Good morning. I show it's 8 o'clock. Thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2019 Annual Stockholders Meeting. It is a pleasure to welcome everyone here today. I'm Bill Rhodes, Chairman, President and CEO, Customer Satisfaction.
I'll be presiding over today's meeting. Of course, it would not be an official AutoZone meeting if we didn't start off our meeting with the chair and the pledge. Demond Payne, come on up and get us started. Hey, u t o d o n e. AutoZone.
The customers. AutoZone is always for customers first. We know our parts and products. Our stores look great. We got the best merchandise at the right price.
Do we have anybody to share an extra mile or story? It. Thanks for that great story, Doug. All right, to begin the business of our annual meeting, I'll first ask Kristin Wright, our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary to report on the giving of notice of this meeting to our stockholders and the present of a
This is Sandra Stead from Computershare, our transfer agent is here serving as our Independent Inspector of Elections. I'm presenting to the meeting a complete list of the holders of record at the company's common stock on October 21, 2019 who are entitled to vote at this meeting. I've received an affidavit from Computershare stating that on October 28, 2019, the mailing was commenced of the notice of meeting, the proxy and the postage prepaid return envelope to stockholders of record as of the close of business on October 21, 2019. A tabulation of the proxies received from stockholders indicates that more than a majority of the outstanding shares are represented at this meeting and a quorum is present. All stockholders of record at the close of business on October 21, 2019 are entitled to vote at this annual meeting.
Thanks, Kristen. I'll now call this meeting to order. Before we proceed to the first order of business, I'd like to ask our senior management team, the AutoZone Executive Committee, please stand and be recognized. Thank you all for your great leadership. I'd also like to take a moment to recognize Andy McKenna and Lou Nieto, who are retiring after many years of outstanding service on our Board of Directors.
In his nearly 20 years on the AutoZone Board, Andy has provided insightful guidance and tutelage and served in leadership roles as both Lead Director and Audit Committee Chair. Lou has been a Director for over 11 years and served on both the audit and nominating corporate governance committees. He has provided great expertise and diligently helped us resolve complex issues. The Board, management team and I thank Andy and Lou for their leadership and invaluable contributions. We wish them both their very best in the future endeavors.
Give them a round of applause. Now let's proceed with our first order of business. I'd like to point out that stockholders do not need to vote by ballot at this meeting if they've already voted. If you've not filled out a proxy or if you'd like to vote in person, please raise your hand and a ballot will be handed to you. In accordance with the notice of the meeting, the first order of business is the election of directors to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Stockholders in 2020.
The following directors have been nominated by the Board's Nominating Corporate Governance Committee for reelection to the Board. All of the nominees are currently directors, and I'd like to ask them to stand as their names are called Doug Brooks, Mike Calvert, Linda Goodspeed, Butch Graves, Anderson Gamaris, Brian Jordan, Gail King, George Mercotic, Joe Salto and myself. Please give them a big round of applause for all those tables. The Board of Directors unanimously recommends that stockholders vote for each of these nominees. Polls are now open for voting.
The second order of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the registered public accounting firm of the company for 2020 fiscal year. Jeff Smith is with us today representing Ernst and Young. Jeff? Thank you for your service. Our Board unanimously recommends the ratification of Ernst and Young as our independent accountants.
The 3rd order of business is a non binding advisory vote on executive compensation, say, own pay. Our Board unanimously recommends a vote for this proposal. For those stockholders voting at the meeting, please finish marking your ballots as the polls are now closing. Polls are now closed. Please pass any proxy cards or ballots you have towards the aisle to be collected at this time.
Kristin, has the Inspector of Elections received all the completed ballots?
Yes. Then we have the results of the votes. They are present at this meeting in person or by proxy, approximately 21,100,000 shares of the company's common stock, representing approximately 89% of the 23,800,000 shares seem to be outstanding as of October 21, 2019. Based upon this report, all 10 directors have been duly elected, the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP for fiscal year 2020 has been ratified and the advisory vote on the stockholders on executive compensation has been approved.
Terrific. Since there's no further business, I'll adjourn the official portion of the meeting and begin the Q and A period. At this point, I'd like to open up the floor for any questions anyone may have. Seeing none, I'd like to thank our stockholders for your continued confidence in our mission and I'd like to thank all AutoZoners across the globe for their commitment to providing Wow! Customer service and living the pledge.
Now let's proceed to deliver a great 2020. But before we go, demand close us out please.