Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of the stockholders of Abeona Therapeutics Inc. I am Vish Seshadri, President and CEO of Abeona. On behalf of the entire Abeona team, I'm pleased to welcome all of you to our 2026 annual meeting of shareholders. Today's meeting is being conducted in a virtual format that allows us to provide a consistent experience for all stockholders. Before we begin our official business, I want to acknowledge the current report on Form 8-K that we filed with the SEC this morning, reporting the resignation of Michael Amoroso from the board of directors effective yesterday. As disclosed in the Form 8-K, Mr. Amoroso's resignation was not the result of any disagreement with the company or any matter relating to the company's operations, policies, or practices, but solely for personal reasons.
On behalf of the Abeona board and the management team, I thank Michael for his many years of service and dedication to Abeona. As a result of his resignation, Mr. Amoroso's name has been withdrawn from nomination for re-election to the board at today's annual meeting. Therefore, votes cast for Mr. Amoroso's election will not be counted. The board has determined that it will not nominate a replacement director for election at today's annual meeting. Now, moving on to the official business of the meeting. The principal items of business for this meeting are, one, to elect Keith A. Goldan and Bernhardt G. Zeiher, MD, as Class 1 Directors to hold office for a term of three years and until their successors are elected and qualified. Two, to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
Three, to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. Four, to approve an increase in the number of shares reserved for issuance under the Second Amended and Restated Abeona Therapeutics Inc. 2023 Equity Incentive Plan from $8.4 million-$ 11.5 million. Five, to approve an amendment to the company's amended and restated certificate of incorporation to remove the advance notice provision for director nominations. The close of business on April 15, 2026, was fixed as a record date for the determination of stockholders entitled to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. I have received from Broadridge an affidavit of mailing of the notice of annual meeting and related proxy statements, which were sent on or about April 27th, 2026, to all stockholders of record for the meeting.
Lewis Larson, a representative from Broadridge, has been appointed to serve as Inspector of Elections for this meeting. Mr. Larson has taken and signed an oath to faithfully execute the duties of Inspector of Elections to the best of his ability. Any stockholder who has not 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. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or have previously voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action at this time. I have been advised by the Inspector of Election that no less than a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock are represented via webcast and by proxy at today's meeting. Accordingly, a quorum is present.
This meeting is held pursuant to the notice of annual meeting that we began mailing on April 27th, 2026, to all stockholders of record as of April 15th, 2026. Since there is a quorum present, it is in order to proceed with the business of the meeting. As you are aware from the proxy statement, there are five proposals before us today. I will briefly describe each of the proposals in the order outlined in the proxy statement. The polls are now open. All stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting have the ability to do so online. Please remember that if you have already voted by proxy, it is not necessary to vote again. If you are a shareholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, you may do so via the website used to access this meeting.
After voting has completed on all matters on the agenda, we will close the polls and share the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election. We will also begin our general question and answer period at that time. The first item of business is a proposal to elect Keith A. Goldan and Bernhardt G. Zeiher as Class I Directors to hold office for a term of three years and until their successors are elected and qualified. The board of directors recommends a vote for each nominee. The second item of business is a proposal to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers as set forth in the proxy statement. The board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal.
The third item is a proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. The board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal. The fourth item is a proposal to approve an increase in the number of shares reserved for issuance under the Second Amended and Restated Abeona Therapeutics Inc. 2023 Equity Incentive Plan from $8.4 million- $11.5 million. The board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal. The fifth item of business is a proposal to approve an amendment to the company's amended and restated certificate of incorporation to remove the advance notice provision for director nominations. The board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal. Since this completes the proposal, I declare the polls officially closed.
Now we turn to the general question and answer portion of our meeting. We will not address questions that require a discussion of matters viewed by the company as confidential, relate to personal grievances, or referenced to individuals, or that are otherwise disrespectful or irrelevant to the business of this meeting. In an orderly fashion, questions will be introduced. It does not appear we've received any questions relevant to the business of the meeting. Therefore, we will proceed with the rest of the meeting. I have here the preliminary report of the inspectors based on proxies already received. On the basis of proxies already received, I can report the following preliminary vote results. Each of the two director nominees to serve as Class I members of the board have been duly elected. Stockholders have approved the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
The appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026, has been ratified. An increase in the number of shares reserved for issuance under the Second Amended and Restated Abeona Therapeutics, Inc., 2023 Equity Incentive Plan from $8.4 million-$ 11.5 million has been approved. An amendment to the company's amended and restated certificate of incorporation to remove the advance notice provision for director nominations has not been approved. The final voting results will be reported in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed following this meeting. The business of this meeting has now been completed. There being no other matters to be brought before this meeting, I declare the meeting adjourned.
On behalf of our board of directors and our executive team, thank you for attending our company's 2026 annual meeting of stockholders.
This concludes today's meeting. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful rest of your day