José Manuel Correia de Simas

About José Manuel Correia de Simas

José Manuel Correia de Simas, Ph.D., 57, is Executive Vice President, U.S. Farm Animal Business at Elanco, a role he rejoined in April 2020 after previously serving in multiple senior leadership positions at Elanco across the U.S. and internationally; he holds a B.S. (Federal University of Lavras, Brazil), M.S. and Ph.D. in animal nutrition and physiology (University of Arizona), and a post-doctorate from the University of São Paulo, Brazil . Company performance context during his current tenure: Elanco reported 2024 revenue of $4.439B and Adjusted EBITDA of $910M , and in Q3 2025 delivered 9% organic constant currency revenue growth with Farm Animal revenue up 12% YoY and Adjusted EBITDA up 21% YoY .

Past Roles

External Roles

No public company board seats or external directorships disclosed in the executive biography for Dr. Simas in the 2025 DEF 14A .

Fixed Compensation

• Not disclosed. Dr. Simas was not a named executive officer (NEO) in the 2024 compensation tables; Elanco’s Summary Compensation Table and related detail cover the CEO and four other NEOs, not including Dr. Simas .

Performance Compensation

Program design applicable to executive leadership (as disclosed for NEOs) emphasizes company financial metrics and equity alignment.

• Annual cash incentive metric and outcome (company-wide program):
  • Metric: Elanco Cash Earnings (ECE), a cash-based economic profit measure; payout based on change in ECE vs prior year; linear interpolation from threshold to max .
  • 2024 calculation and payout: 2024 ECE of $(509)M vs $(520)M in 2023 (ex-aqua), resulting in a 103% company bonus multiple for 2024 .

• Long-term incentives (LTI) mix and mechanics (2024 on-cycle awards):
  • Mix: 50% Performance Awards (PAs), 25% RSUs, 25% stock options .
  • PAs: Two-year performance period; payout 0–200% based on Adjusted EBITDAR relative to targets tied to a required return on investment; average of two one-year results (e.g., 2023 attainment 76.75% vs 2024 attainment 103.97%) .
  • RSUs: Time-based vesting in ~one-third increments on each of the first three anniversaries of grant .
  • Options: Time-based vesting in ~one-third increments on each of the first three anniversaries; 10-year term; exercise price at grant-date close .

• Metric governance and adjustments:
  • Committee may adjust for acquisitions/divestitures, restructuring, FX over 2%, litigation, specified non-GAAP effects; 2024 removal of aqua business effects for both cash incentive and PAs due to mid-year divestiture and capital reallocation rationale .

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• Ownership and retention guidelines (executive officers):
  • Executives have five years to meet stock ownership guidelines; RSUs count, PAs and options do not; must hold at least 50% of net shares from equity awards until meeting requirements .
  • CEO multiple is 6x salary; each of the other NEOs is 3x; the policy applies to executive officers more broadly, but specific multiple beyond NEOs is not enumerated in the cited section .
• Anti-hedging and anti-pledging:
  • Directors and employees are prohibited from hedging and, for directors, from pledging Elanco stock; the company’s Corporate Governance Guidelines and Insider Trading policy reinforce this .
• Clawbacks:
  • SEC- and NYSE-compliant required recoupment policy for accounting restatements, plus a supplemental policy allowing recovery for misconduct or restatements for up to three years; applies to senior management .
• Beneficial ownership:
  • The 2024 proxy’s beneficial ownership table lists directors and NEOs individually; Dr. Simas is not enumerated among NEOs or directors therein, and no individual line item for his holdings is disclosed in the retrieved materials .

Employment Terms

• Role and start date: Rejoined Elanco as EVP, U.S. Farm Animal Business in April 2020 .
• Employment agreements: Elanco discloses “No employment agreements with any NEO” as a governance practice; this statement is specific to NEOs and not determinative for non-NEO executive officers .
• Severance and change-in-control framework (company-level disclosures):
  • NEOs are covered by the Elanco Change in Control Severance Pay Plan for Select Employees and the Elanco Executive Severance Plan; equity award agreements include standard double-trigger CIC vesting and pro-rata retirement/qualifying termination vesting mechanics .
  • Award agreements define Covered Termination (e.g., termination without cause or resignation for good reason in CIC context) and outline Section 409A settlement timing rules .

Performance & Track Record (Context for his business area)

Board Governance and Compensation Committee (relevant to pay outcomes)

• Compensation and Human Capital Committee (independent) oversees executive pay, incentive plan design, stock ownership guidelines, and succession planning .
• Practices include: robust ownership guidelines, clawbacks, no hedging/pledging, no option repricing without shareholder approval, and “no employment agreements with any NEO” .
• Say-on-Pay: 2025 advisory vote on NEO compensation was approved (For 244,532,049; Against 212,491,837; Abstain 117,025) .

Risk Indicators & Red Flags (as disclosed)

• Anti-hedging/anti-pledging policy reduces alignment risk; clawback policies cover restatements and misconduct (supplemental policy) .
• Compensation plan adjustments are permitted but were transparently disclosed (e.g., aqua divestiture normalization) with quantified impact on PA attainment, which lowered the two-year average payout by five percentage points .
• No option repricing without shareholder approval and no tax gross-ups on NEO compensation, per governance “What We Don’t Do” .

Implications for Selling Pressure and Vesting Cadence

• Time-vested RSUs and options granted on March 1, 2024 vest ~one-third on each of the next three anniversaries (e.g., tranches in early March 2025/2026/2027); this cadence can create recurring windows of potential insider liquidity needs around vest dates (subject to blackout and preclearance) .

Investment Implications

• Incentive alignment: Executive pay is highly sensitive to company-level metrics (ECE for annual cash, Adjusted EBITDAR for PAs) and equity performance, reinforcing a focus on asset efficiency, margin expansion and sustained growth; 2024 cash incentive paid modestly above target (103%) and PA cycles paid just above 90% of target for the 2023–2024 performance cycle, signaling rigor in targets and payout curves .
• Retention/turnover risk: While NEO severance/CIC programs and equity award provisions are robust, Simas-specific employment/severance terms are not disclosed; nonetheless, standard double-trigger CIC vesting and pro-rata retirement mechanics embedded in awards can mitigate retention risk through earned value continuity .
• Trading signals: Anti-hedging/pledging and preclearance policies constrain opportunistic trading; expect clustered activity around standard vest dates (March 1 cadence for RSUs/options) and PA payout windows, subject to blackouts .
• Execution track record: Farm Animal trends cited by the company (e.g., U.S. cattle strength from Experior) bolster the operating backdrop for Simas’s business; company outlook raised for FY25 on revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, indicating improving momentum and cash generation that align well with incentive constructs emphasizing ECE and EBITDAR .