Good morning. Welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders of Avantor, Inc. My name is Greg Summe, and I serve as Chairman of the Board. It's now 11:00 A.M., and I hereby call this annual meeting of stockholders to order. Also present today are members of our Board of Directors, Michael Stubblefield, our President and CEO, Claudius Sokenu, our Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary. Claudius will act as Secretary and Timekeeper of the meeting. The Board has appointed Angela Keelums from Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as Inspector of Elections. The Inspector has taken the required oath. Representatives of Deloitte & Touche LLP are also present and will be available during the question and answer period to address questions regarding the company's financial statements. Before we proceed, I'd like to review a few important procedural items. This meeting is being conducted virtually.
The rules of conduct for the meeting are available under the Meeting Materials section of the webcast portal. Stockholders who have logged in using their unique control numbers may submit questions through the Ask a Question feature at any time. Please limit your questions to two questions and ensure they relate to matters properly before the meeting or the business of the company. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and no recording of the meeting by participants is permitted. The company has provided stockholders with access to the notice of meeting, the proxy statement, and the annual report. These meetings are also available on our website at ir.avantorsciences.com. As noted in the notice in proxy statement, the record date for determining stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting was March thirteenth, 2026.
A list of the stockholders as of the record date is available for inspection as required by law. The secretary has executed an affidavit of mailing confirming that notice this meeting was duly given. The affidavit will be included in the minutes of this meeting. I now ask the secretary to report on whether a quorum is present.
Thank you, Greg. As of the record date, 676,110,712 shares of common stock were outstanding and entitled to vote. Based on the report of the inspector of elections, holders of approximately 94% of the outstanding shares are present in person or by proxy.
Thank you. A quorum is present, and the meeting is duly convened to transact business. The matters to be voted on today are described in the proxy statement and displayed on your screen. We will address each proposal in turn, and voting will open after all proposals have been presented. I will now turn it over to the secretary to present the proposals.
The first item of business is the election of directors to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders and until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The board of directors recommends a vote for each of the nine nominees set forth in the company's 2026 proxy statement. In accordance with the advance notice provision of the company's bylaws, nominations from the floor are not permitted at this meeting. The second proposal is a non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. The board of directors recommends a vote for this proposal. The third proposal is a non-binding advisory vote on how frequently stockholders should have an opportunity to vote on an advisory basis, which is to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
The board of directors recommend a vote to hold future say-on-pay votes every one year. The fourth proposal is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2026 fiscal year. The board of directors and the audit committee recommend a vote for this proposal.
If you have a question specifically related to any of the proposals, please submit it through the question box now. At this time, we will proceed to voting. The polls are now open. Stockholders who have not yet voted or who wish to change their vote may do so by selecting the Cast Your Vote button on the screen and following the instructions. Stockholders who have previously submitted proxies and do not wish to change their vote need not take any action. I will now pause briefly to allow for voting. I now declare the polls are closed, and I ask the secretary to report the preliminary voting results.
Based on the inspector of election's preliminary tabulation, all director nominees have been elected by a majority of the votes cast. The advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved. The advisory proposal on the one-year option on the frequency of future say-on-pay votes received the highest number of votes cast. Finally, the proposal to ratify Deloitte & Touche LLP has been approved. The company will report final voting results in a Form 8-K to be filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of this meeting.
There being no further business to come before the meeting, the formal portion of the annual meeting of stockholders is now adjourned. We will now open the meeting for general questions that are germane to the business of the company, subject to the rules of conduct. I'll pause for any questions. There being no questions, this concludes today's program. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support of Avantor. Have a great day.
That concludes the meeting. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.