MeridianLink Tapped Laurence E. Katz as the CFO and Director Effective April 1 Upon Resignation of Cody Cowan
(b) Resignation of Cody Cowan as Director
On March 14, 2024, Cody Cowan notified MeridianLink, Inc. (the “Company”) of his resignation from its Board of Directors (the “Board”) and its committees, effective March 15, 2024. Mr. Cowan’s decision to resign is not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies, or practices. The Company is grateful for Mr. Cowan’s commitment and service to the Company and the Board.
Resignation of Sean Blitchok as Chief Financial Officer
On March 18, 2024, the Company announced that Sean Blitchok will resign upon mutual agreement with the Board as the Company’s Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, including as principal accounting officer and principal financial officer, effective as of April 1, 2024. Mr. Blitchok’s resignation is not the result of any disagreements with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies, or practices.
In connection with his resignation, the Company entered into a Transition Agreement with Mr. Blitchok (the “Transition Agreement”), subject to the terms of which, including the requirement that Mr. Blitchok executes and does not revoke a general release of claims against the Company: (i) Mr. Blitchok will not be eligible for any severance pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement or otherwise, (ii) upon his resignation as Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Blitchok will no longer be an employee of the Company, but he shall serve as an advisor to the Company through September 30, 2024, or any such earlier date as defined in the Transition Agreement, (the “Advisory Period”) and will receive consulting fees of $20,000 per month, and (iii) Mr. Blitchok will continue to vest in his outstanding equity grants through the end of the Advisory Period. The foregoing summary does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Transition Agreement, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 10.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.
(c) (d) Appointment of Laurence E. Katz as Chief Financial Officer and Director
On March 18, 2024, the Company announced that the Board has appointed Laurence E. Katz, age 54, as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer and class I director of the Board, effective upon the commencement of his employment, which is expected to be April 1, 2024 (the “Start Date”). The term of the Company’s class I directors, including Mr. Katz, expires on the date of the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2025 or upon the election and qualification of successor directors. Mr. Katz will serve as the Company’s principal accounting officer and principal financial officer effective as of the Start Date.
Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Katz served as an independent consultant and senior advisor to various private equity firms since April 2023. Prior to that, Mr. Katz served as a partner at WestCap, a strategic operating and investing firm, from October 2021 to March 2023. From June 2020 to September 2021, Mr. Katz acted as chief financial officer at StubHub, a secondary marketplace for live event ticketing, and, from March to June 2020, acted as its treasurer. Mr. Katz served as chief financial officer of Genesys, a global cloud leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, from December 2016 to October 2019. Before joining Genesys, Mr. Katz held various executive leadership positions spanning across diverse business units and functions at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from 2001 and began his career at The Walt Disney Company in its Strategic Planning group. Mr. Katz previously served on the board of directors and as chair of the audit committee for Stratim Cloud Acquisition Corp. from March 2021 to May 2022. Mr. Katz holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University and an M.B.A from Harvard Business School