Good afternoon. Welcome to Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Jeff Gonzales, Chief Financial Officer.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation's Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I am Jeff Gonzales, chief financial officer of the corporation, and I will be presiding as chairman at this meeting. We appreciate you taking the time to join this webcast today. Please note that no one attending via webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device. Attending the virtual meeting today are a number of other members of the ACRE board, certain officers of ACRE, investment professionals of our manager, Ares Commercial Real Estate Management, and members of our investor relations team. Anton Feingold will act as secretary of the meeting. John Halowa of American Election Services has been appointed to act as inspector of election. Mr. Halowa is attending the meeting. Also present at the meeting are representatives from Ernst & Young LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm.
In order to conduct an orderly meeting and give all stockholders an opportunity to participate, we will follow the agenda and the rules of conduct that are posted for stockholders on the virtual meeting portal. After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will have time for a question and answer session to respond to relevant stockholder questions. Only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Questions must be relevant to the business of the company or the conduct of the meeting. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. We are informed by the inspector of election that a quorum is present for the purposes of transacting business. Accordingly, I hereby declare that notice of this meeting has been properly served.
A quorum is present as a majority of the voting power of the company is present in person or represented by proxy, and on the basis of the inspector of election's report, the meeting is duly convened. The next order of business is a description of the matters to be voted on at today's meeting. The first proposal before the stockholders is the election of two class two directors, each to serve for a term of three years until the annual meeting of stockholders in 2029, and until his or her successor is duly elected and qualifies. The board of directors recommends voting for the election of the following two nominees as directors of the company, William S. Benjamin and Caroline E. Blakely.
The second proposal before the stockholders is the ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. The board recommends voting for the ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young. The third proposal before the stockholders is the approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers as described in the 2026 proxy statement. The board recommends voting for, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The polls are now open. Only stockholders of record at the close of business on March 26, 2026 are entitled to vote.
At this time, any stockholders that are logged in and who have not already submitted a proxy and wish to vote their shares or 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 and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. If any stockholder wishes to comment on or raise any questions regarding the proposals now being voted on, you may now submit each such comment or question using the meeting portal. While we allow time for stockholders who haven't already done so to complete their voting, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements made at this meeting may be considered forward-looking. The company cautions investors that results of future operations may differ from those anticipated.
We urge you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, which identifies certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made during this meeting. Copies of the 10-K and other filings are available through the company or online via the company's investor relations webpage. We undertake no duty to update any of the statements made during this meeting. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I hereby declare the polls closed. For the results. Any ballots collected before the polls closed but not reflected in the preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the inspector of election. I will now discuss the results of voting for the record.
Accordingly, I hereby declare that all items of business are properly presented before the meeting. Of the proposals to be voted on, the inspector of election has informed us that the two nominees for election to the board of directors to serve until the company's 2029 annual meeting of stockholders, and until their successors are duly elected and qualify, have been duly elected. The selection of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2026 fiscal year has been duly ratified. Finally, the stockholders have approved, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The inspector of election certificate and report on the final tabulation of the votes will be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. Final results also will be published on a Form 8-K. I now declare the meeting adjourned.
We would like to address any stockholder questions and comments. We will take stockholders' questions that are being entered today on 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. Let me pause here and see if we have received any questions.
Thank you, Jeff. We do not have any questions in the queue at this time.
Thank you. That concludes our meeting. Thank you, everybody. Have a good rest of the day.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.