Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Jon Levine, President and CEO of MariMed Inc. I welcome you to our 2026 annual meeting of stockholders. I will serve as the chairman of the meeting. Also with us is Mario Pinho, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's virtual-only meeting is a live audio webcast. We believe that holding a virtual meeting allows us to be more inclusive and reach a greater number of our stockholders. We have stockholders attending via the web portal. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of the meeting first and answer questions at the end of the session. Though we may not be able to answer every question, we will do our best to provide a response to as many as possible. To vote or submit questions during the meeting, you must log in using the 16-digit control number provided with your proxy material.
Also present are Kenneth Rose from the law firm of Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever, LLP, the company's corporate and securities counsel, and Casey Kinchen of the accounting firm M&K CPAs, PLLC, the company's independent auditor. Mr. Rose has been appointed secretary of this meeting, and Lynn Wade, our senior director of SEC reporting, has been appointed as inspector of the election of this meeting. The following directors are also present: Edward Gildea, Chairman of the Board, Dave Allen, and Dr. Eva Selhub. With that, I would like to turn the meeting over to our CFO, Mario Pinho, to address the meeting agenda.
Thank you, Jon, and welcome everyone. I now call upon Mr. Rose to present proof of the due calling of this meeting of stockholders.
Mr. Chairman, this is the affidavit of an employee of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc, MariMed's proxy services agent, to the effect that notice of this meeting, the proxy statement, and the annual report were mailed on April 23rd, 2026, to all stockholders of record of MariMed Inc as of April 10, 2026, the record date for this meeting. A certified list of stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting was made available for examination by any stockholder in accordance with the general corporation law of the State of Delaware and MariMed's bylaws. At the close of business on April 10, 2026, there were issued and outstanding 398,920,671 shares of common stock, all of which are eligible to vote at this meeting.
I direct that the affidavit be filed with the minutes of this meeting. I present the oath of office subscribed by the inspector and direct that the oath also be filed with the minutes. The inspector has advised that she has tallied the number of votes present at the meeting and that in excess of 50% of the eligible votes are present in person or by proxy. A quorum is therefore present, and the meeting can now proceed to consider all matters coming before it. The first item of business is the re-election of each of Jon Levine, Edward Gildea, David Allen, and Dr. Eva Selhub to the company's board to serve until the 2027 annual meeting of the stockholders or until their respective successors have been elected and qualified. The board recommends a vote for each candidate. The motion has already been moved and seconded.
I move for approval of the re-election of each nominee to the Company's Board to serve until the 2027 annual meeting of the stockholders or until their respective successors have been elected and qualified.
I second the motion.
The second and final item of business is the advisory approval of the appointment of M&K CPAs, PLLC, as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. The board recommends a vote for the proposal. I move for the advisory approval of the appointment of M&K CPAs, PLLC as the company's independent auditors for the 2026 fiscal year.
I second the motion.
The polls are now open. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls for the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders closed. I ask that the inspector commence her tally of the votes. Upon her completion, we will announce the preliminary results of the voting and respond to any stockholders' questions.
The final voting tally will be contained in the current report on Form 8-K that will be filed with the SEC within four business days following this meeting. I now call upon Mr. Rose to present the preliminary results of the vote on the proposals before this meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, the inspector has given me her preliminary report on the vote on the proposals presented at this meeting. I have been advised that the preliminary vote report shows that, one, each of the nominees has been duly elected as a director of the company, and two, the appointment of M&K CPAs, PLLC, as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026, has been approved. With that, I turn the meeting back over to Mr. Pinho .
Thank you, Mr. Rose. I congratulate all the nominees on their re-election to the board. Having completed the business contemplated by the meeting agenda, we will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting, following which we will entertain questions from our stockholders.
I second the motion.
I move the meeting to be adjourned. The formal business of the meeting has now concluded, and the meeting is adjourned. Any stockholder wishing to ask a question should enter it in this web portal. Please note we will attempt to answer as many questions as are germane to the meeting agenda topics as time allows. If we do not get any questions today, please feel free to reach out to Howard Schacter, our Chief Communications Officer. You may also contact him whenever you have any questions or would like to receive additional information on our company. Howard always welcomes the opportunity to speak with our stockholders.
Thank you, Mario. We have a question from a shareholder, and Mario, this is for you. What does rescheduling mean for MariMed?
Thank you for that question. Federal rescheduling of medical cannabis is a significant milestone for the industry, and I think a very important step toward a more rational regulatory framework. The change will reduce our effective tax rate, improve cash flows, and enhance our ability to invest in growth initiatives. That said, we are still waiting on additional information with respect to implementation, timing, and any potential changes in other regulatory matters that relate to technical tax. Until those details are finalized and communicated, we are not providing any specific estimates on the financial benefit. It's important to state here, though, that we are focused on our strategy, and our strategy is not dependent on any regulatory change. We have remained focused on expanding our brand and building a profitable operation.
As additional guidance becomes available and we're able to quantify the impact with greater certainty, we will communicate at that time to our stockholders.
Thank you. We will give it one more minute for questions to come in. Jon, I believe the next question is for you. A shareholder asks, "What do you see as the future stock price of MariMed?
The future stock price of MariMed really is a difficult one as we wait for the market to understand cannabis. We would love to see our share value to be equal with our competitors, and we feel that the share price is right now worth well over $1, but we're only at the cents mark right now. We hope to see it, in the short order, get up over $1.
Thank you. Seeing as there are no further questions at this time, I'll now turn the call and the meeting back over to Jon.
We thank you for your attendance today and the continued support. Thank you, and have a good day.
That concludes our meeting today. You may now disconnect.