Methode Electronics, Inc. (MEI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to Methode Electronics, Inc. 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the call over to Chairman of the Board, Bud Aspatore. You may begin.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of Methode Electronics, Inc. I'm Bud Aspatore, Chairman of the Board of Methode Electronics, and I will be presiding at this meeting. We are pleased to be hosting our annual meeting as a virtual meeting via live webcast on the Internet in order to support the health and well-being of our stockholders and other meeting participants and to provide wide access to our stockholders regardless of their geographic location. We will conduct the meeting in accordance with the rules of conduct that are posted on the meeting website. In order to conduct the meeting -- the business of this meeting in an orderly manner, we ask that all participants follow the meeting rules. Please note that this meeting is being recorded, and a webcast playback of the meeting will be available on the meeting website within 24 hours after the meeting. However, no 1 attending the meeting or viewing the playback is permitted to use any audio or video recording devices. At this time, I would like to introduce our director nominees, all of whom are serving as current company directors and all of whom are attending the meeting today. Dave Blom, Terri Bobek, Brian Cadwallader, Bruce Crowther, Darren Dawson, Don Duda, Janie Goddard, Mary Lindsey, Angelo Pantaleo, Mark Schwabero, Larry Skatoff and myself. As is our custom, we will conduct the median portion of our meeting first, the business portion of the meeting first. After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will provide an opportunity for company management and the Board to respond to general questions that are relevant to the matters at hand. Also attending our meeting today is our guest, Sarah Miller of Ernst & Young, the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Ms. Miller will also be available to answer appropriate questions later in the meeting. Only stockholders of record at close of business on July 19, 2021, may vote or submit a question at the annual meeting. A list of our stockholders as of the record date is available for inspection by our stockholders during the meeting on the meeting website. You will need the 16-digit proxy control number on your proxy notice in order to vote or submit questions. The web portal is now open to accept questions and only questions submitted before the conclusion of the formal business portion of the annual meeting will be addressed. Out of consideration to others, we ask that the stockholders limit themselves to no more than 2 questions each and that all questions be relevant to the business of the company or this annual meeting. Please include your name and organization, if applicable, with the text of your questions. Some of our responses to your questions may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and subject to certain risks and uncertainties as detailed in our SEC filings. We are now ready to proceed with the formal business portion of our meeting. The Board of Directors has appointed Charlie Zade of American Election Services to serve as Inspector of Election for this meeting. Charlie is in attendance at the meeting today, and he has taken and signed an oath of Inspector of Election, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I have been informed by the Inspector of Election that the shares represented by proxy at this meeting are in excess of our quorum requirements and I declare this meeting to be duly convened. The polls for this annual meeting are now open. If you have previously voted by a proxy or do not wish to change your vote, no further action is needed at this time. If you have not previously voted or if you wish to revoke or change your previous vote, you may do so by casting your vote by electronic ballot by clicking on the link to the voting site and the meeting website and following the instructions there. As previously mentioned, you will need your 16-digit proxy control number from your proxy notice to be able to vote. There are 3 proposals to be voted on at today's meeting. In accordance with our bylaws, there are only 3 proposals to be voted on at this meeting, and therefore, additional information regarding each of these proposals is included in our proxy statement dated July 27, 2021. The first proposal before the stockholders is the election of the 12 directors to hold office until the next annual meeting. I have introduced these 12 nominees earlier in the meeting, and biographies for each of the director nominees are included in our proxy statement. The second proposal before the stockholders is the ratification of Ernst & Young to serve as Methode's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2022. And the third proposal before the stockholders is the advisory vote on Executive Officer compensation. We will now pause for an additional minute to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to vote. As previously mentioned, no action is necessary at this time if you do not wish to change your previous vote. You will hear silence while we hold the polls open for an additional minute to complete voting. [Voting]

Thank you. The polls are now closed. Please note that any votes submitted today by electronic ballot are subject to final verification by the Inspector of Election. I will now ask the Inspector of Election to announce the results of the voting. Charlie, please give us your report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to report the voting results of the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Stockholders. As of July 19, 2021, the record date, there were 38,194,209 shares of common stock outstanding. At this meeting, there are 35,665,117 shares of common stock represented by proxy, and a quorum is present for the purposes of this meeting. On the first question, the election of directors, each of the 12 nominees has received the required votes to be elected as a director until the next annual meeting or until their successor is duly elected. On the second question, the ratification of the Audit Committee's selection of Ernst & Young to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2022, Ernst & Young has received the required votes for ratification. And on the third question, the advisory approval of the company's named executive officer compensation, the stockholders have approved on an advisory basis the executive officers' compensation. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my report.

Thank you, Charlie. As I mentioned earlier, any votes cast today by electronic ballot are subject to final verification by the Inspector of Election. The company will report the final vote tallies for all proposals on a Form 8-K to be filed within 4 business days of this annual meeting. Also, as mentioned earlier, we have with us today Sarah Miller of Ernst & Young, our independent registered public accounting firm. Sarah, does Ernst & Young wish to make any statements at this time?

No, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Sarah. This concludes the official business of the meeting, which I hereby declare adjourned. We will now move to the question-and-answer session. With the conclusion of the formal portion of the meeting, the web portal is now being closed for accepting additional questions. At this time, I would like to turn the meeting over to Don Duda, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Don?

Thank you, Bud. Let me first add my welcome to the stockholders attending the annual meeting. I would also like to, at this time, introduce the members of our executive officer team in attendance at the meeting. Dr. Joseph Khoury, Chief Operating Officer; Ron Tsoumas, Chief Financial Officer; Andrea Barry, Chief Human Resources Officer; Kevin Martin, Vice President, North American Operations; Anil Shetty, President of Dabir Surfaces; and Tim Glandon, Vice President. As there are no questions received on the web portal, Bud, that concludes my remarks, and I turn the meeting back over to you.

Thank you, Don. This concludes our question-and-answer session and concludes our annual meeting. Thank you all for attending. And everyone, please have a good day. Thank you very much.