Welcome to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. annual meeting. I will now hand you over to Pat Gallagher.
Thank you, Emma. Hello, everyone, and thank you very much for joining us. This is Pat Gallagher, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Welcome to our 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you for joining us today. I would like to take a minute to introduce the other members of the board who are in attendance today. Those directors are Sherry S. Barrat, Teresa H. Clarke, John L. Coldman, David S. Johnson, Christopher C. Miskel, Ralph J. Nicoletti, and Norman L. Rosenthal. Finally, I'd like to introduce Deborah J. Caplan, who is joining our board today. Welcome, Deb. I want to recognize the outstanding work of our board on behalf of stockholders. Our directors bring a wide range of experience and expertise to our company. They provide great guidance and advice, and I'm personally grateful to all of our directors for their service.
I also want to recognize Bill Bax, who did not stand for reelection this year after 18 years of service to our board. I want to thank Bill for his leadership and many contributions to our company. Bill, we'll miss you.
Thank you, Pat.
It is now my pleasure to officially call the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to order. The agenda and rules of conduct have been provided on the virtual meeting website. Rules of conduct outline how we will proceed with today's meeting. In order to conduct an informative, orderly, and constructive meeting, we ask that participants abide by these rules. As stated in the rules of conduct, if you would like to submit a question, you may do so by following the instructions on the meeting website. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and restrict your questions to matters of general interest to our stockholders. Thank you for your cooperation with these rules. Walt Bay, the company's General Counsel and Secretary, will act as secretary of the meeting.
Also joining today's meeting are Leah Grant, our Inspector of Election, and Ron Ginty and Carlos Ferraris of Ernst & Young LLP, the company's independent auditor. The polls opened at the beginning of the meeting, and we will close the polls on all matters immediately after the presentation of today's proposals. If you wish to vote during the meeting, please follow the instructions on the meeting website before the polls close. If you have already voted in advance of the meeting, you do not need to vote again unless you wish to change your vote. The secretary has received an affidavit from Broadridge Financial Solutions regarding the mailing of the notice of the meeting.
The affidavit states that beginning on or around March 22, 2024, notice of this meeting, together with the notice of internet availability of proxy materials, was mailed to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 18, 2024, the record date for this meeting. The Inspector of Election has also taken the required oath and certified that a majority of our common stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting is present and represented by proxies. A quorum exists for this meeting. The affidavit and the Inspector of Election's oath will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The meeting is now open for the purpose of transacting business properly before it. Each of the proposals to be voted on today is set forth in our proxy statement, and I will now briefly describe those proposals.
The first proposal is the election of the nine nominees named in our proxy statement to serve as directors until the 2025 annual meeting. The company has an advanced notice provision for director nominations in its bylaws. Because no advance notice has been received, all nominations are closed. The second proposal is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024. The third proposal is an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. We will now briefly pause before we close our polls. The polls are now closed. We've been advised by the Inspector of Election that the preliminary vote report shows that each of the nominees for election to the board of directors has been duly elected.
The appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent public accountants for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, has been ratified, and the compensation of our named executive officers has been approved. Following the meeting, we will publicly announce the official voting results once all the verifications have been completed by the Inspector of Election by filing a Form 8-K as required. The formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned. We are now at our general question and answer session. I will pause to see if we have any questions from stockholders. As we have not received any questions from stockholders, this concludes our 2024 annual meeting of the stockholders. Thank you for attending, and thank you for your interest in our company.