Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (ALLO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Dr. David Chang, Chief Executive Officer of Allogene Therapeutics. Dr. Chang, the floor is yours.

Good morning. This is David Chang, and I'm the Chief Executive Officer and the director of Allogene Therapeutics. I'm very happy to welcome you to the Allogene 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. As you know, we are hosting today's meeting through a virtual online platform for health and safety reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With that in mind, I want to thank you for taking the time to join us and hope you all safe and well. In order to conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that you follow the rules of conduct, which are available on the meeting materials online. While the meeting is virtual only, stockholders of record will have the opportunity to submit questions or comments through the text box located on your screen. [Operator Instructions] We will answer questions submitted that after made to the proposals being voted on and as -- and if we have time. Please submit your questions now to make sure they are reviewed and addressed. If you intend to vote and have not already done so, you must submit your vote online now in order for it to be counted. After we describe each item to be voted on, we will close the poll. If you have already submitted your vote by proxy and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to change -- you do not need to vote now. Before I call the meeting to order, I'd like to acknowledge that we have several members of the Board and management joining us today. I would also like to introduce Yogi Ransing of Ernst Young LLP (sic) [ Ernst & Young LLP ], the company's auditors, who is available to respond to appropriate questions. The meeting will now officially come to order, and I will now turn it over to our Secretary, David Tanen.

Thank you, David. I have at this meeting a complete list of the stockholders of record of the company's common stock on April 21, 2020, the record date for this meeting. I also have an affidavit certifying that on April 24, 2020, a notice of Internet availability of proxy materials was deposited in the United States mail. At this time, I'd like to introduce Veer Bhavnagri, who is appointed to act as inspector of election at this meeting. Veer has taken and subscribed the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. His function is to decide upon the qualifications of voters, accept their votes and when balloting on all matters is completed, to tally the final votes. I have been informed by the inspector of election that proxies have been received for 103.5 million of the 125.3 million shares of common stock outstanding on the record date, which represents approximately 82.6% of the total number of outstanding shares. This constitutes a quorum for the meeting today, and we may now carry out the official business of the meeting. I will turn it over to Veer to describe the 3 proposals to be considered by the stockholders at this meeting.

Thank you, David. The first item of business is the election of 3 Class 2 directors to serve until the 2023 Annual Meeting and until their successors are elected. The nominees for Class 2 directors are: Ms. Deborah Messemer, Mr. Todd Sisitsky and Dr. Owen Witte. The second item of business today is the indication on an advisory basis of the preferred frequency of stockholder advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers. The stockholders are asked to vote on an advisory basis on the preferred frequency of either 1, 2 or 3 years. The third and final item of business today is the ratification of the selection by the Audit Committee of the Board of Ernst & Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. We will now review if there are any questions submitted about the proposals before we close the polls. As a reminder, we will only review and answer questions at this time that pertain to the proposals.

[Operator Instructions]

Because there are no questions pertaining to these proposals, it is 10:05 a.m., and I now declare the polls closed for voting. The report of the inspector of election covering the proposals presented at this meeting is as follows: the proposal to elect the Class 2 directors of the company is carried. The stockholders have indicated a preferred frequency of 1 year for advisory stockholder votes on executive compensation of the company's named executive officers. The selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, is ratified. We expect to report the voting results on a current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within 4 business days after the end of this meeting. If not earlier reported, we expect to report our final voting results in an amendment to our 8-K within 4 business days after the final results are known to us. I will now turn it over to David to close the meeting.

As there is no other business to be conducted, the annual meeting is now adjourned. I would like to thank each of you once again for attending. We look forward to updating you in the future on our progress.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you very much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.