West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (WST) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone, to West Pharmaceutical Services Annual Shareholders Meeting. I am Quintin Lai, Vice President of Corporate Development, Strategy and Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us today for this virtual meeting of the shareholders of West. While we would have preferred to host you in person, given the continued COVID-19 restrictions, this virtual approach continues to be the safest for all of us. Before we begin today, I want to point you to our safe harbor statement. Statements made by management on this call and in the accompanying presentation may contain forward-looking statements. And I refer you to the details on this slide being presented on the virtual meeting portal with Broadridge at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/wst2021, and also available on our website. I also want to take a moment to remind you of the annual meeting rules of conduct, which are summarized on the virtual shareholder meeting portal and also on our website. The polls for voting on the annual meeting proposals, which closed at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight time last night are now reopened. You may vote or change your vote, if you wish, using the online portal. The polls will close on the announcement by Mr. Green. We will now start the meeting, and I now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Eric Green.

Good morning. This is Eric Green. At the request of the Board of Directors, I will act as Chair of this Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I now call the meeting to order in accordance with the notice of the Annual Meeting provided to all the company's shareholders as of the record date. At this point in the proceedings, I would like to virtually welcome our past directors and members of the West family. This virtual meeting format makes it difficult to identify who's attending, but we appreciate your continued support at West. Kimberly MacKay, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, has been appointed Secretary of the meeting; and Ryan Metz, Associate General Counsel, has been appointed the judge of elections. Our directors who are pictured here, all of whom are attending this meeting virtually. I would like to acknowledge the retirement of Dr. Paula Johnson. Dr. Johnson has served on our Board of Directors since 2005. As a valued member, she served as a member of the Innovation and Technology Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and our H.O. West Foundation. On behalf of the Board, the executive management team, shareholders and team members across West, thank you for your contributions and support of our mission to improving health for patients across the globe as well as helping us to expand our scholarship program for children of our team members. You see before you the executive management team of West, all of who are in virtual attendance as well. The newest member of our leadership team is Kimberly Banks MacKay. She joined West in December, succeeding George Miller. Kim serves as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and is responsible for leading the team of experts in the areas of legal and intellectual property, HSE and regulatory affairs. I want to formally welcome Kim to her first West Annual Shareholders Meeting. At this time, I would also like to introduce Bob Fell who's a representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's independent public accounting firm. I will now ask Kim MacKay for the report on the shares present at the meeting. Kim?

Thank you, Eric. Only holders of common stock on the record date are entitled to vote at this meeting. As of the record date, March 9, 2021, 73,850,336 shares of common stock were outstanding. The judge of elections has confirmed that more than 50% of the outstanding shares are present either in person or by proxy, so we do have a quorum. One housekeeping note. On the virtual shareholder meeting portal via hyperlink, we have available for examination by any shareholder or duly designated proxy, several things: the list of shareholders as of the record date; copies of the notice of the meeting; the shareholder meeting rules; the 2021 proxy statement; the company's annual report for the year ended December 31, 2020; and an affidavit that the materials were made available to each shareholder of record.

Thank you, Kim. At this time, we will consider and vote on the items of business on the agenda. After we complete the voting on the outstanding proposals, the meeting will be adjourned. If any shareholder has a question that relates specifically to the items in the proxy and on the agenda, he or she may submit them through the virtual shareholder meeting portal. The first matter to be considered is the election of 10 directors. The nominees are Mark Buthman, Dr. William Feehery, Robert Friel, Thomas Hofmann, Deborah Keller, Dr. Myla Lai-Goldman, Douglas Michels, Paolo Pucci, Patrick Zenner. I'm also honored to be nominated for reelection. Each of the nominees currently serve as a director. No other person has been nominated in accordance with the company's bylaws, so I declare the nominations closed. The second proposal seeks to conduct an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. Details on executive compensation have been set out in detail in the company's proxy statement. The third proposal seeks shareholder ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, as West's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. No questions related to the items on the agenda and in the proxy have been submitted by shareholders or their proxies as of this time. The polls are now closed. We will now hear the report of the Secretary of the meeting regarding the results of the election. Kim?

Thank you, Eric. The voting results are as follows: Each of the director nominees named in the company's proxy statement has received the majority of the votes cast and has been reelected. The second proposal regarding executive compensation and the third proposal ratifying the appointment of PwC have each received the majority of the votes cast and thus have been approved by the shareholders. A full report of today's voting will be filed with the SEC.

Great. Thank you, Kim. Congratulations to the directors and my thanks to all the shareholders for their support. Thank you all for joining us virtually today and for your continued support of West. This concludes the Annual Shareholders Meeting and I declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you.