Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Artelo Biosciences, Inc. annual meeting. I will now turn the call over to Gregory Gorgas. You may begin.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Gregory Gorgas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Artelo Biosciences, Incorporated. It's a pleasure to welcome you to the scheduled or rescheduled, sorry, 2025 annual meeting of stockholders of Artelo. We will begin today with the formal business of the meeting and follow with a question-and-answer session. Before proceeding further, I'd like to introduce the company's directors who are present virtually at this meeting. We have joining us our Board Chair, Connie Matsui, and we also have joining us our Compensation Committee Chair, Steven Kelly. I would also like to introduce Joe Longoria from our auditors at MaloneBailey, LLP, who is present virtually at this meeting, and James Keegan, our legal counsel from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. We have asked James Keegan to act as secretary of the meeting and record the minutes of this meeting.
Also present virtually with us today is Tracy Oates of Broadridge Financial Solutions. She will serve as the Inspector of Election for this annual meeting. This annual meeting is being held in accordance with the company's bylaws and Nevada law. During the formal meeting, we will address the matters described in the company's proxy statement, dated December eleventh, 2025, and as supplemented and amended by the supplement to the proxy statement, dated January seventh, 2026. When we complete the balloting, we will announce the preliminary results of the vote, and then we will adjourn the formal meeting. After we complete the formal meeting, I will be available to take questions from stockholders. We will now proceed with the formal portion of this meeting.
I have received an affidavit of mailing stating that the notice, proxy statement, and proxy were mailed on or about December 11, 2025, to all stockholders of record on December 10, 2025, the record date for this annual meeting, and an affidavit of mailing stating that the supplement to the proxy statement was mailed on or about January 7, 2026, to all stockholders of record on December 10. Again, the record date for this annual meeting. The affidavits of mailing will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The Inspector of Election has signed the oath of the Inspector of Election, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting.
The Inspector of Election has advised me that we have present in person at the virtual meeting and by proxy, a sufficient number of shares to constitute a quorum on all matters being presented at the meeting, so the meeting is duly constituted. For the purposes of this annual meeting, we will vote by proxy and virtually via the Internet today. For all proposals to be voted upon at this annual meeting, each holder of our common stock is entitled to one vote for each share of common stock held of record at the close of business on the record date. If you have turned in a proxy and do not intend to change your vote, then it is not necessary that you vote at this virtual meeting because we will count your proxy.
Those of you who did not turn in a proxy, wish to vote remotely, or wish to change your vote may do so by clicking the Cast Your Vote link on the website used to access this meeting and following the instructions that are on the website. If you are not the stockholder of record, you may not vote your shares at the annual meeting unless you obtained a valid proxy from your broker, your bank, or other nominee and submitted it when you registered to attend the meeting. The votes cast today will be counted in the final tally, along with the proxies previously received. It is now 8:05 Pacific Time on January 30, 2026, and the polls are now open.
The first order of business is the election of 2 Class tII director nominees to serve until our 2028 annual meeting of stockholders or until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified or until their earlier resignation or removal. This is discussed on page 26 of the proxy statement. As indicated in the company's proxy statement, the board of directors has nominated Douglas Blayney, MD, and Connie Matsui as nominees for election as Class two directors, both of whom are current directors as nominees for re-election to our board of directors. ... at this annual meeting, and to serve until our 2028 annual meeting of stockholders, or until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified, or until their earlier resignation or removal. Our board of directors recommends a vote for the election of each of the Class Two directors nominees to the board of directors.
Those of you who are voting online during the meeting should now mark your online ballots on proposal number 1 to indicate how you are voting. The next order of business is approving, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the named executive officer identified in the 2024 summary compensation table in executive compensation section of the proxy statement. This is discussed on page 27 of the proxy statement. This proposal, commonly referred to as the "say on pay" proposal, is advisory and therefore not binding on the company, our Compensation Committee, or our board of directors. The say on pay vote will, however, inform us regarding investor sentiment about our executive compensation, which our Compensation Committee will be able to consider when determining executive compensation.
Our Board of Directors recommends a vote for the approval on an advisory basis of the say on pay proposal. Those of you who are voting online during this meeting should now mark your online ballots on the proposal number 2 to indicate how you are voting. The last order of business is to vote on the proposal to ratify the appointment by the Audit Committee of MaloneBailey, LLP, as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending on December 31, 2026. This item is discussed on page 9 of the supplement to the proxy statement. The Audit Committee of our Board of Directors selects the company's independent registered public accounting firm annually. The Audit Committee has appointed MaloneBailey, LLP, as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026.
The Audit Committee is asking stockholders for ratification of their appointment. Stockholder ratification is not required by the company's Bylaws. However, the Audit Committee is submitting the appointment to the stockholders for ratification as a matter of good corporate practice. Our Board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal. Those of you who are voting online during the meeting should now mark your online ballots on proposal number three to indicate how you are voting. Finally, since there are no other business proposed, we have no further items of business for this meeting. Those of you who are voting virtually via the internet, please submit your ballot indicating the way you wish to vote. We will now briefly pause to enable those who are voting virtually to finish voting.
It is now 8:11 A.M. Pacific Time on January 30, 2026, and the polls for each matter to be voted on at this annual meeting are now closed. No additional ballots, proxies, or votes, or changes, or revocations will be accepted. The Inspector of Election will now tabulate the proxies and the votes submitted virtually via the internet. The Inspector of Election has informed me that based upon the preliminary report of the proxies and votes which we have received, one, Douglas Blayney, MD, and Connie Matsui have been elected as Class II directors to serve until our 2028 annual meeting of stockholders or until their respective successors are duly elected and qualified, or until their earlier resignation or removal. And number two, the compensation of our named executive officer, as disclosed on the proxy statement, has been approved on an advisory basis.
Lastly, the appointment of MaloneBailey, LLP, as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026, has been ratified. These are the preliminary results of voting. A definitive report of the results of votes on each such proposal will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. The final results will be also reported in our filings with the SEC. There being no further business to come before this meeting, the meeting is now adjourned. We wish to thank each and every one of you for your attendance. This brings the formal business portion of the meeting to an end. We will now proceed with our question-and-answer session. I will now entertain questions from stockholders in attendance.
Before we proceed, I would like to note that during the course of the question-and-answer period, representatives of the company may make forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company, which involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements are only predictions, and actual events or results could differ materially from the predictions due to a number of risks and uncertainties. I refer you to the documents of the company's files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2025. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements.
If you would like to submit a question, please do so by typing it into the Ask a Question box located on the left side of your screen. Please confine your comments to one subject at a time. We will now briefly pause to review any questions submitted. No questions have been received by the stockholders at this time, so we will now close today's meeting. We want to thank you all for attending today's meeting and for the interest you have shown in the affairs of Artelo Biosciences. We very much appreciate your attendance, and as always, thank you for your support.
This concludes today's annual meeting. You may now disconnect.