The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (IPG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Interpublic Group of Companies. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to David Thomas, Chairman of the Board. Mr. Thomas, the floor is yours.

Thank you, and good morning, and welcome to our virtual Annual Stockholder Meeting. I am David Thomas, Chairman of the Board. Participating this morning are Philippe Krakowsky, our Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors; Ellen Johnson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Andrew Bonzani, Executive Vice President and General Counsel; Robert Dobson, Senior Vice President and Secretary. Also participating today are the independent members of our Board of Directors, all of whom are standing for reelection. They are Jocelyn Carter-Miller, Mary Steele Guilfoile, Chairman of MG Advisors; Dawn Hudson, former Chief Marketing Officer for the National Football League; Jonathan Miller, Chief Executive Officer of Integrated Media; Patrick Moore, former Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Carter's; Linda Sanford, Former Senior Vice President of Enterprise Transformation at IBM; and Lee Wyatt, former Chief Financial Officer of Fortune Brands Home & Security. Also in attendance are members of Computershare Shareholder Services, who are appointed as inspectors of election to count the votes and to certify the results of the voting. The Secretary reports that the holders of over 91% of the outstanding shares of common stock are present or represented by proxy, a quorum is then -- since therefore present, and we can conduct our business. You may submit questions online by clicking on the dialogue icon in the upper right corner of the meeting center screen. We will dispense with the reading of the minutes of the 2022 Annual Meeting and will now move forward with the proposals set forth in our proxy statement. If you need a copy of the 2022 Annual Report or the proxy statement, the link to the annual meeting materials is provided online. If you have not yet voted or wish to change your vote, I encourage you to do so now by clicking on the cast your vote link. The polls will remain open until the end of the meeting. I will now turn the meeting over to Philippe Krakowsky, our Chief Executive Officer. Philippe?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to first inform stockholders that you can find webcasts of our earnings call announcing both the year-end 2022 and first quarter 2023 results on the Investor Relations page of our website. Moving on to the items of business for the meeting. First is the election of the directors to serve until the Annual Meeting of Stockholders in 2024. Information about our directors standing for reelection appears on Pages 5 through 8 of our proxy statement. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent public accounting firm of the corporation for 2023. That appears on Page 27 of our proxy statement. The third item of business is the advisory stockholder vote on the compensation paid to Interpublic's named executive officers, appearing on Page 29 of our proxy statement. And the fourth item of business is the advisory stockholder vote on the frequency of the advisory vote on the compensation paid to Interpublic's named executive officers. That appears on Page 30 of our proxy statement. Now that we've presented the proposals, we will address any questions on the proposals raised by the Secretary. Mr. Secretary?

Mr. Krakowsky, there are no questions to be raised at this time.

Okay. The final item of business is the stockholder proposal requesting that the corporation adopt a policy providing for an independent Chairman of the Board. Is the stockholder or the stockholders' representative present to make a statement in support of this proposal.

Yes, one moment.

And if that person could give us their name and then deliver the resolution, please?

And stockholder, your line is open.