Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Mike Hsu, Chairman and CEO of Kimberly-Clark. Mr. Hsu, the floor is yours.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Kimberly-Clark's Annual Meeting. This meeting is called to order. Before we get started with the business of the meeting, I will comment briefly on our recent performance and strategic transformation. 2024 was a breakthrough year for Kimberly-Clark with the launch of our Powering Care transformation. Our strategy deepens our commitment to provide better care for a better world and deliver balanced and sustainable growth for the long term. In the first year of our transformation, we achieved several important milestones. We successfully rewired our organization into 3 powerhouse segments: North America, International Personal Care and International Family Care and Professional, supported by world-class functions. And we made strong progress against our 3 strategic priorities: to accelerate pioneering innovation, optimize our margin structure and wire our organization for growth. Our full year 2024 results exceeded our long-term growth algorithm, supported by consistent execution across the organization, and we returned $2.6 billion to shareholders through our dividend and share repurchases. As we start 2025 in an increasingly dynamic operating environment around the world, our teams have remained focused on delivering strong in-market execution, productivity and cost management. I'm incredibly proud of the way our team members around the world have embraced our innovation-led growth agenda and transformation. I'm excited about the opportunities we have ahead to further enhance our momentum. I also want to thank our Board of Directors who are with us on today's call. They have played a key role in overseeing our transformation and are committed to serving our global consumers and driving balanced and sustainable growth to enhance shareholder value. In November, we enhanced our Board with the addition of Joe Romanelli, and we have already begun to leverage Joe's global leadership experience and his health care expertise. With that, I would like to now introduce Grant McGee, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will serve as the Secretary for today's meeting.

Great. Thanks, Mike. For the business portion of the meeting, I will now go over a few housekeeping matters. Today's virtual-only meeting is a live webcast. Through the meeting portal, you will find our agenda and rules of conduct. The portal also has links to our annual report and proxy materials for the meeting. A representative from our Inspector of Election is in attendance today and has confirmed that a quorum is present. If you have not voted or wish to change your vote, you may do so during the meeting through the virtual meeting portal by clicking on the vote icon located in the upper right corner. However, any stockholder who has already voted and does not want to change his or her vote need not take any further action. The polls are now open. We will accept votes until the polls close later in the meeting. [Voting]

[Operator Instructions] We will respond to questions and comments later in the meeting after we close the polls. We have 3 proposals for today's meeting. First, the election of 13 directors; second, the ratification of the selection of our independent auditors; and third, the approval of our compensation for our named executive officers. Each proposal is described in detail in our 2025 proxy statement. Mike, I will now ask for a motion that the 3 proposals listed on the agenda be approved.

Moved.

Right. I second the motion. I would next like to introduce our director nominees who are all in attendance on today's call: Sylvia Burwell, John Culver, Mike Shu, who is our Board Chair; Mae Jemison, Deeptha Khanna, Todd Maclin, Deirdre Mahlan, Sheri McCoy, Christa Quarles, Jaime Ramirez, Joe Romonelli, Dunia Shive and Mark Smucker. Also joining us for this meeting today are representatives of Deloitte & Touche, our independent auditors. Bill McFarland, who is the partner in charge of our 2025 audit, is in attendance today. I now declare that the polls are closed. The inspectors of election have advised me based on the preliminary voting results that all 13 nominees have been elected to our Board and our stockholders have approved the proposals to ratify our independent auditors and approve our executive compensation. We will announce the final voting results in an 8-K to be filed with the SEC within 4 business days of today's meeting. We will now consider any questions that you may have about Kimberly-Clark. It's possible that our responses will include forward-looking statements or financial measures that have not been calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Please see the meeting rules of conduct for more information on these matters. Okay. It looks like we have no questions submitted today on the portal, Mike. So with that, I'll ask you to adjourn the meeting.

Okay. We thank you all for your continued support of Kimberly-Clark. This meeting is adjourned.

Great. Thanks, everyone.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.