Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. It's 10:00 A.M., and the annual shareholders' meeting of APA Corporation is called to order. My name is Lamar McKay, Chair of APA's Board of Directors. Now, before I introduce the other members of our board, I'd just like to thank everyone for attending APA's virtual annual meeting. First, some housekeeping items. On the right-hand portion of your screen, you will see today's agenda and the rules of conduct for the meeting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Board of Directors for their service and commitment, and mostly, on behalf of the board, I'd like to thank and applaud the employees of the company for their dedication, innovation, and their many accomplishments this past year.
The nominees for election to the Board of Directors today are Annell Bay, Matthew Bob, John Christmann, Juliet Ellis, Kenneth Fisher, Charles Hooper, Chansoo Joung, Peter Ragauss, David Stover, Anya Weaving, and myself, Lamar McKay. At this point, I will turn the meeting over to John Christmann, APA's Chief Executive Officer.
Thanks, Lamar. Officers available today are Steve Riney, President, Ben Rodgers, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Kim Warnica, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, and John Montanti, Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. I appoint Mr. Montanti as Secretary of the Meeting and Ms. Warnica as Parliamentarian for the meeting. Ms. Warnica was notified of the meeting duly and properly mailed, and are the inspectors of election present?
Yes. The proxy statement and notice of the annual meeting were mailed to shareholders on April 10th, 2025. We have an affidavit to that effect from EQ Shareo wner Services and samples of the items mailed. Also, a certified list of the shareholders of record as of the close of business on the record date, March 24, 2025, has been available at the company's headquarters for the past 10 days. As of March 24, 2025, there were 361,441,463 shares of common stock outstanding and eligible to vote at this meeting. A quorum is present, and the meeting may proceed with business. Our meeting this morning will be conducted in accordance with the agenda and the rules for conduct of shareholders' meetings, which are available on the right-hand portion of your screen.
Jennifer Lino, Nora Dobin, and Jay Schultz have been appointed as inspectors of election to receive the proxies, judge the qualifications of voters, prescribe rules for voting, collect and count the votes, report the results of the ballots, and to perform any other duties that may be required. The minutes of the last annual meeting of shareholders held May 23rd, 2024, are available for inspection. Unless there is an objection, reading of these minutes will be waived. The company did not receive timely notice of any other director nominations by a shareholder, as required under its bylaws. Therefore, the nominations are closed.
Items of business numbers one through 11 for this year's meeting are the election of directors. The directors elected at this meeting will serve for a period of one year, starting today and ending on the date of the annual meeting in 2026. The nominees were named earlier, and I hereby declare them duly nominated. The 12th item of business for this year's meeting is ratification of Ernst & Young, LLP, as APA's independent auditors for fiscal year 2025. This matter was fully described in the proxy statement provided to all shareholders. The 13th and final item of business for this year's meeting is an advisory, non-binding vote to approve the compensation of APA's named executive officers. This item was discussed in the proxy statement provided to all shareholders.
Any shareholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by returning to the email with the meeting link, clicking on the vote button, and following the instructions. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. The next item on the agenda is the preliminary report of the inspectors of election. Any ballots collected before the polls close but not reflected in the preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the inspectors of election. The polls are now closed. Ms. Warnica, do you have the results?
Yes. The inspectors of election have reported the following results. Each nominee for the office of director of the company has been reelected. The ratification of Ernst & Young as APA's independent auditors for fiscal year 2025 has been approved. The compensation of APA's named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement, has been approved.
I hereby declare that all matters submitted for a vote of the shareholders have been approved. Now, if there is no other business to come before the meeting, the formal meeting is adjourned.