Seres Therapeutics, Inc. (MCRB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tom DesRosier, Executive Vice President.

Good morning. This is Caroline Holda. I'm going to take over as I don't hear Tom's voice. I am the Assistant Secretary and Assistant General Counsel of Seres Therapeutics and the Deputy Chairperson of today's meeting. I'm very happy to welcome you to our 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which we are holding virtually in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the meeting is called to order, I'd like to introduce you to the members of the Board and the other Executive Officers of the company who are on the webcast today. From the Board, we have Eric Shaff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seres; Stephen Berenson, Chairman of the Board; Dennis Ausiello; Grégory Behar; Paul Biondi; Willard Dere; Kurt Graves; Richard Kender; and Meryl Zausner. From the company, we also have John Aunins, our Chief Technology Officer; Matt Henn, our Chief Scientific Officer; Lisa von Moltke, our Chief Medical Officer; and me. We also have on the line Mr. Mark Barsanti of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's independent auditor, who is available to respond to appropriate questions via the question-and-answer function on the Annual Meeting web page; and Francis Aaron, a representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions, who will serve as the inspector of election at today's meeting. I now call the meeting to order. We will proceed with the formal business of the meeting as indicated in the notice of the annual meeting and the company's proxy statement. The polls opened today, June 18, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time for voting on all matters before the meeting. If you have not already voted and wish to do so, the polls will remain open until we finish presenting the proposals and close the polls. You do not need to vote during the meeting if you have already voted and do not wish to change your vote. On the virtual meeting web page, you will find the agenda for the meeting. You will also find the rules of conduct for today's meeting. Please review these rules carefully. Note that only stockholders who are logged into the meeting, using their 16-digit control number, will be able to vote and submit questions at today's meeting. The secretary of the meeting will file the proof of mailing of notice of the meeting with the records of the meeting. All stockholders of record at the close of business on April 21, 2020 or holders of a valid proxy are entitled to vote at today's meeting. The inspector of election has a complete list of the holders of record of the company's common stock on the record date for the meeting. And for stockholders who have entered a valid 16-digit control number, the stockholder list is also available during this meeting on the bottom panel of your screen. The inspector of election, Mr. Aaron, has signed the customary oath of office to execute his duties with strict impartiality. We will file this oath with the records of the meeting. There were 72,212,602 shares of common stock held of record on April 21, 2020. A majority of these shares are necessary for a quorum, and Mr. Aaron has informed me that more than a majority of the shares are represented at this meeting online or by proxy. I, therefore, declare that a quorum is present. So we can now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. There are 2 items of business to be considered by stockholders for today's meeting. The Board recommends that the shareholders vote for each of these proposals. The first item of business is the election of Stephen Berenson, Richard Kender and Meryl Zausner to serve as Class II directors for a term ending in 2023. The second item of business is the ratification of the Audit Committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent auditor for 2020. That was the final item of business for today's meeting. If you wish to vote and you haven't already, please vote now by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions. You do not need to vote electronically if you have already sent in your signed proxy or if you have voted by telephone or Internet. We will pause for approximately 30 seconds before closing the polls. [Voting]

The time is now 8:05 a.m. on June 18, 2020, and the polls are now closed for voting. The inspector of election will count the votes. The final tally of votes will be published within 4 days on the current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on the preliminary report of the inspector of election, Stephen Berenson, Richard Kender and Meryl Zausner have been elected as Class II directors; and the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as our independent auditor for 2020 has been ratified. The final report of the inspector of election will be kept with the company's records of the annual meeting, and the final tally of votes will be published within 4 days in the current report on Form 8-K. The meeting is now adjourned. I want to thank you for participating and for your interest in Seres Therapeutics. We will now move to the final topic on the agenda, question and answers. Please note that we are only answering questions that are within the rules of conduct and only stockholders who have logged into the meeting using their 16-digit control number are able to submit the questions through the questions area of the web portal. There are no questions that have been -- Hi, Tom.

I'm sorry, I lost you, Caroline.

We have arrived at the question-and-answer portion, and there are no questions that have been submitted.

Well, thank you, Caroline, for jumping in there. I apologize for losing my connection. And in closing, we'd like to thank all of our stockholders and everyone on the line today for your interest in the affairs of Seres Therapeutics. This concludes our annual meeting.