BlackLine, Inc. (BL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to BlackLine 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. At this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Therese Tucker, Founder and Executive Chair of BlackLine.

Good morning or afternoon. It's a pleasure to welcome you to our Annual Meeting of Shareholders. This is the fourth time we've chosen to hold a virtual annual meeting. We believe that virtual meetings helps us maximize our shareholders' ability to meaningfully engage with us and we're pleased that our shareholders, no matter where they are located in the world today, can participate in our meeting in a virtual format. Before we begin, let me introduce the Directors of the company. In addition to myself, we have Marc Huffman, Marc is also our Chief Executive Officer; Owen Ryan; Graham Smith; Kevin Thompson, Thomas Unterman; Sophia Velastegui; and Mika Yamamoto. I'd also like to extend a special welcome to Barbara Whye, who joined our Board in April. Now I'd like to introduce the following corporate officers; Mark Partin, Chief Financial Officer; Karole Morgan-Prager, Chief Legal and Administrative Officer and Secretary; Pete Hirsch, Chief Technology Officer; Mark Woodhams, Chief Revenue Officer; and Susan Otto, Chief People Officer. Also joining us on the call today are Jeff Feiereisen, representing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm. Mr. Feiereisen will be available to respond to appropriate questions during the Q&A session at the end of the meeting. Sean Curley, our inspector of elections from Cariedo Group, representing Broadridge Financial Solutions; and Lisa Stimmell, representing Wilson Sonsini, the company's outside counsel. I'd now like to take a moment to thank John Brennan and Jason Babcoke, who are stepping down from the Board today. Their years of service to BlackLine and our shareholders are deeply appreciated. Gentlemen, on behalf of myself, the other Board members and the entire company, thank you. Now on to the business of the meeting. I will act as Chairperson of this meeting, and I have asked Karole Morgan-Prager to facilitate and record the minutes of this meeting.

Thank you, Therese. And welcome, everyone, to our annual meeting. First, I'd like to announce that the polls are open, and you may vote your shares online any time during the meeting prior to the closing of the polls, which will occur after I review the proposals to be voted on. Those proposals were included in the proxy statement for this meeting, which was first mailed to shareholders on or about March 26, 2021. If you'd like to vote during the meeting, you can do so by clicking on the Voting button on the bottom right-hand of your screen. Only those shareholders who have registered with their control numbers have the ability to vote. Your control number was provided in your meeting notice. Shareholders who sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote, do not need to take further action. Once the polls have closed, we will announce the preliminary results of the voting. After the formal meeting has adjourned, management will be available to answer questions. There is a text box on your screen where you may submit your questions at any time during the meeting prior to the end of the Q&A session. We will try to answer as many questions as we have time for, but we may not be able to answer all questions submitted. The record date for this annual meeting was March 17, 2021. Only shareholders of record as of that date are entitled to vote at this meeting. I have an affidavit of distribution from Broadridge Financial Solutions, confirming that this notice of annual meeting was provided on or about March 26, 2021, to shareholders of record as of March 17, 2021. A complete list of the shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting is available online for the duration of the meeting and can be found at the registered shareholders list link within the Materials tab on the bottom right-hand side of your screen. Our inspector of elections has determined that a quorum is present either by proxy or in person, and the meeting may proceed. Our inspector of elections has signed an oath of inspector of elections, which will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. The first item of business is the election of our 3 Class II directors: Owen Ryan, Kevin Thompson; and Sophia Velastegui. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of PWC as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. The third item of business is our say-on-pay vote, which is an approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive officers. That concludes the review of the proposals to be voted on. [Voting]

The polls will now close. No additional ballots, proxies or votes and no changes or replications will be accepted. The proxies and any ballots previously submitted have been tabulated by the inspector of elections, and I have the preliminary voting results. Any votes cast today, including those submitted electronically during the meeting, will be counted in the final tally. With regard to Proposal 1, Owen Ryan, Kevin Thompson and Sophia Velastegui, each of them have been elected as a Class II Director and will hold office until 2024 or until their successors are elected or appointed and qualified. With regard to Proposal 2, the appointment of PWC as our independent public accounting firm for 2021 has been ratified. And finally, with regard to Proposal 3, the advisory vote on the compensation of our named executive officers, a majority of the shares submitted were in favor of the compensation of our named executive officers. These are the preliminary results of voting. The final count may vary following final examination of the proxies and ballots. The final results will be reported on a Form 8-K, excuse me, that we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of this meeting. I'm pleased to report that this concludes the formal agenda. The meeting is now adjourned.

Now we'd like to open things up for shareholder questions. Please note, we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are relevant to the meeting will be addressed.

Therese, it looks like we have no questions today.

Then I believe you want to...

Yes. So well, we want to thank all of you for attending today's meeting and for the interest you show in BlackLine. Have a good day.