Hello, and welcome to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Aon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Lester Knight, Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Knight, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Lester Knight, Chairman of Aon's Board of Directors. At this time, it's my pleasure to welcome all of you to Aon's 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which is being held in Dublin, Ireland. We also have shareholders who are joining us virtually through our meeting center website. We are joined by a representative of Computershare Investor Services, who's been appointed to serve as Inspector of Election at today's meeting, and representatives of Ernst & Young LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm. In accordance with the notice of the meeting, given that it is now past 8:30 A.M. local Dublin time, I'm informed that there is a quorum present, and I declare that the Annual General Meeting is open. There are seven items of business on today's agenda on which a vote will be taken.
These agenda items are as set forth in the proxy materials sent on or about April 29, 2024. Furthermore, we are formally laying before the meeting for consideration by the shareholders the company's statutory financial statements under Irish law for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Copies of these statutory financial statements have been mailed to shareholders of record and are also available in hard copy form at the meeting venue, as well as on the financial reports section of our website. There's no requirement under Irish law that these financial statements be approved by the shareholders, and we are not seeking any such approval at today's meeting. In addition, we will present a business review of Aon's 2023 affairs. There will be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. Shareholders attending in person in Dublin can ask questions by raising their hand during the question and answer period.
Those attending virtually can submit their questions at any time by clicking the message icon on the meeting center website. I'm joined in Dublin by Aon's CEO, Greg Case. Mr. Case and other members of our Board of Directors are either with us in Dublin or participating virtually and are available to answer any shareholder questions. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce Darren Zeidel, the Company's Secretary, who will provide the Secretary's report.
Thank you, Lester. Notice of this Annual General Meeting, together with Aon's proxy statement and annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, were made available beginning April 29, 2024, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 12, 2024. In addition, Aon's Irish statutory financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, were made available to shareholders of record on May 21, 2024. Aon has appointed Abby Cowher, Computershare, as Inspector of Election for the voting at the Annual General Meeting. In accordance with our Articles of Association, voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on each of the resolutions put to the meeting. This is seen as best practice as it gives all shareholders the opportunity to participate in the decision-making of the company and have their votes recorded.
Based on a preliminary report from the Inspector of Election, of the 198,506,718 shares entitled to vote at the meeting, approximately 90% of the total voting rights of the shareholders entitled to vote are present in person or by proxy at the meeting. As a result, I declare that a quorum is present and we will proceed with the meeting. Now, I would like to turn it over to Greg Case.
Thank you, Darren, and welcome to our shareholders. We appreciate your partnership and support of our firm very much and truly appreciate you being here today. Again, thank you for participating in the conversation. Also, I want to say on behalf of our board, a thank you to our 60,000 Aon colleagues around the world. This is the heart of our firm. We appreciate all they do every day to support our clients and to each other. On behalf of management, we want to thank the Board of Directors of Aon for all you do and your support throughout the year and guidance. Thank you for supporting our team and all we're doing on behalf of our clients and our shareholders and our colleagues. I also want to take a moment to thank our CFO, Christa Davies. Christa's 16-year partnership to build the firm has been simply extraordinary.
Her contributions and leadership are invaluable, and we are deeply grateful for her dedication and her commitment. Thank you again, Christa, for all you've done on behalf of the firm. Absolutely extraordinary. I would say, again, back on behalf of our team, we are excited about the plan going forward and the momentum we've built. It builds on an Aon United foundation we spent 15+ years in the process of creating. It's allowed us to lay forward a plan we call the 3x3 Plan, which helps us understand how we can amplify what we've done on risk capital, how we're actually connecting commercial risk and reinsurance in ways no one has been able to do around the world, how we're able to capitalize on human capital and what we're doing in our talent business, in our health business, in our retirement business.
We've taken risk capital and human capital as a platform to serve clients. We're going to amplify that with the work we're doing in Aon Business Services, ABS. So it's risk capital and human capital amplified by ABS and delivered to the market through enterprise client or Aon Client Leadership, again, in a way that's unique to the world, in a way in which we believe we can serve our clients in a more effective and supportive way. And we've also taken the decision to invest heavily behind this with a billion-dollar investment to accelerate what we've been able to do on behalf of our clients through risk capital and human capital. And very excited about the momentum we're building around that. And finally, we have taken the opportunity to invest in a marketplace, a $31 billion marketplace in the U.S.
and North American theater and middle market through the acquisition of NFP in a way that also is extremely positive and supportive of our game plan going forward. So in short, our team is very much looking forward to the plan that's laid out, three commitments over the next three years, 2024, 2025, and 2026, and are excited about the momentum we've built behind that and looking forward to the steps we continue to take in 2024 and what we're going to be able to accomplish in 2025 and 2026 on behalf of clients and shareholders and colleagues. And finally, I'd like to just welcome our new CFO, Edmund Reese, to Aon, who starts on July 1st. He'll be a terrific addition to our team. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Christa and our financial results. Christa.
Thank you so much, Greg, and I deeply appreciate the partnership and the friendship. The firm's actions in 2023 drove top and bottom-line results, including 7% organic revenue growth and $3.2 billion of free cash flow. In 2023 and moving forward, we continue to focus performance against our long-term financial metrics, organic revenue growth, margin expansion, and free cash flow. Our results continue to build on the progress we've made over the past decade on key value creation metrics, including return on capital and capital return to shareholders, and ultimately contributing to total shareholder return. Now, I'd like to turn the meeting back to Lester.
Thank you, Christa and Greg, for the update. Now we're ready to take your questions. Please direct any questions to Greg, Christa, me, or any member of the Board of Directors. Any shareholder who wishes to ask a question should please raise their hand. You're attending in Dublin, and if you're attending virtually, please enter your question online via the meeting center website. Please give your name or the name of the person you represent and ask your question. I kindly remind you that questions should be confined to the business of the meeting. Do I have any questions? Okay. Seeing there are no questions, I'd now like to turn the meeting back to Darren for the resolutions to be considered at today's Annual General Meeting.
Thank you. The following individuals have been nominated for reelection as directors of the company, and each will be proposed for election by way of a separate ordinary resolution of the company: Lester B. Knight, Gregory C. Case, José Antonio Alvarez, Jin-Yong Cai, Jeffrey C. Campbell, Fulvio Conti, Cheryl A. Francis, Adriana Karaboutis, Richard C. Notebaert, Gloria Santona, Sarah Smith, and Byron O. Spruell. There are six additional matters scheduled to be acted upon at this meeting.
In accordance with the recommendation of the Board of Directors, I move the following proposals for approval: As an ordinary resolution, an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the named executive officers as set forth in Aon's proxy statement. As an ordinary resolution, the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as Aon's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2024. As an ordinary resolution, the reappointment of Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants as Aon's statutory auditor under Irish law to hold office until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting.
As an ordinary resolution, the authorization of the Board of Directors or the audit committee of the Board of Directors to determine the remuneration of Ernst & Young Chartered Accountants in its capacity as statutory auditor under Irish law. As an ordinary resolution, the authorization of the board to issue Class A ordinary shares under Irish law for a period expiring on the date which is 18 months from the date of this meeting. And as a special resolution, authorization of the board to opt out of statutory preemption rights under Irish law for a period expiring on the date which is 18 months from the date of this meeting.
The full text of each of the resolutions is set out in the proxy statement, and as required by our Articles of Association, a vote will be taken on a poll. As a result, each person represented in person or by proxy is entitled to one vote for every Class A ordinary share held. The voting standard required for each resolution to pass is set forth in Aon's proxy statement. I'll now turn the meeting back over to Lester.
Thank you, Darren. We will now conduct the official business of the meeting. It's now 8:40 A.M. local Dublin time. I formally propose that each of the resolutions set out in the notice of the meeting are put to the meeting, and I declare the polls open for voting on all resolutions. Let me spend a moment reviewing the voting procedure. Proxy statements and proxy voting cards were mailed or made available to all shareholders prior to this meeting. Those of you who return proxies prior to this meeting authorize the persons named in the proxy to vote on all proposals coming before the meeting. Similarly, if you granted your proxy over the telephone or internet, you do not need to vote during the meeting.
Any shareholder attending physically in person who has not submitted a proxy or who wishes to change his or her vote, please stand now, and you will be given a ballot. All ballots are in. I now declare the polls closed. The Inspector of Election is requested to tabulate the proxies and ballots and report the final voting results to the company's secretary. Darren will announce the provisional results as soon as possible. Please join me in thanking all the directors for all the time and effort they devote on behalf of Aon and its shareholders. In particular, I'd like to recognize two individuals. First, I want to thank Dr. Carolyn Woo for her more than 25 years of dedicated service to the company. And second, I want to thank Christa Davies for her leadership and contribution.
It's been a privilege to work alongside Carolyn and Christa during their tenures, and Aon has benefited greatly from their contributions and perspective. We wish both of them the very best. I'd also like to thank Greg Case and the entire management team for their efforts on behalf of Aon and its shareholders. Now I'd like to ask Darren to report the provisional voting results.
Thank you. Following a review of proxies received and tabulated, each nominee for election as director received a majority of the votes cast at this meeting. Further, the advisory resolution to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers and each other proposed resolution has been approved by at least a majority of votes cast. In the case of the special resolution to authorize the board to opt out of statutory preemption rights under Irish law, at least 75% of the votes cast as required in each case. These results are provisional. The Inspector of Election will furnish a written report of the final vote count, which will be attached as an exhibit to the minutes of this meeting reported in a filing by Aon with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and made available on the company's website. I'll now turn it back to you, Lester.
Thank you, Darren. That now concludes the business of the meeting. I'd like to express our sincere appreciation to those shareholders who attended the Annual General Meeting and to those who submitted proxies. I now declare this meeting closed.
You may now disconnect.