Anuradha Muralidharan
About Anuradha Muralidharan
Anuradha “Anu” Muralidharan, 42, is Chief Operating Officer (since Jan 2021) and a director of Expensify (joined board at IPO) with prior leadership in product and payments operations; she holds a B.E. (BITS Pilani) and an MBA (Cornell) . Company performance context: Expensify’s FY2024 net income was -$10.1M and the pay-versus-performance TSR proxy measure implies $100 invested on 12/31/2021 was worth $7.60 at 12/31/2024, underscoring significant equity underperformance during her tenure as COO and director .
| Indicator | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Income ($000s) | (27,009) | (41,455) | (10,055) |
| TSR value of $100 (12/31/2021 baseline) | $20.06 | $5.61 | $7.60 |
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expensify | COO | Jan 2021–Present | Leads operations and payments execution; board member since IPO . |
| Expensify | Director of Product Operations | Jan 2018–Jan 2021 | Scaled product ops in run-up to IPO . |
| Expensify | Head of Payment Operations | Aug 2015–Jan 2018 | Built payments operations foundation . |
| Marqeta | Vice President | Pre-2015 | Payments domain leadership . |
| Citibank | Vice President | Pre-2015 | Financial services operating experience . |
| Oracle | Engineering roles | Early career | Enterprise engineering experience . |
External Roles
- No other public company directorships disclosed for Ms. Muralidharan in the 2025 proxy .
Fixed Compensation
| Component | 2023 | 2024 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary ($) | 710,601 | 860,371 | Company’s framework treats “Salary” as actual target comp paid, inclusive of amounts contributed to equity purchase plan . |
| Target Bonus % | — | — | Expensify does not maintain a performance-based bonus program . |
| Actual Bonus ($) | — | — | No annual performance bonus program; discretionary bonuses possible but none reported for 2024 . |
Performance Compensation
- Annual cash bonus plan: none. Expensify explicitly states it does not maintain a performance-based bonus program; the Compensation Committee may award discretionary bonuses, though none were reported for Ms. Muralidharan in 2024 .
- Compensation algorithm: Executive and employee target pay is set via a semi-annual peer-matching algorithm with weighted voting by leadership tier; it is not tied to company financial metrics (e.g., revenue/EBITDA/TSR) . NEOs are required to allocate at least 30% of target comp to equity programs (can elect up to 100%) .
- Equity under 2021 Stock Purchase and Matching Plan: Company matched at a 5% annualized rate (1/20 per share retained), with purchases each quarter at market price; Ms. Muralidharan contributed 32% of target comp to equity programs in 2024 (20% to the plan) . The plan issues fully vested matching shares at purchase, and management also granted fully vested discretionary shares in 2024 (see table below) .
| Equity Incentive Element | Metric | Weighting | Target | Actual/Payout | Vesting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual bonus (cash) | — | — | — | None | — |
| RSUs (legacy 2021 grant) | Service-based | N/A | N/A | Ongoing scheduled vesting (see Equity Awards table) | 12.5% of total RSUs vest quarterly over 8 years, half Class A/half LT50 . |
| Stock Purchase & Matching | Participation rate | N/A | ≥30% of target comp contributed to equity programs | Anu: 32% (20% to purchase plan) | Matching shares fully vested at purchase dates . |
| Discretionary Shares (2024) | N/A | N/A | N/A | 134,023 fully-vested shares ($311,751) | Fully vested upon grant; eligible for matching . |
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Beneficial Ownership (as of April 22, 2025):
- Voting power: 1.6% .
- Shares by class: Class A 111,518 (includes 36,300 options exercisable within 60 days), LT10 114,140 (2.7%), LT50 134,208 (1.7%) .
| Class | Shares | % of Class | % of Total Voting Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class A | 111,518 | <1% | — |
| LT10 | 114,140 | 2.7% | — |
| LT50 | 134,208 | 1.7% | — |
| Aggregate voting power | — | — | 1.6% |
- Stock ownership build policy: NEOs must contribute ≥30% of target comp to equity programs (plan or legacy programs). For 2024, Ms. Muralidharan contributed 32% (20% to the purchase/match plan), supporting alignment, though not a formal ownership multiple guideline .
- Hedging and margin: Prohibited by insider trading policy; public options and short sales prohibited .
- Pledging: Limited-pledge policy permits up to 25% of holdings as collateral (excluding margin loans). No specific pledging disclosed for Ms. Muralidharan; CEO Barrett disclosed pledging of Class A shares (separate from Ms. Muralidharan) .
- Section 16 compliance: The company disclosed some delinquent Form 4 filings for Ms. Muralidharan (multiple reports late), a minor administrative flag .
Outstanding Equity Awards (as of 12/31/2024)
| Type | Grant/Vesting Details | Quantity | Price | Market Value Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Options | 3/1/2021 | 30,800 | $7.21 | — |
| Options | 9/16/2021 | 5,500 | $12.97 | — |
| RSUs | 9/15/2021; 12.5% vesting quarterly through 8 years; each RSU = 0.5 Class A + 0.5 LT50 | 120,400 (unvested at 12/31/2024) | — | $403,340 at $3.35 close on 12/31/2024 |
| In-the-money check (12/31/2024) | Closing price reference | — | — | With $3.35 close, both option strikes ($7.21, $12.97) were out-of-the-money at year-end 2024 . |
2024 Equity Flows under Stock Purchase and Matching Plan
| Element | 2024 Amount |
|---|---|
| Discretionary fully-vested shares granted to Ms. Muralidharan | 134,023 shares; $311,751 value at grant |
| Matching structure | 1/20th share per share retained (5% matching rate in 2024) |
Note: The proxy’s table of shares purchased and matched contains formatting anomalies; we therefore rely on the clearly reported discretionary share grants and plan mechanics rather than the corrupted purchase rows for Ms. Muralidharan .
Employment Terms
- Employment type: At-will; standard confidential information and invention assignment agreements .
- Severance: No cash severance or benefits upon involuntary termination disclosed for NEOs (including Ms. Muralidharan) .
- Change-in-control: No specific CIC cash severance disclosed; RSU acceleration terms beyond service vesting were not specified in the proxy .
- Clawback: Nasdaq-compliant clawback effective Nov 1, 2023 covering erroneously awarded incentive-based compensation for 3 years preceding a restatement .
- Trading/hedging policy: Hedging, short sales, publicly traded options, and margin transactions prohibited; limited pledging permitted up to 25% under pre-approved guidelines .
Board Governance & Roles
- Board tenure and role: Director since IPO; currently serves on both the Executive Committee and Compensation Committee, reflecting a dual role as executive officer and director .
- Committee memberships:
- Executive Committee: Authorized to exercise broad board powers while the Voting Trust controls >50% voting power; members include Barrett, Schaffer, Mills, Vidal, and Muralidharan .
- Compensation Committee: Not independent (controlled company exemption); members include Barrett (chair), Schaffer, Mills, Vidal, and Muralidharan; executives participate in compensation deliberations except when addressing their own exceptions .
- Audit Committee: Independent; Ms. Muralidharan is not a member .
- Independence context: Expensify is a Nasdaq “controlled company” (Voting Trust ~84.3% voting power) and elects exemptions from majority-independent board and fully independent compensation committee; this reduces standard minority shareholder protections .
- Board processes: All directors attended ≥75% of meetings in FY2024; executive sessions of independent directors occur at least annually; the board has neither a chair nor a lead independent director .
- Director compensation: Employee-directors (including Ms. Muralidharan) receive no additional director fees; non-employee director retainers and equity are paid per the disclosed program .
Compensation Structure (Mix and Trends)
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary ($) | 710,601 | 860,371 | +21.1% |
| Stock Awards ($) | 220,354 | 319,242 | +44.9% |
| Options Granted in Year | None disclosed | None disclosed | Shift away from options maintained |
Observations:
- Mix shifted further toward stock awards and fully-vested discretionary share grants in 2024, with no new option grants and legacy options OTM at year-end 2024, lowering option-related risk but increasing near-term liquidity of awards once granted .
- Absence of a formal performance bonus program or explicit financial KPIs in pay raises alignment depends on the internal algorithm and mandatory equity contributions rather than revenue/EBITDA/TSR outcomes .
Risk Indicators & Red Flags
- Governance: Non-independent compensation committee (includes executives and Ms. Muralidharan), controlled-company exemptions, and no chair/lead independent director heighten independence concerns .
- Trading/ownership: Limited-pledging allowed; no pledge disclosed for Ms. Muralidharan; hedging/shorts/margin prohibited . Some delinquent Section 16 filings disclosed for Ms. Muralidharan .
- Performance-pay linkage: No performance bonus or explicit metric-based variable pay; pay-setting algorithm not tied to financial metrics and may weaken pay-for-performance alignment .
- Severance/CIC: No severance protections disclosed; could pose retention risk in volatile markets, though long-dated RSU vesting provides ongoing unvested value .
Investment Implications
- Alignment and selling pressure: Mandatory equity contributions (32% of target comp; 20% via purchase plan) and substantial unvested RSUs (120,400 units) support alignment, but fully-vested discretionary share grants and quarterly RSU vesting create a cadence that could translate into periodic insider selling for liquidity, contributing to technical supply headwinds if sales occur; legacy options are OTM at year-end 2024, limiting option-exercise supply for now .
- Pay-for-performance concerns: With no bonus plan and an internal algorithm decoupled from financial KPIs, cash/equity outcomes are not explicitly contingent on revenue, EBITDA, or TSR; given multi-year TSR underperformance, this framework may draw scrutiny from governance-focused investors despite the required equity contributions .
- Retention vs. cost: No severance or CIC cash benefits reduces downside shareholder cost in a turnover event but may elevate flight risk unless offset by continuing RSU vesting value; clawback enhances downside protection in case of restatement .
- Governance overhang: The controlled-company structure, dual executive/director roles, and a non-independent compensation committee (including Ms. Muralidharan) imply elevated governance risk; monitoring of say-on-pay feedback and any future independence transitions is warranted .
- Compliance note: Reported late Section 16 filings for Ms. Muralidharan are administrative but worth tracking given heightened ESG scrutiny .
Overall: For trading, watch quarterly vesting cycles and 8-year RSU cadence for potential insider supply, and governance headlines tied to the controlled company structure. For fundamentals-driven investors, the lack of KPI-linked pay may limit confidence in pay-for-performance alignment until equity performance stabilizes or the compensation framework evolves .