Gartner, Inc. (IT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. And welcome to the 2020 Annual Stockholders Meeting of Gartner, Inc. I'm Jules Kaufman, General Counsel and Secretary of Gartner, Inc., and I will be chairing today's meeting. Joining me are Gene Hall, our Chief Executive Officer; Craig Safian, our Chief Financial Officer; David Cohen, our Head of Investor Relations; Dan Mar and Patrick Edgar of KPMG, our independent registered public accounting firm; and Kevin Chang, our Assistant Secretary, who will act as Inspector of elections. We're hosting this meeting virtually as part of our precautions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This virtual platform allows us to protect the health and safety of our stockholders and employees. It's now 10:01 a.m. Eastern Time and I officially call this meeting to order. [Operator Instructions] After a proposal is presented, we will respond to questions relating to the proposal that have been submitted. We will do our best to provide a response to as many as possible. [Operator Instructions] Please refer to the rules of conduct and procedures available on the annual meeting website. The record date for this meeting is April 14, 2020. Only stockholders of record on that date are entitled to vote at this meeting. I'm advised that this meeting has been properly noticed and that we have a quorum of over 90% of our outstanding shares to allow us to proceed. The notice of mailing and a list of registered stockholders as of the record date are available for inspection on the annual meeting website. All of the items on today's agenda have been discussed in-depth in the 2020 proxy statement, previously made available to all stockholders and a copy is available on annual meeting website. We will now present the matters to be voted upon. For stockholders who wish to vote at the meeting, you may vote by clicking the Vote Here button. For stockholders who have already voted, no additional action is required with respect to the matters being voted upon. The polls are now open and will be closed as soon as all the proposals are presented and related questions are addressed. The first item to be voted on is the election of each of the 10 nominees to our Board of Directors. The directors will hold office until the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The nominees are Peter E. Bisson, Richard J. Bressler, Raul Cesan, Karen E. Dykstra, Anne Sutherland Fuchs, William O. Grabe, Eugene A. Hall, Stephen G. Pagliuca, Eileen Serra and James C. Smith. The Board unanimously recommends that you vote for the election of each nominee for director. We will now take a short pause to allow you to submit your questions. It appears that no applicable question has been submitted. We will now consider proposal #2. The second item to be voted on is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the 2020 proxy statement, or Say on Pay. The Board unanimously recommends you vote for this proposal. We will now take a short pause to allow you to submit your questions. It appears that no applicable question has been submitted. We will now consider proposal #3. The third and final item to be voted on is the ratification of the appointment by our Audit Committee of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2020 fiscal year as described in the 2020 proxy statement. The Board unanimously recommends that you vote for this proposal. We will now take a short pause to allow you to submit your questions. It appears that no applicable question has been submitted. We will now continue. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the annual meeting website and following the instructions. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. We will now take a short pause to allow you to submit your vote. [Voting]

Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote and there being no other matters to come before the meeting, I declare the polls for the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders closed. We've been informed by the inspector of elections that the ballots have been counted and validated and we have the preliminary vote report for the 3 proposals that appear in the proxy statement. On proposal number one, I am pleased to report that the stockholders have elected all 10 nominees to the Board with over 90% of votes cast in favor of their election in all cases. The second item on the agenda is the Say on Pay proposal. I'm pleased to report that our stockholders have approved our executive compensation as described in the 2020 proxy statement with over 90% of votes cast in favor of this proposal. This vote is advisory-only. The third item on the agenda is the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2020 fiscal year. I am likewise pleased to report that the stockholders have ratified the appointment of KPMG with over 90% of votes cast in favor of the proposal. The exact voting results for all proposals will be included in the company's current report on Form 8-K that will be filed with the SEC within the next 4 business days. This concludes our annual meeting. In accordance with the company's bylaws, I hereby adjourn today's meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the management team, I'd like to thank you for attending the 2020 Gartner, Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you.