Good morning, welcome to the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of CBRE Group, Inc. At this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Bob Sulentic . The floor is yours, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Bob Sulentic . I am the Chair of the Board of Directors of CBRE. On behalf of the rest of the Board, we are very pleased to welcome you to the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will serve as Chair of today's meeting, and Chad Doellinger, our Chief Legal and Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary, will act as the Secretary of the meeting. At this time, I would also like to introduce the members of our Board who will be standing for re-election. Their backgrounds and qualifications are described in detail in the proxy statement you received for today's meeting. In addition to me, the directors standing for re-election are Brandon Boze, Vincent Clancy, Beth Cobert, Reginald Gilyard, Shira Goodman, Gerardo Lopez, Guy Metcalfe, Gunjan Soni, and Sanjiv Yajnik.
We are also joined by additional members of management, including our chief financial officer and chief investment officer, Emma Giamartino, and our chief operating officer and CEO of Advisory Services, Vikram Kohli. Also joining us are our independent auditors, KPMG LLP. I would like to turn it over to Chad, who will present an overview of the agenda and the rules of procedure for the meeting. Chad?
Thank you, Bob. At this time, I would like to review the agenda for today's meeting and the procedure for submitting questions. On the bottom left-hand corner of the screen is the Q&A section where stockholders can enter questions at any point during the meeting. When you're entering your question, please remember to include your name and company with the question. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. Stockholder questions or remarks must comply with our rules of procedure. The rules of procedure can be found at the bottom right-hand corner of the web portal under Meeting Materials. We appreciate your cooperation with those rules. If your question does not relate to a specific proposal, we will address it during the general Q&A session that takes place after the formal portion of the meeting is adjourned.
As described in the agenda for today's meeting, we will begin with the presentation of the three management proposals. We will introduce them all at once and will then respond to questions about any of them. We will then turn to the stockholder proposal. The stockholder proponent will have up to three minutes to present the stockholder proposal. If it is presented, we will then respond to any questions related to the stockholder proposal. After the presentation of the proposals, we will close the polls. Once the polls are closed, we will announce the preliminary vote results, and the meeting will be adjourned.
After the formal portion of the meeting is completed, we will conduct a question and answer session. In accordance with the procedures for this meeting, the recording of these proceedings is prohibited. We will now turn to the business to be conducted at today's meeting. Thank you. Bob?
Thank you, Chad. It is now 11:04 A.M. Central Time, and I hereby call this meeting to order. The polls are open and will remain open until I announce that the polls are closed. Any stockholders who have not yet voted or wish to change their vote may do so by clicking on the Cast Your Vote button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or previously voted via the telephone or internet and do not want to change their votes do not need to take any further action. The board of directors has fixed the close of business on March 23rd, 2026, as the record date for determination of stockholders entitled to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting.
As of the record date, there were 293,140,748 shares of our common stock outstanding and entitled to vote. The proxy materials for the annual meeting were first distributed and made available to stockholders on April 3, 2026. Broadridge Financial Solutions has provided an affidavit certifying to the timely mailing of the proxy materials to all stockholders of record as of the record date. The Inspector of Elections has certified that there is a sufficient quorum for all business to be conducted at this meeting. We will now turn to the management proposals for consideration by the stockholders. The first item is the election of directors.
The board has nominated each person named in the proxy materials for election as directors at this annual meeting to hold office until the 2027 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The second item is to ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The third item is an advisory resolution to approve named executive officers' compensation for 2025. The board recommends that the stockholders vote for the management proposals for the reasons stated in the proxy statement. If you have any questions or comments regarding any of the three management proposals, please enter your questions into the web portal.
Chad, do we have any questions submitted by stockholders on any of the three management proposals?
Bob, we do not have any questions related to the management proposals.
We will now turn to the presentation of the stockholder Proposal 4, to be voted upon at today's meeting. Operator, is Mr. Chevedden on the line?
Yes, Mr. Chevedden is currently on the line.
Mr. Chevedden, you may proceed to present Proposal 4.
Hello, this is John Chevedden, Proposal 4, reasonable shareholder ability to call for a special shareholder meeting. Shareholders ask our board of directors to take the steps necessary to amend the governing documents to give the owners that combine 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. Such a special shareholder meeting can be an easy-to-convene online shareholder meeting. There shall be no unnecessary poison pill discriminatory rules require ownership of shares for a specific period of time in order for shares to participate in calling for a special shareholder meeting, and no unnecessary requirement that most such shareholders be record holders. This proposal includes that CBRE incorporates this right in its bylaws and that such bylaws be published on a CBRE website for easy access.
The so-called CBRE right to call for a special shareholder meeting has two factors that make a shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting unattainable. First, a requirement of 25% of shares to call for a special shareholder meeting instead of the 10% allowed by state law. Second is 1,500 words of legalese governing this right when 100 words would be acceptable. It shows that more than 100 companies have voted on proposals regarding shareholders calling for a special shareholder meeting. Not one of these 100 companies have ever cited a single example of a special shareholder meeting actually taking place at any company anywhere that required 25% of shares to call for a special meeting or had 1,500 words of legalese regarding a special shareholder meeting.
Companies like the 25% figure because the 25% figure is more like an insurance policy that a special shareholder meeting will never take place. Please vote for an attainable shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting, Proposal 4.
The board recommends that stockholders vote against this proposal for the reasons stated in the proxy statement. Chad, do we have any questions submitted by stockholders on the stockholder proposal?
Bob, we do not have any questions related to the stockholder proposal.
Thank you. That concludes the items to be voted upon in this meeting. If you have not done so already, please vote now on the web portal, and I will pause to give stockholders a bit of time to vote if they have not done so and wish to do so. It is now 11:10 A.M. Central Time, and I declare that the polls are closed. I have been advised by the Inspector of Elections that based on the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections, each person nominated as director has been elected. The appointment of KPMG LLP has been ratified. The advisory resolution on named executive officer compensation has been approved, and the stockholder proposal regarding stockholders' ability to call a special meeting has failed.
Please note that these results are preliminary, and the official report of the Inspector of Elections will be reported on a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As there are no further matters to be raised at this meeting, I will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting.
I move that the meeting be adjourned. I second that motion.
All in favor?
Aye.
The formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned. At this time, we would like to entertain any general questions. Please adhere to the guidelines for questions that Mr. Doellinger has previously outlined. Chad, do we have any questions?
Yes, we do. Bob, we have a two-part question. Please address how the shortage of highly qualified technical talent is impacting CBRE's ability to scale up infrastructure and data center services, please respond to investor concerns.