Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of the AES Corporation. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we'll have a question and answer session. You can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the message icon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Mr.
James Morse, Chairman of the Board of AES. Mr. Morse, the floor is yours.
Good morning. I'm Jay Morse, Chairman of the Board of AES, and it's my pleasure to welcome all of you. It is 09:30AM and in accordance with the notice of meeting, I now officially call to order the twenty twenty one Annual Meeting of Stockholders of AES. As we did last year, we are holding the meeting via live webcast in order to allow greater stockholder access and participation. The agenda, rules of conduct and technical support information are available on the meeting site by selecting the document icon at the top of the screen.
And a copy of the annual report and proxy statement can be found under Meeting Materials on the left side of the screen. This feeding will be conducted in accordance with the procedures and standards outlined in these documents, and we encourage our stockholders to review them. Please remember that use of recording equipment is prohibited during the Annual Meeting. During the meeting, stockholders have the opportunity to submit questions in writing using the messages icon at the top of the screen. We will do our best to respond to appropriate questions received that are pertinent to meeting matters in the time permitted.
Before proceeding to the official business of the meeting, let me introduce some key people who are participating in the meeting. First, I'd like to introduce the Director nominees. In addition to myself, the following Director nominees are in attendance: Janet Davidson Andrasz Gluski, the CEO Tarun Khanna Holly Keppel Julie Lawless James Miller Alain Moni Wasaf Naim Theresa Sebastian. I would also like to introduce members of the management team, who, in addition to Andres, comprise the senior leadership of the corporation: Bernard DeSantis, EVP and Chief Operating Officer Paul Friedman, EVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Lisa Krugard, EVP and President, U. S.
And Utilities SBU Tishman Doza, EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer Gustavo Pimenta, EDP and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, I'm pleased to introduce Brett McGinnis and Tyler Dorn from Ernst and Young LLP, AES Independent Auditor, who audited the company's twenty twenty financial statements. They are available to respond to any appropriate questions. As in past years, Computershare will serve as the Inspector of Elections and will assist in the tabulation of proxies and ballots. Computershare is represented here today by Philip Meyer.
As required by Delaware law, they have signed an oath to execute faithfully the duties of inspectors with strict impartiality. Now let me turn to the formal business before us. Our Corporate Secretary, Paul Friedman, is serving as Secretary of the meeting. He has reported that the notice of meeting was mailed on 03/11/2021 to stockholders of record as of 03/01/2021. A list of stockholders of record entitled to vote at the meeting is open to the examination by stockholders during the meeting and can be accessed by clicking the link in the lower right corner of the screen.
Mr. Friedman, the Secretary of today's meeting reports that 604,998,738 shares of the 668,111,888 shares eligible to vote are present at the meeting either in person or by proxy. This is 90.55% of the outstanding voting stock of the company entitled to vote at the meeting. Accordingly, a quorum exists so we can transact the business before us. As listed in the notice of meeting, we have three management proposals before us and one stockholder proposal.
Detailed information on the proposals is contained in the notice and proxy statement. Voting today is by proxy and electronic ballot. Any stockholder who has not voted or who wishes to change his or her vote may do so by clicking on the vote button in the webcast portal and following the instructions provided, stockholders who have submitted proxies or who have previously voted via the Internet or by phone and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. Your votes will be counted automatically. At this time, the polls are open for voting on the proposals.
The first item to be acted upon by the stockholders is the election of directors. Each of the director nominees listed in the proxy statement was unanimously recommended to the stockholders for election by the Board of Directors at the annual meeting. I declare the polls now closed for Proposal one. The Inspector of Elections has tabulated the votes, and I'm pleased to report the voting results. On Proposal one, at least 98% of shares voted were in favor of each nominee.
Therefore, I declare that at least a majority of shares were voted in favor of each individual named as a nominee for director in the proxy, and each such person is elected to serve a one year term expiring at the twenty twenty two annual meeting of stockholders or as otherwise provided under Delaware law. The next item of business to be acted upon by the stockholders is a consideration of an advisory vote on the company's executive compensation, which was unanimously recommended by the Board of Directors for stockholder approval as described in the compensation discussion and analysis and related sections of the proxy statement. The polls are now closed for Proposal two. The Inspector of Elections has tabulated the results. Results of the voting are: On Proposal two to approve the company's executive compensation, over 95% of shares voted in favor of this proposal.
Therefore, I hereby declare that a majority of the shares voted in favor of this proposal and it is so approved. The next item of business to be acted upon by the stockholders is to ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the independent auditor of the company for fiscal year twenty twenty one. Ernst and Young has been approved as the company's auditor for fiscal year twenty twenty one by the Financial Audit Committee and the Board of Directors as described in the proxy statement. The polls are now closed for Proposal three. The Inspector of Elections has tabulated the results.
Results of the voting are on Proposal three to ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the independent auditor of the company for fiscal year twenty twenty one. Over 99 of the shares voted in favor of that proposal. Therefore, I hereby declare that a majority of the shares voted to ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young to audit the company's financial statements for fiscal year twenty twenty one and that such proposal is so ratified. The next item, if properly presented, is to vote on a non binding proposal to adopt a bylaw to subject approval of any bylaw or charter amendments to a stockholder vote. The stockholder proposal, the supporting statement and the Board's and management's opposition statement to the proposal are included in the proxy statement.
The proposal has been submitted by John Chividen, who has authorized James McCritchie to serve as his representative to present the resolution. Mr. McCritchie, in accordance with the three minute time limitation to present the proposal set forth in rules of conduct, You may make your statement. Operator, please unmute Mr. McKritchie.
Mr. McKritchie, your line is open.
Okay. Thank you. This is the proposal to make bylaw and charter amendments subject to shareholder vote. Shareholders request the Board of Directors take steps necessary to adopt a bylaw that requires any amendment to the bylaws or the charter, that is approved by the Board shall be subject to a non binding shareholder vote as soon as practical. It is important that bylaw and charter amendments take into consideration the impact such amendments can have on limiting the rights of shareholders and on reducing the accountability of directors and managers.
For example, directors could adopt an exclusive forum by law that's been narrowly crafted to suit the unique circumstances facing the company or the directors could adopt a rule to require shareholders to foot management's legal bills if shareholders did not prevail 100% in suing management. Proxy Advisor recently adopted a policy to vote against directors who unilaterally adopt by law provisions or amendments to the articles of incorporation that materially diminish shareholder rights. It's also important to gain a shareholder right like this to help make up for the loss of shareholder rights at the shareholder annual meeting. With the widespread use of online meetings, shareholders no longer have the ability to discuss concerns with other shareholders and with directors at shareholder meetings. Shareholders are also severely restricted in making their views known at online shareholder meetings because all challenging questions and comments can easily be screened out by management and in some cases, management makes it very difficult to ask questions at the meeting.
For instance, Goodyear management became an example of turning on an online shoulder meeting into a mute button to hit the mute button right in the middle of a formal shareholder proposal presentation, maybe Goodyear management since we did not want shareholders to hear constructive criticism. The beauty of good governance proposal like this proposal is that it would not result in more costs because the mere presence of good governance serves as a guardrail to make sure that management respects shareholder rights when it makes a bylaw change. Because management adopts bylaws that subtract shareholder rights, then management has to confront the fact that shareholders have a remedy with teeth to make their opposition known. Please vote yes, make by law and charter amendments subject to a shareholder vote, proposal number four. Thank you very much.
Mr. McCritchie, I appreciate your statement and the stockholder proposal to adopt a bylaw to subject approval of any bylaw or charter amendments to a stockholder vote. Your Board of Directors recommends a vote against the stockholder proposal for the reasons stated in the proxy statement. The polls are now closed for Proposal four. The Inspector of Election has tabulated the results.
The results of the voting are: On proposal four, to vote on a non binding stockholder proposal to adopt a bylaw to subject approval of any bylaw or charter amendments to a stockholder vote, 2.5% of votes cast were in favor of this proposal and 97.3% votes cast were against. Therefore, I hereby declare that the majority of votes were not in favor of the proposal and such proposal is not approved. The reported voting results are preliminary and the final vote report of the inspector will be filed with the records of the meeting. The final result of the voting will be reported in a current report on Form eight ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four days after this meeting. Having completed the formal portion of the meeting, the twenty twenty one Annual Meeting of the AES Corporation is now adjourned.
We will now open the meeting to questions. Let me express my sincere appreciation to the stockholders who participated in the meeting as well as those who submitted their proxies but were unable to participate in the meeting. The meeting is now concluded.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.