Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting for Sorrento Therapeutics. Our host for today's call is Dr. Henry Ji, Chairman and CEO. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host, Dr. Ji. You may begin, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2020 Annual Meeting of stockholders of Sorrento Therapeutics. My name is Henry Ji, President and CEO of Sorrento. I'm pleased to conduct our Annual Meeting virtually via the Internet. At this time, I call the meeting to order. The company's Board of Directors has appointed me to act as the Chairman of this meeting. Brian Sun, the company's Senior VP and General Counsel, will act as the Secretary of the meeting. I would like to introduce Andy Kimball of Ernst & Young, our independent registered public accounting firm. During the question and answer period at the end of today's session, Mr. Kimball will be available to answer any appropriate questions you may have concerning the independent audit. The Board of Directors has appointed John Kommers of Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as the Inspector of Election for the meeting.
Mr. Kommers has previously taken his oath as an Inspector of Election. We will file the executed oath with the records of this meeting. Many stockholders have already submitted their proxy. All proxies will be voted as marked by the stockholders signing them. If you have voted by proxy, you do not need to take any further action. If you wish to vote during this meeting, please log in as a stockholder by entering the 16-digit control number you received with your proxy materials and clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen. The Secretary will now review the agenda, rules of conduct, and the procedures for today's meeting, and present the affidavit of mailing of the notice of meeting and the accompanying proxy material and annual report.
Thank you, Henry. Upon logging into the meeting, you are presented with an agenda and the rules of conduct and procedures for the annual meeting. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that participants abide by these rules. As stated in the rules of conduct, only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Should you desire to ask a question during the meeting, please submit your question in the designated field on the web portal. After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are relevant to the meeting or the business of the company will be addressed. As stated in the rules of conduct, we ask that you restrict your questions to the agenda items that are before us.
We will try to address any appropriate questions that we do not answer on our company website. Thank you for your cooperation with these rules. Today, there are five items of business on the agenda: the election of the directors, the vote on the ratification of the selection of the company's independent registered public accounting firm, the vote on the approval of the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, the vote on the approval of an amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance thereunder by 12.5 million shares, and lastly, the vote on the approval of the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji. Each of these items is described in the proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 1, 2020. After the formal part of our meeting, there will be a Q&A session.
The Board of Directors set August 17, 2020, as the date of record for this stockholders' meeting. We have at this meeting a record of stockholders as of that date. A duplicate record has been on file at the principal place of business of the company for the last 10 days and has been available for inspection by any stockholder during normal business hours during that period. Mr. Chairman, I present the affidavit of mailing signed by Joanne Vogel of Broadridge Financial Solutions, which states that the notice of meeting for this meeting was mailed on September 1, 2020, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 17, 2020, the record date for stockholders entitled to notice of this meeting, which is in accordance with the bylaws of the company.
Thank you, Brian. I direct that the affidavit of mailing be made part of the minutes of the meeting. Okay. Our first order of business at this meeting is to determine whether the shares represented at the meeting are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. Brian, do you have the report?
Yes, Henry. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that approximately 74% of the company's issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote is represented at today's meeting. Sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business at this meeting.
Thank you, Brian. The report of the Secretary on the existence of a quorum is accepted. Since the majority of the company's shares is represented here today, I declare that a quorum is present and that the meeting is duly constituted. We may now proceed to transact the business for which this meeting has been called for. The next order of business is a description of matters properly brought before the meeting. The first proposal is for the election of directors. Seven directors shall be elected at today's meeting, each to serve a one-year term until the 2021 Annual Meeting of stockholders or until his or her respective successor is duly elected and has qualified. The affirmative vote of a plurality of the votes cast at this meeting is required to elect the nominees for director.
As indicated in the company's proxy statement, the Board of Directors has nominated and recommends a vote for Dr. Henry Ji, Dorman Followwill, Dr. Kim Janda, David Lemus, Jaisim Shah, Dr. Robin Smith, and Dr. Alex Wu, each currently director of the company. The company's bylaws require that a stockholder provide advance notice to the company of a stockholder's intent to nominate persons as directors. No such notice was received. Accordingly, I declare the nomination for directors closed. Voting will commence after all proposals have been presented. We will now move to proposal two. The second proposal being submitted to stockholders for action is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.
The affirmative vote of at least a majority of votes cast at this meeting is required to ratify the selection of Ernst & Young as our independent registered public accounting firm. We will now move to proposal three. The third proposal being submitted to stockholders for action is the approval of the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. The affirmative vote of at least a majority of votes cast at this meeting is required to approve the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. We will now move to proposal four. The fourth proposal being submitted to the stockholders for action is the approval and amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance thereunder by 12,500,000 shares.
The affirmative vote of at least a majority of votes cast at this meeting is required to approve the amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan. We will now move to proposal five. The fifth proposal being submitted to stockholders for action is the approval of the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji. Two different voting standards must be met in order to approve the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji. The first is the affirmative vote of at least a majority of votes cast, and the second is affirmative vote of at least a majority of the votes cast by holders of shares of common stock that are not beneficially owned directly or indirectly by Dr. Henry Ji. Now, the company did not receive any other stockholder proposals for this year's Annual Meeting.
Because no further business is scheduled to come before the stockholder, we will move on to voting. I declare the polls for each matter to be voted on this meeting open at 12:10 P.M. today and directed that a vote of the stockholder be taken by written ballot on the following matters. First, the election of seven directors, each to serve until the 2021 Annual Meeting of stockholders or until his or her respective successor is duly elected and has qualified. Second, the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. Third, the approval of the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Fourth, the approval of an amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance thereunder by 12,500,000 shares.
Fifth, the approval of the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji. Each holder of common stock is entitled to one vote for each share of common stock held of record at the close of business on August 17, 2020. Voting is by proxy and electronic ballot. The ballots are now available for each stockholder and proxy holder entitled to vote at this meeting. Any stockholder who has previously given his, her, or its proxy need not to vote unless he, she, or it desires to revoke the proxy and a vote by electronic ballot at this meeting. If you wish to vote now, whether or not you already submitted a proxy, then you may vote using the web portal. No ballots or proxies or revocation or changes of proxy will be accepted after the polls are closed.
So I'm going to wait a little bit for you to mark the ballots. I declare the polls for each matter voted upon this meeting close at 12:13 P.M. today, and direct the Inspector of Election to collect and tabulate the ballots. Will the Secretary please report the preliminary results of the voting?
Yes, thank you, Henry. Although all the numbers on the share vote are not in yet, I can provide the following preliminary results from the Inspector of Election. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that a plurality of the votes cast at the meeting were in favor of the election of Dr. Ji, Mr. Followwill, Dr. Janda, Mr. Lemus, Mr. Shah, Dr. Smith, and Dr. Wu. Accordingly, Dr. Ji, Mr. Followwill, Dr. Janda, Mr. Lemus, Mr. Shah, Dr. Smith, and Dr. Wu have been elected as directors of the company, each to serve for the term expiring on the date of the company's 2021 Annual Meeting or until his or her respective successor has been duly elected and qualified.
I have been further advised by the Inspector of Election that a majority of the votes cast were in favor of the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young to act as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Accordingly, the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, has been approved. I have been further advised by the Inspector of Election that a majority of the votes cast were in favor of the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Accordingly, the Sorrento Therapeutics 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan has been approved.
I have been further advised by the Inspector of Election that a majority of the votes cast were in favor of the amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares authorized for issuance thereunder by 12,500,000 shares. Accordingly, the amendment to the Sorrento Therapeutics 2019 Stock Incentive Plan has been approved. Lastly, I have been further advised by the Inspector of Election that both a majority of the votes cast and a majority of the votes cast by holders of shares of common stock that are not beneficially owned directly or indirectly by Dr. Henry Ji were in favor of the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji. Accordingly, the CEO Performance Award for Dr. Henry Ji has been approved.
The Inspector of Election has indicated that he will furnish me with a written report of the final vote count with respect to the matters voted on today. A final tally of the votes will be published in a current report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or before October 22, 2020.
Thank you, Brian. Please include the Inspector of Election's written report of the final vote count in the minutes of today's meeting. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2020 Annual Meeting of stockholders of Sorrento Therapeutics is now adjourned. Now, we would like to answer some of stockholders' questions that we received today in the web portal. Please note, we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are relevant to the meeting will be addressed. For questions about our R&D pipeline and the clinical programs, please visit Sorrento's website to view our corporate presentation and additional information. Will the Secretary please advise if we have any questions?
Thank you, Henry. We have no questions for purposes that relate to this meeting at this time. As such, this concludes our Q&A session.
Thank you all for attending today's meeting and for your continued support of Sorrento Therapeutics. Have a great day and a weekend.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.