Kate McKinley

About Kate McKinley

Kate McKinley is Chief Business Officer at Rani Therapeutics, serving since May 2023. She is 48 years old as of March 31, 2025 and has 20+ years in biopharma across executive leadership and board roles. She began at AbbVie/Abbott as Vice President of National Sales in urology, oncology, and gynecology, later serving as Chief Commercial Officer/Chief Business Officer at Elevar Therapeutics (Jan 2019–May 2021), CEO of Elevar (Jul 2021–Jul 2022), and CEO of Spark Outcomes (Jul 2022–May 2023). She graduated summa cum laude from The University of Tulsa with an MBA from the Collins College of Business and a BS in Business Administration (Marketing and Management; minor in Psychology) .

Note: Company filings do not disclose McKinley-specific TSR, revenue growth, EBITDA growth, or pay-for-performance metrics; where undisclosed, items are omitted .

Past Roles

External Roles

• “Positions in executive leadership and as a board director” are noted, but specific external board appointments are not identified in filings reviewed .

Fixed Compensation

• McKinley’s base salary and cash compensation are not disclosed in the Summary Compensation Table; the 2025 DEF 14A presents data for the CEO, CSO, and CFO only (she was not a Named Executive Officer) .
• The Compensation Committee engages Radford (Aon) for benchmarking and program design and sets pay strategies aligned to long-term goals .

Performance Compensation

• Company-wide bonus framework: Annual bonuses are based on corporate goals (product development/partnering; device platform and manufacturing; financial measures; organizational progress). For 2024, the Board recognized performance on device/manufacturing but used discretion to award no cash bonuses to Named Executive Officers due to the company’s financial position. Target bonus rates disclosed (75% of base salary) apply to the CEO, CSO, and CFO; McKinley’s target rate is not disclosed .
• Clawbacks: Executive officers are subject to Sarbanes–Oxley 304 reimbursement for misconduct-related restatements and a Dodd-Frank-compliant clawback policy adopted per SEC rules .

Equity Ownership & Alignment

• Hedging/pledging: The insider trading policy prohibits hedging, short sales, purchasing on margin/holding in margin accounts, and pledging Company shares; this applies to all employees, directors, and consultants (including executive officers) .
• Clawbacks: As above, Dodd-Frank-compliant clawback policy adopted; executive officers may be required to reimburse certain incentive pay under SOX 304 .
• Option repricing: On December 16, 2023, the Board reduced exercise prices of certain previously granted, still-outstanding unvested stock options to $2.84 per share (no change to vesting/terms). The Outstanding Equity Awards table details repriced grants for NEOs; McKinley-specific awards/ownership are not disclosed .
• Ownership levels: Security ownership table lists directors and Named Executive Officers; McKinley’s individual beneficial ownership is not provided (group totals include executive officers and directors) .

Employment Terms

• Severance/Change-in-Control Plan (adopted June 17, 2021): Specifies double-trigger change-in-control benefits for the CEO, CSO, CFO (multiples of base salary and target bonus; health premiums; accelerated vesting of time-based equity), and regular termination benefits (salary continuation; premiums). Eligibility is described for Named Executive Officers; McKinley’s participation and terms are not disclosed in the proxy .
• Equity award timing policies: New-hire options historically granted at Board meetings following start date; annual grants typically in Q1; Committee considers MNPI timing and does not time awards around disclosures .

Performance & Track Record (context during tenure)

• During McKinley’s tenure, Rani announced a collaboration with Chugai Pharmaceutical of up to $1.085 billion in potential value and completed a $60.3 million oversubscribed private placement led by top-tier investors; cash runway was guided to extend into 2028 .
• The 10-K disclosed going concern risks and the need for additional funding; the Board extended CEO salary reduction through 2025 until a financing threshold is met, and broader cost discipline influenced bonus decisions for NEOs .

Compensation Governance

• Committee cadence, independence checks, and advisor use: Compensation Committee meets multiple times annually, retains Radford, reviews tally sheets, stock performance data, and peer analyses; CEO excluded from deliberations about his compensation .
• Committee composition changes: As of October 2025, Compensation Committee chaired by Vasudev Bailey, with Dennis Ausiello as member .

Risk Indicators & Red Flags

• Hedging/pledging prohibited (positive alignment) .
• Option repricing in Dec 2023 (potential governance red flag; may signal retention needs in distressed market conditions); specific effect on McKinley’s grants not disclosed .
• Clawback policy in place (risk mitigation) .
• Going concern disclosure highlights execution and financing risk that can drive compensation decisions and retention dynamics .

Investment Implications

• Alignment and retention: The prohibition on hedging/pledging and adoption of Dodd-Frank clawbacks support shareholder alignment and downside accountability for executive officers, including McKinley; lack of disclosed individual ownership or grant details limits precision on skin-in-the-game and potential selling pressure analysis .
• Pay-for-performance visibility: Company-level frameworks and 2024 zero-bonus outcome for NEOs reflect discipline amid financing constraints, but McKinley’s specific targets/payouts are not disclosed—reduced transparency may limit direct pay-performance calibration for her role .
• Execution signal: The Chugai collaboration and capital raise under her tenure as CBO indicate active partnering and BD traction; however, 10-K going concern factors and ongoing capital needs underscore execution risk and potential for compensation structures emphasizing retention/equity vs. cash .
• Trading signals: Form 4 data for McKinley could not be retrieved due to data source authorization error; without insider transaction data, near-term selling pressure assessment is inconclusive. Company-level pledging ban reduces risk of forced selling via collateral calls .

Data gaps and actions: McKinley-specific base salary, bonus targets/payouts, equity grant counts/values, vesting schedules, severance/change-in-control terms, and beneficial ownership are not disclosed in the DEF 14A/10-K reviewed. We attempted to fetch Form 4 insider transactions via the insider-trades skill but received an authorization error; consider revisiting when access is restored to evaluate insider selling pressure and current ownership.