Joanne Merrill

About Joanne Merrill

Joanne Merrill, 55, is Chief Financial Officer (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) of Falcon’s Beyond Global, Inc., a role she has held since the closing of the company’s Business Combination in October 2023 . She previously served as CFO of Falcon’s Beyond Global, LLC (since August 2021), CFO of Entertainment Technology Partners (May 2017–July 2021), and Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller at Hard Rock International (April 2007–May 2017) . Merrill began her career as a mechanical engineer and is a Chartered Accountant in England and Wales and a U.S. Certified Public Accountant; she holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath . She signs the company’s Section 302 and 906 SOX certifications as CFO, underscoring accountability for disclosure controls and financial reporting integrity .

Past Roles

External Roles

• None disclosed in company filings reviewed; no public company board roles reported for Merrill .

Fixed Compensation

• The company discloses NEO compensation for fiscal 2024 as an emerging growth/smaller reporting company; Merrill (CFO) was not included among NEOs for disclosed years, so CFO-specific base salary, bonus, and perquisites are not itemized in the Summary Compensation Table .
• Company policy indicates executives may receive discretionary bonuses; historically such bonuses were paid to executives other than the CEO and certain owners, but CFO-specific amounts were not disclosed for 2023–2024 .
• Perquisites: Company states it “generally does not provide perquisites” to named executive officers; this is a program policy disclosure (CFO status not specifically enumerated as NEO in those years) .

Performance Compensation

• Equity design: The 2023 Equity Incentive Plan provides RSUs with service-based vesting; “Day 1 Awards” in Dec 2023 went to certain executive officers to recognize efforts in completing the Business Combination; a 2024 RSU award was granted to the Chief Legal Officer . CFO-specific award data was not disclosed in the available NEO tables.
• Vesting schedule (plan-level): RSUs vest 15%/17.5%/20%/22.5%/25% on each of the first through fifth anniversaries, subject to continued service .
• Cash incentives: Annual bonuses are discretionary; for 2024 selected NEOs received discretionary bonuses; no CFO-specific bonus metrics or payouts are disclosed .
• Clawback: A compensation clawback policy applies to current and former executive officers in the event of a required financial restatement, with lookback over the prior three completed fiscal years for excess incentive compensation based on erroneous data .

Plan Features (non-CFO-specific)

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• Beneficial ownership: As of April 16, 2024, the proxy’s beneficial ownership table listed Joanne Merrill with no Class A or Class B shares beneficially owned (i.e., “—”), reflecting less than 1% ownership at that date .
• Hedging/pledging: Company policy prohibits hedging transactions, holding company stock in margin accounts, and pledging company securities as collateral for loans, applying to directors, officers, and employees (mitigates alignment risks from pledging/hedging) .
• Outstanding awards disclosure: The 2024 year-end Outstanding Equity Awards table lists awards only for NEOs (CEO had none; President and CLO had RSUs); no CFO line is presented in the table for 2024 .
• RSU activity (company-level): As of Sept. 30, 2025, 919,564 non-vested RSUs were outstanding at the company level; vesting spans six months to five years and 2025 grants (Feb 7) vest one-third annually (not CFO-specific) . Anti-dilutive securities table also shows RSUs outstanding during periods, but not named to individuals .

Ownership Snapshot (as disclosed)

Employment Terms

• Contracts/offer letters: No CFO-specific employment agreement or offer letter was found in the reviewed filings; the executive bio confirms appointment since the Business Combination closing .
• Severance/change-in-control: For fiscal 2024, the company disclosed that none of the named executive officers had termination or change-in-control rights; CFO was not among NEOs in that disclosure, and no CFO-specific severance terms were identified in filings reviewed .
• Garden leave examples in 2025 applied to another executive (President), not the CFO; included here to illustrate the company’s recent separation structures rather than CFO terms .
• Governance/accountability: Merrill serves as both Principal Financial and Principal Accounting Officer and signs SOX 302/906 certifications on periodic reports, reflecting responsibility for controls and reporting .

Additional Governance, Policies, and Signals

• Compensation governance: Independent Compensation Committee; uses Mercer (US) Inc. as independent compensation consultant for benchmarking and program design .
• Clawback policy: As noted, board-approved clawback consistent with SEC/Nasdaq rules .
• Proxies/authority: Merrill designated as one of the authorized management proxies for shareholder meetings (administrative signal of seniority) .
• Related-party transactions: No Merrill-specific related-party transactions were disclosed. Merrill executed a subsidiary loan agreement signature page as “Jo Merrill, Authorized Signatory” for Katmandu Group, LLC; this reflects an officer executing on behalf of a company entity, not a personal related-party arrangement .

Investment Implications

• Pay-for-performance visibility: CFO-specific pay elements (base salary, target/actual bonus, equity award sizes, performance metrics) are not disclosed in recent proxies due to smaller reporting company NEO limitations, limiting direct assessment of her individual pay-performance alignment . The broader executive program leans on service-based RSUs with a long vesting schedule and discretionary bonuses, which signals retention emphasis but lighter explicit performance linkage at the disclosed level .
• Alignment and downside protection: Company-wide clawback and bans on hedging/pledging strengthen alignment safeguards and reduce risk of misaligned incentives or leveraged pledging by insiders .
• Ownership/skin-in-the-game: The 2024 ownership table showed Merrill with no reported beneficial ownership at that record date; absent disclosure of CFO-specific RSU awards, measured equity alignment is opaque. Monitor future proxies for CFO ownership changes and any RSU grants or vesting events .
• Retention risk: With no CFO-specific severance/change-in-control terms disclosed and NEOs historically lacking such protections, potential retention incentives likely rely on ongoing cash compensation and multi-year RSU vesting; watch for any new employment agreements or retention grants in 8-Ks or future proxies .
• Trading signals: No Form 4 insider trades by Merrill were identified in the filings reviewed; continue to monitor Form 4s for any material acquisitions/dispositions near vest dates that could indicate sentiment or liquidity needs [Search result context: none found in corpus].