Medpace Holdings, Inc. (MEDP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the 2021 Medpace Holdings, Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will now turn the meeting over to Dr. August Troendle.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Good morning. I'm August Troendle, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Medpace, and also Chairman of today's meeting. Pleased to welcome you to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. As you are aware, we are conducting this meeting virtually. I'd also like to acknowledge the following Board members that are attending by telephone: Brian Carley, Fred Davenport, Ashley Keating, Thomas King, Robert Kraft and Neil McCarthy. Officers of the company who are attending by telephone are Jesse Geiger, our Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Laboratory Operations; Susan Burwig, our Executive Vice President, Operations; and Stephen Ewald, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Also present by telephone are Scott Homer and Lance Mall of Deloitte & Touche, our company's independent auditor, who will have the opportunity to respond to appropriate questions, should they come up. All right. I'd like to kick things off by giving quick -- the agenda and the rules of conduct. Agenda for the meeting is displayed on the website. And the rules of conduct are posted as an attachment and are available at that site. So please take a look there. Following the conclusion of my remarks, there will be a brief opportunity for questions about proposals voted upon during this meeting. [Operator Instructions] Okay. Let's kick the meeting off. I'm calling the meeting to order. The meeting has now officially come to order. We will proceed with formal business of the meeting as indicated in the notice of our annual meeting and the company's proxy statement. Okay. Just so everyone is aware, record date for these votes. All stockholders of record at the close of business on March 18, 2021, or holders of a valid proxy, are entitled to vote at the meeting. Inspector of election. [ Tom Schaeffer ] will serve as this meeting's Inspector of election. Todd has signed the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality. We will file his oath with the records of the meeting. And as to quorum, I have been informed that a quorum is present. Therefore, I declare this meeting to be duly constituted for the transaction of business. Okay. On to official business of the meeting. We'll proceed with the formal business. There are 3 proposals to be considered by the stockholders at this meeting, all of which are fully described in the proxy statement, which I assume everyone has reviewed. Proposal one, election of directors. The first item of business is the election of Fred B. Davenport, Jr and Cornelius P. McCarthy III to serve as Class II directors of the company for a term of office expiring at the annual meeting of stockholders held in 2024. The company recommends that stockholders vote for each nominee. Proposal two, ratification of appointment of independent registered public accounting firm. The second item of business is the ratification of the Audit Committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the year ending December 31, 2021. The company recommends the stockholders vote for this proposal. And proposal number three, probably the most controversial of the 3, advisory vote to approve compensation of named executive officers. The third item of business is the approval, on an advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement for the 2021 annual meeting. This proposal is required by the Frank Dodd Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and is referred to as a say on pay vote. The company recommends that stockholders vote for this proposal.

There are no questions or comments at this time.

Okay. There are none? Okay. Just waiting a while. Okay. I'm getting nothing in terms of questions coming in. So we will close the polls at this time. And the time is 9:06 a.m. on May 14, 2021. The polls are now closed for voting. The Inspector of election will count the votes, all of which are subject to final tabulation. All right. For reporting of voting, I can report a few of these. Based on the report of the Inspector of election, Fred B. Davenport Jr and Cornelius P. McCarthy III have each been elected as Class II directors. Deloitte & Touche LLP has been approved as our independent registered public accounting firm for this year. And the third vote, as I said, more controversial, the proposal to approve the compensation of the named executive officers, on an advisory basis, is too close to call at the moment. We're going to have to wait for the final tally of votes on that, and you'll have to get that from our 8-K when it is filed. A final tally of all the votes for all 3 votes will be published within 4 days on a Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So you'd have to wait on that one. And if that's positive, I'll probably see you next year. Otherwise, I think our business is done, and this meeting is now adjourned. I want to thank everyone for attending and your interest in Medpace. Thank you.