Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company. Welcome to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you for joining us this morning. Like many companies, last year we conducted our annual meeting virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are doing so again this year, also due in part to the ongoing pandemic. However, we've decided we'd like the virtual meeting format, which allows us to be more inclusive and reach a greater number of stockholders without the necessity of travel to our headquarters. We expect that the virtual meeting will become our standard approach in years to come. It is now my pleasure to officially call the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company to order. The agenda and rules of conduct have been provided on the virtual meeting website.
The 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. It is now my pleasure to introduce the other members of the board, all of whom are in attendance today. Those directors are Sherry Barratt, Bill Bax, John Coldman, Dave Johnson, Kay McCurdy, Chris Miskel, Ralph Nicoletti, and Norman Rosenthal. I want to pause for a second to recognize the outstanding work of our board on behalf of stockholders.
Our outside 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. Walt Bay, the company's General Counsel and Secretary, will act as Secretary of the meeting. Also joining today's meeting are our inspector of election, Lee Grant of Broadridge Investor Services, Ryan Genty , and Matt Thunander of Ernst & Young, 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 inspector of election has taken the required oath and has certified that notice of this meeting was mailed beginning on March 29, 2021, to all stockholders of record as of the record date, and that a majority of our common stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting is present or represented by proxies. The meeting is present or represented by proxies, so a quorum exists for the meeting. The meeting is now open for the purpose of transacting business properly brought before it. Each of the proposals to be voted on today is set forth in our proxy statement. I will now briefly describe each of the proposals. The first proposal is the election of the nine nominees named in our proxy statement to serve as directors until the 2022 Annual Meeting. The company has advanced notice provision for director nominations in its bylaws.
Because no advanced notice was 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 ended December 31, 2021. The third proposal is an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. We will now pause to allow any questions or comments from stockholders on any of these proposals. I will ask our Secretary, Walt Bay, to advise whether any questions have been received.
Pat, at this point, we have not received any questions or comments from stockholders.
As there are no questions on the proposals, the polls are now closed. We have been advised by the inspector of election that the preliminary vote report shows that each nominee for election to the board of directors has been duly elected. Ernst & Young, LLP, has been ratified as our independent public accountants for the 2021 fiscal year, 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. The meeting is now adjourned. We will now address general stockholder questions we have received in accordance with the meeting rules of conduct. Walt, please advise if we have received any questions.
We have not, Pat.
Thank you, Walt. As there are no questions, this concludes our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you for participating.