LIDR AEye Inc

On January 10, 2023, the Board of Directors of AEye, Inc. (the “Company”) appointed Tirukkur R. “TR” Ramachandran, age 52, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, as the Company’s principal operating officer.

Mr. Ramachandran joined the Company in November of 2021 as Chief Product Officer. Prior to his employment with the Company, Mr. Ramachandran held key leadership roles at two other companies in the lidar industry. He was Executive Vice President of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer at Cepton, Inc. between 2019 and 2021, and Vice President of Product Management at Velodyne Lidar, Inc. between 2017 and 2019. Prior to Velodyne Lidar, Mr. Ramachandran worked in other high-tech companies, including ultimately serving as Vice President, Corporate Quality and Program Management, at LSI Corp. until 2014, when LSI Corp. was acquired by Avago Technologies, now Broadcom Inc. Mr. Ramachandran brings a diverse experience base to the Company, ranging from his depth of knowledge and success in the lidar industry, to launching numerous high-volume, technology products to market across different industries, to overseeing new product introduction and quality for a $2+ billion business. He brings over 24 years of experience delivering market-leading solutions across SoCs, software, and systems, along with strong automotive market experience in the lidar industry, including partnering with several Tier 1 automotive suppliers. Mr. Ramachandran holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Southern California, where he focused on InGaAs optoelectronic systems, as well as scanning probe-based imaging and nanotechnology. He received a B. Tech. in Metallurgical/Materials Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.

In anticipation of naming Mr. Ramachandran as the Company’s principal operating officer, Mr. Ramachandran’s annual salary was increased to $385,000, his annual bonus target was set at 65% of base salary, and he was awarded 500,000 restricted stock units pursuant to the Company’s 2021 Equity Incentive Plan, which will vest quarterly over three years commencing on February 15, 2023.

There is no arrangement or understanding between Mr. Ramachandran and any other person pursuant to which Mr. Ramachandran was to be selected as an officer of the Company that would require disclosure under Item 401(b) of Regulation S-K. Additionally, there is no family relationship between Mr. Ramachandran and any other person that would require disclosure under Item 401(d) of Regulation S-K. Mr. Ramachandran is not a party to any transactions that would require disclosure under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.