/anti-hedging aligned with best practices .

Related Party Transactions (Governance check)

• Orbital Therapeutics: Company-wide license/collaboration (2022). In 2024, Bellon served in an interim leadership/consulting capacity at Orbital with service-based option grants; aggregate Beam-affiliated individual holdings <10% of Orbital (ARCH ~30%) .

Risk Indicators & Red Flags

• Trading pressure: A Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted on 9/16/2025 authorizes sales up to 20,000 shares through 9/16/2026, indicating orderly potential selling flow over the next year .
• Hedging/pledging: Prohibited, reducing misalignment risk .
• Clawback: Restatement and misconduct recovery provisions reduce windfall risk .
• Severance economics: 1.0x salary and target bonus (CoC), 1.0x salary (non-CoC); no gross-up; equity accelerates on CoC termination—standard but creates incentive to support value-creating M&A with retention certainty .

Investment Implications

• Alignment: Significant ongoing unvested equity (RSUs and monthly-vesting options) plus anti-hedging/anti-pledging policies align Bellon with long-term equity value creation; clawback adds accountability .
• Retention risk: Moderate. A meaningful portion of compensation is deferred via equity with multi-year vesting (monthly for options, annual for RSUs); severance and CoC protections are competitive but not excessive, supporting continuity through strategic inflections .
• Trading signals: Newly adopted 10b5-1 plan (up to 20,000 shares) suggests planned, programmatic selling rather than event-driven selling; monitor Form 4s for executions and cadence .
• Pay-for-performance: 2024 bonuses paid at 120% on strong goal attainment; equity design preserves upside leverage with options while maintaining retention via RSUs—appropriate for a clinical-stage biotech with inherently volatile revenue/EBITDA .
• Governance: High say-on-pay support (98%), no tax gross-ups, and strict insider policies/ownership practices reflect shareholder-friendly posture .

Appendix: Key 2024 Compensation Facts (Bellon)