Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 Annual General Meeting of Redbubble Limited. The company secretary has informed me that we have a quorum present. I therefore declare this annual general meeting of Redbubble open. My name is Anne Ward, and I'm delighted to address this meeting as your Chairman. I would like to take this opportunity for thanking all of you for taking the time to attend today's meeting. Your support and interest in the company's affairs are appreciated by the board. Before we begin, two housekeeping matters. Firstly, if you haven't already done so, please switch your mobile phone to silent. Secondly, in the unlikely event there's an emergency, we ask for you to remain calm and follow the instructions of the staff, who will tell us what we need to do.
I would now like to introduce my fellow directors, all of whom are present today. Firstly, Group CEO and Managing Director, Martin Hosking, and Non-Executive Directors, Ben Heap, Greg Lockwood, Jenny Macdonald, and Bob Sherwin. Also present at today's meeting is the Group's Chief Financial Officer, Rob Doyle. Our Company Secretary, Carly Hodges, and our Audit Partner, Ashley Butler of Ernst & Young. Representatives from our share registry, Link Market Services, are also present and will be acting as Returning Officer and Scrutineer for today's meeting. As I'm sure you're all aware, the board appointed Martin Hosking as Group CEO and Managing Director in March this year, following the resignation of Michael Ilczynski.
When Michael decided to leave the company, we were in the fortunate position that Martin, the group's largest shareholder, co-founder, and former CEO, was available and was willing to take on the position on a long-term, permanent basis. Martin has an impressive track record as CEO, generating significant shareholder value, and we are delighted that he accepted the position. Martin is the right person to lead Redbubble Group going forward. I would also like to acknowledge Jenny Macdonald, who is retiring from the board at the end of this meeting. Jenny has been a director for the past five and a half years and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee since 2019. I would like to thank Jenny for her many contributions and wish her all the best for her future endeavors. We have recently commenced a process of board renewal.
As part of this process, we intend for an additional director to step down in early 2024 and for 2 new directors to join the board, including Bob Sherwin, who is standing for election today. That will mean that by the end of this current financial year, in June 2024, half of the board will be new, and we have commenced the formal process to identify suitable candidates. Now, before we begin with the formal part of the meeting, I'll start with my chairman's address. I will then invite Martin Hosking to provide an update on the company's recent performance and explain more about our plans for FY 2024. If you have any questions, please hold off until after Martin's presentation. We will have time for questions in relation to each item of business.
It has been a year of change for the group as we made a number of necessary adjustments to our strategy to reflect our evolving operating environment. At the beginning of the 2023 financial year, we increased our investment in the group. Some of this investment was directed at improving our systems and technology platforms to build resilience and capacity after the period of rapid growth in sales and content during the pandemic. Like many e-commerce companies, we also experienced a dramatic increase in low-value, low-quality content after the COVID pandemic, for which, which for Redbubble, was exacerbated by the open architecture of our platform. We undertook significant work to tend the marketplace by deploying new tools to identify and remove this content and the accounts most likely to upload it.
This included putting in place friction in the account sign-up process to discourage low-quality or risky accounts and helps us prevent non-additive and fraudulent content being uploaded to the marketplace. Other investment initiatives were more speculative, as we, like many other e-commerce companies, expected higher levels of demand observed during the COVID-19 pandemic to plateau. Unfortunately, in the period that followed, trading conditions, particularly in the United States, became more challenging and demand declined. As a result, the group's cost base was out of step with its revenue, and it became apparent that we needed to curtail our level of investment to return to profitability. In the second half of the financial year, the board responded with significant adjustments to strategy and to the group's cost base to enable us to achieve that goal.
We oversaw a detailed review of the group's operations, which led to a narrowing of priorities and a sharp focus on those things that we expected would drive absolute profit and margin improvement in the shorter term. Martin will speak about some of these initiatives, including the introduction of artist account fees, in a few minutes. Pleasingly, we can already see the benefit from a number of these initiatives in the group's recent financial performance. Our first quarter gross profit after paid acquisition margin was 28%, a 500 basis point improvement on the prior corresponding period. We reduced the group's operating expenditure by AUD 45 million on an annualized basis. Through this process, we were careful to ensure that the group retained sufficient capability to deliver our priority initiatives, achieve a return to growth, and position the group for long-term success.
Due to the improvement in margins as well as the cost base reduction, the group delivered positive underlying cash flow in the first quarter and is on track to deliver positive underlying cash flow for the whole financial year. We also restructured the group to more clearly define the parent entity and the two operating business units, Redbubble and TeePublic. The new structure enables each marketplace to focus on their strengths and unique value propositions whilst leveraging the group's expertise and resources. We can also more clearly monitor the financial performance of each marketplace to ensure they are both operating profitably and sharing group costs. We are seeking approval at this meeting to change the group's name to Articore Group to finalize this change in structure.
While the group has gone through a challenging period and had to make some significant adjustments to strategy, we remain confident in the very significant opportunity for growth which lies ahead. The group comprises two well-established marketplaces. The differences between the two businesses enable artists to reach different customer segments, while their similarities facilitate learnings and provide opportunities for economies of scale. In FY 2023, approximately 650,000 artists sold at least one product on the Redbubble marketplace, and 5 million customers bought a product from an artist. 4.8 million designs were sold on at least one product. The target market for Redbubble marketplace is Gen Z households, 12- to 25-year-olds and their parents.
Although TeePublic remains a smaller marketplace than Redbubble, it has been on a significant growth trajectory since being acquired by the group in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate of 36% over this period. In FY 2023, 115,000 artists sold at least one product on the TeePublic marketplace, and 2.5 million customers bought a product from an artist. 1.4 million designs were sold on at least one product. TeePublic has a very clear target demographic, Gen Y, 26- to 40-year-olds, and its revenue is highly concentrated around apparel sales to U.S. consumers. Now, the group is a truly global company, with 71% of sales generated in North America, 22% in Europe, and 6% in Australia and New Zealand.
Currently, 32 third-party fulfillers participate in our marketplaces, and they print products at 50 different fulfillment sites around the world. This global network of third-party fulfillers is a key strategic asset for the group. While Redbubble and TeePublic marketplaces are not operationally integrated, we have been able to use the combined scale of both marketplaces to negotiate favorable fulfiller pricing and other cost savings that can be passed on to artists and their customers. Despite the challenges we faced in FY 2023, our commitment to ESG has been steadfast. Our ESG targets, shown on the slide, are aligned with the expectations of artists, their customers, our employees, and importantly, our shareholders, and are expected to drive commercial outcomes now and into the future. Providing marketplaces for artists to monetize their art remains the cornerstone of our business.
In FY 2023, artists earned $86 million on our marketplaces. We are also focused on reducing our environmental footprint. In FY 2023, we started measuring our emissions using Climate Neutral's Brand Emissions Estimator tool. We are now developing a glide path to net zero, which will identify ways to decarbonize based on the most significant drivers and most realistic opportunities. We remain committed to fostering gender diversity across the group. During the year, we signed the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles. These principles tie to our two ESG commitments on gender diversity to maintain 40% or greater representation of women in senior leadership across the group and to maintain zero gender-based salary discrepancies across the group. I'm pleased to say we achieved both of these goals in FY 2023.
I will now pass over to Martin Hosking to present a more detailed overview of the group's operations in the financial year and to provide an update of our plans for the year ahead.
Thank you, Anne. I am pleased to have the opportunity to present to shareholders today. I've met with a number of you since I have returned, and I would like to thank you for your support. I was delighted to have been appointed Group CEO during the year and have made clear that I intend to hold this position for the foreseeable future. What we have accomplished in the last six months is significant, but this is really just the beginning, and I'm energized and excited about what's next for the group. As Anne mentioned, we have restructured the group to more clearly define the group function and the two operating marketplaces, Redbubble and TeePublic. As part of this change, we've also formed a new group leadership team, who are highlighted on this slide. Rob Doyle is the group's Chief Financial Officer.
He joined the group, coincidentally, on my first day as Group CEO and has been instrumental in stabilizing the group's financial position. Rob was previously the CFO of Domain Group, an S&P/ASX 200 company, which operates a leading property marketplace in Australia. Meagan Callahan , our Chief People and Culture Officer, has been with the group for two years. Marian has extensive experience leading global P&C functions and has held similar positions at SEEK and Afterpay. James Toy, our General Counsel, joined the group in 2014, and has held a number of leadership roles since then. James brings more than 15 years of experience advising high-growth tech companies, and he has been instrumental in managing legal risk across all the group's global businesses and markets. We then have the CEOs of each of the two marketplaces.
Vivek Kumar is CEO of TeePublic. Vivek joined the group in 2022, taking over from Adam Schwartz, a co-founder of TeePublic. He has more than 20 years of experience in e-commerce in the United States. And finally, Adam Crouch, the CEO of the Redbubble marketplace. Adam joined the group at the end of September. Adam, most recently, was at Poshmark. Prior to this, he held US and global e-commerce leadership roles at Volvo Cars, Walgreens, and Claire's. In hindsight, not having an individual based in the US to lead the Redbubble marketplace was a mistake, which we have now addressed. James, Vivek, and Adam are all based in the United States, and Rob, Marian, and myself are all located here in Australia. On the next slide is an overview of the group's FY23 results.
Also highlighted are our first quarter FY 2024 results, as this better demonstrates the substantial improvement we have made to our financial position over the last six months. My first priority since being appointed Group CEO was returning the group to positive underlying cash flow. By focusing on a narrow set of priorities, as Anne highlighted, we have driven significant margin improvement. This improvement, coupled with continuing strong cash discipline, has enabled the group to deliver positive underlying cash flow in the first quarter. This was a particularly strong feat, as the first quarter is a seasonally low revenue period and gives us confidence that we are on track to deliver positive underlying cash flow for FY 2024. I'll provide more information on the initiatives that drive this improvement and our cost reduction efforts on the following slides.
While there have been a number of changes this year, our focus on ensuring the flywheel is operating efficiently remains core. This is critical for our marketplaces to be successful long term. As the operator of the marketplace, our role is to tend the marketplace to make sure it stays in balance, which will benefit all participants. As mentioned, we have narrowed our focus to a smaller number of priorities that will drive profitable growth. This is done by improving the flywheel through more relevant content, a better consumer experience, and higher margins, ultimately increasing sales by artists. The last few years have taught us that driving a flywheel comes from a focus on a small number of things that matter most to artists and customers. The next slide provides an overview of the key initiatives we have implemented on the Redbubble marketplace in FY 2023.
We've been particularly focused on improving the overall quality of the content that is uploaded to the marketplace. To achieve this, we added more friction as a group to the artist sign-up process to prevent content from low-quality accounts from ever appearing on the marketplace. We also introduced artist account tiers and associated fees for some accounts. This initiative was designed to encourage the uploading of additive content to the marketplace and recognize and reward artists who invest time creating unique products that the consumers love. The combined impact of these initiatives on the marketplace is highlighted by the graph on the right-hand side of this slide. The blue line depicts content being uploaded onto the marketplace. As you can see, it has reduced significantly, as it is now in line with historical averages.
It's important to note that there is still lots of new content coming onto the markets, onto the site every day. However, the quality of the content has dramatically improved, with approximately 40% of the content being generated by pro and premium accounts. Pleasingly, this improvement has been maintained over the past few months. In addition to improving the quality of the content uploaded to the marketplace, we made a number of other improvements to customer experience. Ensuring customers are able to find the content that appeals to them is vital for Flywheel to effectively operate. This includes increasingly using AI to improve search and discovery, and optimizing our most frequently visited pages. We've also been focused on optimizing the Redbubble Marketplace's supply chain. In March, we launched a dynamic order routing system in the United States.
For each order, the system automatically selects the lowest cost fulfillment and shipping option that will reach the customer by the promised delivery date. This system also provides greater transparency to fulfillers about how orders are routed based on this, on their speed, product quality, and cost. This has led to fulfillers reducing their pricing to increase the amount of volume, and that our platforms, software routes, right, routes to their site. TeePublic also rolled out a number of enhancements across the flywheel. We've been attracting new customers for artists through search engine optimization and driving growth in customer retention through the use of more targeted marketing campaigns. Optimizing how the third-party supply chain functions has been an ongoing focus, which led to increased order volume being routed to more cost-effective fulfillers and the swapping of blank products for cheaper options where possible, without compromising quality.
We've also introduced artist account categories to the TeePublic Marketplace. Although the concept was similar to the initiative that was implemented on the Redbubble Marketplace, there are subtle differences, as each marketplace has implemented a version that is best suited to their marketplace participants. The initiatives across both of our marketplaces, which I have highlighted today, have driven a significant uplift in each of their gross profits, as well as the overall group gross profit in the first quarter of FY 2024. This, combined with a continued focus on optimizing our paid marketing spend, has driven an increase in the group's GPAPA margin, as highlighted by the graph on this slide. The GPAPA margin for the first quarter was 28%.
This is broadly in line with our first quarter margin in FY 20, and 300 basis points higher than our historical average. In the second half of the year, we implemented a number of cost-saving measures to rightsize our cost base. The savings identified fall into three categories: cost of doing business, brand, and people. To lower the cost of doing business, the senior team reviewed all contracts in place. This led to a significant cost savings across the business, with substantial reduction in the cost of website hosting and software. In January, the group announced that the brand awareness project would be suspended as the group no longer expected it to deliver a commensurate financial return. Finally, we have had to make a number of difficult decisions related to our employees.
This was a considered process to ensure that we maintain capability to deliver on our priorities and position the group for growth. Collectively, these reductions have lowered the group's cost base by approximately AUD 45 million on an annualized basis. The improvement in GPAPA, alongside the reduction in our operating expenditure, has enabled us to deliver positive underlying cash flow in the first quarter of FY 2024, and shows we're on track to deliver this for the full year. Pleasingly, both marketplaces were underlying cash flow positive in the first quarter of FY 2024, and delivered GPAPA growth in that quarter. While there is no hiding from the significant amount of cash usage over the past few years, we are pleased that we are starting to see our cash balance grow. This brings us to our guidance for FY 2024.
The group continues to expect trading conditions to remain soft in key markets in the near term. In this environment, we will remain focused on optimizing cost of goods sold, promotions, and paid marketing activities to maximize GPAPA. The group reaffirms... Excuse me. The group reaffirms its FY 2024 guidance. It expects its FY 2024 GPAPA margin to be between 23% and 28% and 26%, and its FY 2024 operating expenditure to between AUD 92 million-AUD 100 million. After achieving positive underlying cash flow in the first quarter of FY 2024, the group is on track to deliver positive underlying cash flow for FY 2024. Excuse me. We'll have more to say about our longer-term strategy in February, but I wanted to give you a taste of our current thinking. The first phase is what we've just completed.
As outlined throughout this presentation, we've made significant progress to strengthen the foundation of the group's two operating companies, Redbubble and TeePublic. We're now moving into phase two and shifting our focus to delivering sustainable, profitable revenue growth in our existing operating companies. This is essential for the longer-term success of the business. We are confident that we can do this, and the team in place and the current level of resources. We're also starting to consider adding new operating companies that leverage and add to the group's assets and capabilities, including the global fulfillment network, the artist space, and technology and marketing expertise. ... This could be both through organic or inorganic opportunities. Restructuring the group is a first step to facilitate this potential expansion.
An example of a new vertical is a marketplace focused on a new product category that leverages the group's content library. In hindsight, the pets category may have performed better if it was a separate marketplace, as the customers who shop on the Redbubble marketplace are not necessarily those who are looking for pet products. Once we have proven this concept, there are a number of opportunities that we can explore. We see ourselves as the owner of companies that contribute to the global creative economic ecosystem and are focused on this space. I'll now hand back to Anne to oversee the formal part of the meeting.
Thank you, Martin, and I'm glad your voice held out only just. Martin's recovering from a recent bout of COVID. This now brings us to the formal part of the meeting. There are nine resolutions to be discussed today, which have been listed in the notice of meeting. Resolution nine is a contingent resolution, which will only be put to shareholders subject to the outcome of resolution one. The notice of meeting was sent to shareholders in September, and I will take it as read. Before we consider the items of business, there are a number of procedural matters which I wish to draw to your attention. All items of business will be voted on by poll. To vote at this meeting, you need to have registered your shareholding with the share registry, Link Market Services.
For those of you attending virtually, if you haven't already done so, please follow the online instructions to vote during the meeting. For those of you present in the room, the poll will be conducted at the end of the meeting after each resolution has been put to the meeting for questions. For online participants, in order to provide you with enough time to vote, I now declare that voting is open for all resolutions. I will give you a warning before voting closes at the end of the meeting. Where undirected proxies have been given to me as chair, I intend to vote all of those in accordance with the recommendations set out in the notice of meeting, being in favor of resolutions 1-3 and 5-8, and against resolution 4 and resolution 9, if it is put to shareholders.
Any directed proxies that are not voted at the meeting will automatically default to me as chair of the meeting, and I'm required to vote those proxies as directed. During the meeting, we will display the number of votes. Sorry, the number of direct and proxy votes that were received on each resolution prior to the meeting. Any voting restrictions have been set out in the notice of meeting. The final results will be released to the market on the company's ASX platform after the meeting. Only shareholders, their attorneys, proxies, and authorized company representatives are entitled to ask questions and vote at the meeting. For the attendees present today, if you are entitled to speak and vote at the meeting, you will have received a yellow admission card on registration.
If you are entitled to speak but not vote, you will have received a blue admission card. If you are attending as a visitor and not entitled to speak or vote, you will have received a red admission card. For those present today, if you wish to ask a question, please raise your yellow or blue admission card. Please limit yourself to one question at a time to give other shareholders a chance to be heard. For those attending the meeting virtually, please follow the instructions on your screen. We have no shareholders registered to attend by phone. Virtual participants can submit questions at any time from now by using the button on your screen to type your question. We'll address questions as we come to the relevant resolution during the course of the next few minutes.
Questions may be moderated, or if we receive more than one question on the same topic, they may be combined. Now, the first item on the agenda is to receive and consider the annual report of the company, including the financial statements and the auditor's report for the year ending 30 June 2023. This item does not require a resolution to be put to the meeting, but does provide an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. The company's auditor, Mr. Ashley Butler from Ernst & Young, is available to address questions in relation to the conduct of the audit or the content of the audit report. Any questions to the auditor should be directed to me as Chair in the first instance. Are there any questions on the financial statements and reports? I see no questions in the room. Carly, have we received any questions online?
No online.
No online questions. Thank you. As there are no questions on that item of business, I will move on to the first resolution. The first resolution is a non-binding advisory vote for the adoption of the remuneration report for the financial year ended 30 June 2023. The remuneration report is contained in the annual report, which is available on the company's website. It includes details of the company's policy on the remuneration of directors and executives, a discussion of the relationship between that policy and company performance, and details of the performance conditions associated with the remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer and other executives. The company received a first strike against the issue of remuneration report at the annual general meeting last year.
If 25% or more of eligible votes cast on Resolution One are against, then the Contingency Spill Meeting Resolution at Resolution Nine will be put to shareholders. Following the first strike last year, members of the board met with a number of shareholders to understand why they voted against the remuneration report. Shareholders generally indicated that their concerns were largely unrelated to remuneration, but reflected broader frustrations with the group's performance. As highlighted earlier, the group has undertaken a number of initiatives in the second half of FY 2023 to address the group's financial position. We did receive some feedback that some shareholders would prefer the base equity component of executive remuneration to be more in line with the traditional short-term incentive or STI scheme, where vesting is aligned to the group's financial performance and paid as a cash award.
This feedback has been taken on board and incorporated into the current financial year executive remuneration structure. As stated in the notice of meeting, Resolution One is advisory and a non-binding resolution, although again, the board will take feedback on this resolution into account when we're considering the future remuneration arrangements for the Company. The resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen. Are there any questions on this resolution? There's no questions in the room. Carly, have we received any questions online?
No, no online questions.
No online questions. So if there are no questions, I will now move to the next item of business. This next resolution relates to my re-election. I will make a few comments on this resolution and then pass over to Ben Heap, Chair of the People, Remuneration and Nomination Committee, to chair this part of the meeting. Today, I am seeking your support to be re-elected to the board of Redbubble as a non-executive director. I became a director of the company in March 2018, and I have been chair since March 2020. In addition to chairing the Redbubble board, I am currently the chairman of ASX-listed Symbio Holdings and a director of the Star Entertainment Group, amongst other roles. The past few years for Redbubble have been challenging.
The rapid growth during the COVID years brought a swift acceleration in demand, but also delivered massive challenges for the company. We anticipated that the higher revenue levels would plateau, and we invested heavily in the work necessary to digest the significant uptick in demand, whilst also addressing the equally rapid growth in fraudulent accounts and poor quality content. In hindsight, the board and the leadership team made mistakes for which we take accountability, but we also made important investments and decisions to ensure that the group would not only survive but thrive into the future. As chairman of the board, I accept responsibility for the mistakes which were made, but I also take pride in the decisions we have made during 2023 to turn this around.
Principal amongst these decisions was the conviction we had that returning Martin Hosking as CEO would take the company forward. I am very pleased that Martin agreed, and the board I lead unanimously supports Martin and his strategy to build shareholder value. We have already seen major reforms in strategy, leadership, operations, and structure. Given the challenges we have faced and the tenure of some board members, it is also appropriate to embark on a process of board renewal. I am seeking your support today to be re-elected as a director and to continue to serve as chairman in order to lead that process of renewal. I do not expect to serve out the full term of three years, as I would anticipate the board will appoint a new chairman, and I will step down at some stage during this period.
If I am re-elected today, I will continue to apply my skills, knowledge, and experience to make a positive contribution to the future success of Redbubble. I remain committed to helping the group achieve its long-term potential and delivering value for all shareholders. Thank you. I will now pass over to Ben.
Thanks, Anne. Resolution Two. Resolution Two seeks shareholder approval to re-elect Anne Ward as a non-executive chair. Details of the resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen. The board, other than Anne, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on the resolution? As there are no questions, I'll now check online, Carly. No online questions.
I don't understand.
None either from my Siri Watch. As there are no further questions, I'll now pass back to Anne to chair the rest of the meeting.
Thank you, Ben. Resolution Three seeks shareholder approval to elect Non-Executive Director Bob Sherwin. I will now pass over to Bob to say a few remarks.
... Thank you, Anne. My name is Bob Sherwin, and I'm delighted to be here today and have the opportunity to address the group shareholders. I was approached about joining the board a year ago based on my 20 years experience helping grow and build enduring organizations. I spent 10 years as a strategy consultant at IBM and McKinsey doing just this, and most recently spent 10 years at Wayfair, where I was the Chief Marketing Officer. Wayfair is one of the world's largest online destinations for home furnishings, housewares, and home improvement goods. During my tenure, sales increased by more than 20 times, from $500 million to over $12 billion in direct revenue, and it is now a household name in the North American and UK markets.
Similar to Redbubble, it is a marketplace with over 20,000 suppliers and over 20 million products on the site. I recently left Wayfair to focus on consulting, board work, and investing. I'm very excited to be here today and have the opportunity to leverage my direct experience from McKinsey and Wayfair to help the board and Redbubble Group's leadership team create significant long-term shareholder value. Thank you.
Thank you, Bob. Details of the resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen. The board, other than Bob, recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions in relation to Bob's sorry, Bob's election to the board? Any questions online? No. Thank you. Then we will move on to resolution four. Resolution four relates to the election of a non-board endorsed director nominee, Michael McConnell. As I mentioned earlier, the board has commenced the formal process to identify suitable candidates to join the board and replace the two directors who will be standing down in the near term. After considering the skills and experience of Mr. McConnell, the board unanimously agrees that Mr. McConnell does not offer relevant skills or experience required at this time to support his reappointment as a director of the company. Mr.
McConnell is joining the meeting by phone, and I have offered Mr. McConnell the opportunity to briefly address the meeting in relation to this nomination. Please go ahead, Mr. McConnell. Do we have Mr. McConnell on the phone?
Hello.
Hello, Michael.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we can hear you. So I'll, I'll ask you now to make some brief remarks in relation to your nomination.
Okay. Thank you, Anne, and good afternoon, everybody. Most shareholders would agree that Redbubble has struggled for its seven years as a publicly listed company. The stock is trading at a 60% discount to its IPO price. Financial performance has been poor, with losses in seven of the last eight years. The company has had five CEOs in five years. Strategy appears reactive rather than intentional, and most recently, the company reported a revenue decline of 6% year-over-year. I doubt this was the plan. I believe that the root causes and responsibilities for these struggles sits with the board. Collectively, the group has limited experience as public company directors, and this inexperience shows.
The primary responsibilities of a board are to hire and retain leadership, develop a value-creating strategy, implement best practices in governance, notably in the area of compensation, and most importantly, to hold themselves and the managers accountable. In my interactions over nearly two years with certain members of the board, my impression has been the following: Nothing is their fault. They see themselves as victims of circumstance, acting as observers rather than principals. They've been unable to describe lessons learned. They've been slow to recognize failures of strategy and execution and shown a reluctance to share consistent operating metrics. These are hallmarks of a fragile culture with a problematic tone at the top. If this board is not responsible for the current situation, then who is?
I believe ISS and Glass Lewis, both highly respected proxy advisory organizations, gold standards, recognize the myriad of red flags that exist at this company. Moreover, they understand the potential benefits of a truly independent and experienced outside director inside a boardroom, and accordingly, they endorsed my election as a non-executive director. I believe that my background, experience, and skills could be of use in this situation. Why? During 30 years in business, I've been an investor of institutional capital, a CEO at public company 4 times, and a director of 20 public companies, 14 of which were publicly traded. The most important lessons I've learned over my career have to do with the intangibles, such as the following: Check your ego and emotions at the door. Let the right data lead you to better decision-making.
Have the humility to know what you don't know. Have the wisdom and curiosity to seek answers. Have self-awareness and confidence to admit and own mistakes, and possess the maturity to accept and engage valid criticisms... All of these seem lacking to me at Redbubble and represent significant impediments to sustained value creation for Redbubble shareholders. One final comment before my closing remarks. Regrettably, it has come to my attention that a certain director or directors have resorted to private personal attacks and innuendo without attribution, designed to impugn my character. One should question what such behavior says about them, their leadership style and professional maturity. We, the shareholders, should expect better from our representatives on the board. Understand, I have no reason to doubt that the individuals on the board are good people with good intentions. I simply don't believe they have been good directors at Redbubble.
In closing, the company holds the possibility of a bright future. Yet without board changes, the emotion, ego, and experience of the current board and leadership will continue to hinder the achievement of that full potential. The more recent changes and actions at the company appear to be the result of external pressure from shareholders such as myself. To the board and management, having seen the results, I offer the following: No doubt you understand that shareholder discontent is high and that you are on a short leash. Either financial performance, notably revenue growth and governance, improve significantly, or shareholder pressure will likely increase sooner rather than later. As they say in Australia, watch this space. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McConnell. I will not seek to respond to these remarks, other than to say that the board does not agree with Mr. McConnell's comments and the views that he has formed. Details of the resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen. The board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote against this resolution. Are there any questions for the board on this resolution? Any questions online, Carly?
No questions.
No questions. So I will now move to the next item of business. Resolution 5 seeks shareholder approval to ratify the issue of 5 million shares to Solium Nominees (Australia) Pty Ltd, the trustee of the Redbubble Employee Share Trust. When employee equity vests under one of our employee share programs and is exercised, shares held by the trust are transferred to the employee in order to satisfy that exercise. Details of the resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? No questions in the room. Any questions online?
No questions.
No questions. Thank you. I hope there are people online.
There are.
Resolution six seeks shareholder ratification for the issue of employee incentive securities to various employees of the company under the company's equity incentive plan. This plan has been in place since prior to the company's listing on the ASX and is used for granting employee equity in the company in the form of short and long-term incentives. Again, details of this resolution are set out in the explanatory memorandum and referred to on the screen. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? No questions in the room. Are there any questions online? No. Thank you. So I will now move on to the next item of business, Resolution seven. This resolution seeks shareholder approval for the issue of securities to the Managing Director and Group CEO, Martin Hosking, under the company's equity incentive scheme.
Details of the resolution and proxies received are shown on the screen, and details were set out in the explanatory memorandum with the notice of meeting. The board, other than Martin, recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? No questions in the room, and we have no questions online. Thank you. I'll now move on to the next item of business. Resolution eight seeks shareholder approval for the company to change its name from Redbubble Limited to Articore Group Limited, as well as the associated updates to the company's constitution to reflect that change. As discussed earlier, this change will support the group's new organizational structure, which clearly defines the group and its two marketplaces, and ensure that there is no internal or external confusion as to the operations of the group and the Redbubble marketplace.
Details of the resolution and the proxies received are shown on the screen. The board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Are there any questions on this resolution? Any questions online? No questions. Thank you. So we'll move on to the final resolution, which, as I said earlier, relates to the holding of a Board Spill Meeting. And as all resolutions are being conducted by way of poll today, we will discuss this item. However, the poll will only be tallied on this resolution. Sorry, the poll vote will only be tallied in the event that 25% or more of eligible votes cast on Resolution 1 are against that resolution. Details of Resolution 9 and the proxies received should the resolution be put to shareholders are shown on the screen. The board unanimously recommends that shareholders vote against this resolution.
Are there any questions? No questions. No questions. No questions on this resolution. I will now move to the final item, which is other business, and I can confirm that the company has not received any other items of business that could legally be brought before this meeting. So that concludes all of the items of business before the annual general meeting. As set out earlier, for those present today, a poll will be held on all resolutions at the conclusion of the meeting. For online attendees, please follow the instructions on your screen to enable you to vote at this meeting if you haven't already done so. Shareholders and proxy holders in the room will have received a red, yellow... Sorry, will have received a yellow voting card, and that provides for the holding of a poll.
The poll results put to this meeting, as I said earlier, will be announced by a release to the ASX after the meeting. And as noted, the poll on Resolution 9 will only be conducted if Resolution 1 has failed. So if you wish to vote, any shareholders in the room, please mark for or against on your voting card next to the relevant resolution. If you wish to abstain, please mark the abstain box on your voting card, and when you have finished filling in your voting card, please make sure you hand it to the representative and lodge it in the ballot box to ensure your votes are counted.
When a proxyholder does not lodge a vote on any resolution or is not recorded as being present at the meeting, the votes which they hold on those resolutions will pass to me as chair, and I will comply with the voting instructions of the shareholder who had appointed the proxy. When a shareholder has appointed the chair of the meeting as their proxyholder, and no voting instructions have been given on how to vote, I will be taken to have been expressly authorized to exercise those votes and intend to vote those shares as set out in the notice of meeting. If anyone has any difficulty completing their voting card, please raise your hand for assistance. Please now complete your voting cards and place the card in the ballot box being brought around by staff. Thank you.
I think everyone has now completed their voting papers and lodged the votes. And if that is the case, I now declare this annual general meeting closed. After the votes on the resolution have been counted and reviewed, the results of the poll will be announced on the ASX as soon as possible. Thank you, everyone, for your attendance and participation. On behalf of the board, we look forward to your continued support in the coming year. We now invite those in the room to join directors for refreshments outside. Thank you.