STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for STAAR Surgical. Our host for today's call is Caren Mason, President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to your host, Caren Mason. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to our annual meeting of shareholders. I am Caren Mason, President and CEO of STAAR Surgical Company and also a member of the Board of Directors. In my capacity as a Director, I will be presiding. I now call to order our 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. This year, we are conducting our annual meeting virtually to support the health and well-being of our shareholders, directors, employees and our communities as we all endeavor to responsibly manage our way through the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope all of you are today and will remain healthy and safe. Now I would like to introduce the other members of the STAAR Surgical Board of Directors who are present today and for whose dedicated service we are most grateful: Stephen Farrell, Thomas Frinzi, Dr. Gilbert Kliman; John Moore; and Louis Silverman. Also present today is Carla Freeman from BDO, which serves as STAAR's certified public accounting firm of record. Let's move forward to the shareholder voting. Our Corporate Secretary and Chief Legal Officer, Sam Gesten, will lead us through this portion of our agenda.

Thank you, Caren. Good morning, everyone. The agenda for today's meeting, the rules of conduct and the shareholder list are available online in the virtual meeting room. Our transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust, compiled and certified a list of stockholders as of June 1, 2020, which is the record date for this meeting. The list has been available for review at our corporate headquarters and is available online. Broadridge Financial Solutions has been counting our votes and has certified that as of the beginning of this meeting, we had received proxies to vote more than half of the shares of common stock outstanding as of the record date. That constitutes a quorum, so I declare this meeting lawfully convened. Deborah Andrews has been appointed inspector of election. We provided notice of the annual meeting and made the proxy statement available to shareholders commencing on June 8, 2020. Additional copies are available online at the virtual meeting room site. Most shareholders have already voted by proxy. At this time, any shareholders that are logged in and who have not already submitted a proxy and who want to revoke a proxy or to vote by ballot may do so by clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen. If you've already voted by proxy and do not wish to change your vote, please do not vote by ballot. At the end of the voting, the inspector of election will tabulate and certify the vote. We have 4 items of business today, which are described in the proxy statement previously made available. Proposal number one is the election of the Board of Directors for the coming year. Board of Directors has nominated the following 6 persons for election as directors to hold office for terms to expire in 2021 or until their successors have been appointed and qualified: Stephen Farrell, Thomas Frinzi, Dr. Gilbert Kliman, Caren Mason, John Moore and Louis Silverman. Proposal number two is to approve an amended and restated Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares reserved for issuance by 2.65 million, which is described in the proxy statement. Proposal number three is to ratify the Board of Directors' appointment of BDO USA as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending January 1, 2021. Proposal number four is an advisory vote to approve STAAR's compensation for its named executive officers. We will now proceed with the voting for all proposals. While we allow time for shareholders, who haven't already done so, to complete their voting, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements made at this meeting may be considered forward-looking. Company cautions investors that results of future operations may differ from those anticipated. We urge you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2019 and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2020, which identifies certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made during this meeting. Copies of the 10-K and 10-Q and other filings are available through the company or online at our corporate website. Now Caren Mason will introduce STAAR's executive management team who are attending the meeting virtually this morning.

Thank you, Sam. I am pleased to introduce our executive management team, who, along with the entire STAAR team, have delivered excellent results, enabling strong total shareholder returns and who are excited about continuing to do so in the future. Dr. Scott Barnes, Chief Medical Officer; Hans Blickensdoerfer, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Direct markets in Europe and China; Rex Chandler, Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing; David Choromanski, Vice President, Global Consumer and Product Marketing; Kip Crecca, Vice President, Sales, North America; Jim Francese, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, North America and Asia Pacific; Dr. David Fries, Vice President, North America Clinical Strategy and Professional Affairs; Dr. Linna Fu, Vice President and General Manager, China and Hong Kong Operations; William Goodmen, Vice President, Global Human Resources; Graydon Hansen, Chief Manufacturing Officer and Vice President of Global Operations; Dr. Jon Hayashida, Vice President, Global Clinical and Medical Affairs; Dr. Keith Holliday, Chief Technology Officer; Surindra Mann, Vice President, Global Financial Planning and Analysis; Denise McEachern, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance; Brian Moore, Vice President, Investor, Media Relations and Corporate Development; Leo Mulder, Vice President, Global Distributor Operations; Philippe Subrin, Vice President and General Manager, Nidau Operations; Robert Studholme, Vice President, Global Quality; and Patrick Williams, Chief Financial Officer. Sam?

Thank you, Caren. At this point, the polls are closed. Based on the preliminary results, I am pleased to report that each of the nominees were elected by a majority of the shares represented at this meeting, and each of the proposals was approved by our shareholders. The final tabulation of these votes will appear in our required current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Caren?

As there is no other formal business to be addressed at the meeting and there are no questions, I now declare this meeting formally adjourned and all matters before it closed. Thank you again for your interest and investment in STAAR Surgical and for joining us today. We will continue to work to deliver excellent results and strong financial performance. Take good care.

This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining. And have a pleasant day.