Aaron Tucker

About Aaron Tucker

Independent Vice Chairman of the Board at Unity Bancorp, Inc. (UNTY); age 62; director since 2014 with current term expiring at the 2028 annual meeting. Primary occupation over the past five years: President and CEO, Tucker Enterprises; real estate builder and investor. The Board classifies him as independent under Nasdaq standards.

Past Roles

• The proxy discloses Mr. Tucker’s primary occupation for the past five years but does not provide additional historical employment details.

External Roles

Board Governance

Fixed Compensation

• Director fee structure (2024 service, paid in 2025): $32,000 annual retainer; committee chair add’l $5,000; Board Chair add’l $8,000; $900 per Board meeting; $500–$900 per committee meeting; chairs receive an add’l $200 per meeting. Non-employee directors also receive annual restricted stock grants.
• 2024 director compensation (as reported for the year ended 12/31/24):

• 2024 director equity grant: on January 2, 2024, non-employee directors were each granted 2,200 restricted shares at $29.59 per share; vests 25% annually over four years beginning January 2, 2025.
• Director Deferred Fee Plan (elected amounts earn prime +100 bps, 4% floor/10% cap, compounded monthly; 100% vested): in 2024, Mr. Tucker deferred $29,185 and received $16,406 in interest (total $45,591).

Performance Compensation

• Structure: No disclosed performance-based director cash incentives; director equity awards are time-based restricted stock with multi-year vesting.
• Mr. Tucker’s outstanding director restricted stock and vesting schedule as of 2/28/2025:

• Director options: 22,700 options are immediately exercisable (aggregate count disclosed; strike/expiry not detailed in director tables).

Other Directorships & Interlocks

• Other public company boards: None; the proxy states no director of UNTY serves as a director of any other company registered under Exchange Act Sections 12 or 15(d) or as an investment company director.
• Compensation committee interlocks: None reported.

Expertise & Qualifications

• Core domain: Real estate development/investment via Tucker Enterprises.
• Governance: Member of Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee, which oversees board composition, governance principles, and annual board evaluations (chaired by Dr. Mary Gross).
• Financial expert designation: Not identified by the Board as an “Audit & Risk Committee financial expert” (designated experts are Maricondo, Brody, Courtright, and Gross).

Equity Ownership

Notes:

• Beneficial ownership includes shares with sole/shared voting or investment power, spousal/household holdings, entities controlled, and rights to acquire within 60 days.

Governance Assessment

• Strengths

  • Independent Vice Chairman with roles on Corporate Governance & Nominating, Executive Loan, and ALCO—positions that influence board composition, risk, and credit oversight.
  • Good attendance culture: Board met 12 times in 2024 with no director below 75% attendance; all directors attended the 2024 annual meeting.
  • Alignment via equity: Ongoing time-vested RSU grants with multi-year vesting; no director equity option repricing; broad use of restricted stock for directors.
  • Clean conflicts posture: Directors may have ordinary-course banking relationships (including loans) under Reg O; transactions are reviewed by the Audit & Risk Committee and none were unapproved.
  • No other public company directorships, reducing external interlocks and potential time constraints.
  • No pledging of shares disclosed for Mr. Tucker or other insiders.

• Watch items / context

  • Ownership concentration: Two long-tenured directors (David D. Dallas and Robert H. Dallas II) each beneficially own ~17.8% of shares and are brothers, which can influence governance dynamics; independent directors on governance committees (including Mr. Tucker) are important counterbalances.
  • Director equity awards are time-based (not performance-conditioned), which is common for banks but offers less explicit pay-for-performance linkage at the director level.
  • Committee chair roles are held by other directors (e.g., Corporate Governance chaired by Dr. Gross; Audit & Risk by Maricondo; HR/Comp by Dr. Brody), so Mr. Tucker’s influence is through membership rather than chair authority.

• Compliance signals

  • Section 16(a) compliance: Based on the company’s review, all reporting persons complied timely for 2024 except for one clerical Form 4/A correction for another director; no exceptions noted for Mr. Tucker.