Good day, and welcome to the Corteva Inc. 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Greg Page, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I'm Gregory Page, Chair of the Board of Directors of Corteva, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, our first. We appreciate your participation in today's meeting and your ongoing support for Corteva. I'll start the formal business of this meeting by introducing Cornell Feurer, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, who will serve as Secretary of this meeting. To continue the introductions, I would like to recognize our directors who are joining us here today.
Our Chief Executive Officer, Jim Collins Lamberto Andreotti Edward Breen Robert Brown Klaus Engel Michael Johans Lois Doulebert, Rebecca Liebert, Marco Flutz, Nayaki Nayar, Lee Thomas and Patrick Ward. In February, Edward Green informed us of his intention not to stand for reelection to our Board. We would like to thank Ed for his important contributions to our Board, particularly his insights and leadership as we transition to a public company. Additionally, I would like to introduce our Chief Financial Officer, Greg Friedman and our Investor Relations Director, Megan Britt, joining us today. Finally, also joining us are Gray Lamb and Doug Schmidt, representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm.
The meeting will now come to order. Cornell will now review the formalities to be observed for our meeting today.
Thank you, Greg. Our meeting, our Web site and the virtual meeting platform contain a copy of the agenda and rules of conduct for this meeting, which will ensure that stockholders have an opportunity to raise questions and our meeting proceeds in a fair and orderly fashion. If you wish to raise a question, please click on Question for Management and type in your question. As noted in the rules of conduct for this meeting, personal grievances and matters outside the scope of the agenda for this meeting will not be permitted to be raised in today's meeting. If we run out of time to address a properly raised question fully or at all during the meeting, we will post the questions and answers to our investor web page.
Discussion on matters will be eliminated if they become repetitive or in violation of our rules of conduct. Broadridge Financial Solutions has been appointed Inspector of Elections and its representatives will tabulate today's voting results. I have received the Inspector's written oath of office and he has presented me with evidence that notice of this meeting was properly given to all stakeholders of records as of the close of business on a record date. This notice will be filed within minutes of this meeting. I have determined based upon the inspectors' report that there are stockholders represented at this meeting holding common stock representing at least a majority of the votes entitled to be cast at this meeting, which is sufficient for a quorum and for transacting the business of this meeting.
With the quorum met, the polls for voting are now open. Corteva's management will provide a brief video and remarks regarding Corteva's recent accomplishments. This presentation contains certain non GAAP measures. Please see the company's Investor Relations website or the materials in this portal for more information on these non GAAP measures. I am now introducing Workiva's Chief Executive Officer, Jim Collins.
Thank you, Cornell. Good morning and thank you for joining us today for our inaugural shareholder meeting. You just saw in that brief video that in 2019, we made incredible strides in delivering results in the face of an unprecedented operating environment. The very same year in which we achieved our most significant milestone of all, the spin off of Corteva into an independent pure play agriculture company. Now separately, these achievements are noteworthy.
Together, they're truly remarkable. I'm extremely proud of our Corteva team and what we've delivered and pleased to be here today to share a few highlights from this historic year, along with the progress we're driving. Before I do, I want to first acknowledge the global situation that has consumed much of the world's attention in these past several months. We continue to closely monitor the conditions surrounding the global spread of COVID-nineteen. And as we do, our first priority remains the safety and well-being of our employees.
Corteva began this journey from a position of strength with an established risk management process that enabled us to quickly mobilize globally. Circumstances and government actions continue to change almost daily. Early on, faced with a rapidly evolving situation that had no clear roadmap, we created our own. We put in place a multi phased approach. Modeled after the lessons we learned in the 2,008 global financial crisis, this approach is providing our organization with much needed clarity, consistency and alignment.
With a bias for action, it cuts through complexity with straightforward solutions. Additionally, we have even more proactively opened up the lines of communications to support our customers when, how and where they need us. We also continue to monitor near term operating conditions for any necessary adjustments to maintain business continuity and are doing so while aggressively preserving cash. Now this is an important time to be a pure play agriculture company. There is no doubt that food security will always serve as a central fixture during uncertain times.
But beyond that, Corteva is proud to provide farmers with sustainable solutions that address timely and pressing challenges both today and into the future. The launch of Corteva in June of 2019 represented the culmination of a long journey, an extraordinary achievement considered the task at hand and the unexpected obstacles we faced during the year. While our teams were out executing in the market, they were also behind the scenes building a new company. The result, a leading pure play agriculture company with deep expertise, established presence and market positions in key strategic areas, all backed by an innovation engine, industry collaboration and a resilient team. Just a few of the achievements from this team since Merge.
In building Corteva, we established a capital structure, a harmonized operating system and controlled protocols for running a disciplined and accountable organization. We designed our operating model to include a streamlined structure and footprint. So as we mapped ourselves into this model, we reduced headcount by 15%, we reduced our seed production sites by 24%, we reduced crop protection manufacturing sites by 7% and reduced R and D sites by 33%, while reducing commercial offices by 54%. These steps enabled us to achieve cumulative cost synergies by the end of 2019 of $800,000,000 against our $1,200,000,000 target. Now setting the right culture early on was critical to this progress.
Through our Execute to Win program, we continue to work toward our cost synergy and operating EBITDA targets by maintaining a best in class cost structure, while operating an efficient organization. Through these efforts, we can see the Corteva way of working come to life every day. Now this cultural foundation and way of working is helping us in the face of the uncertainty today and Surib is an important source of strength in 2019. The video you watched summarized several of our achievements during this period. However, I'd like to share a few more.
In 2019, our crop protection portfolio continued to deliver with recent crop protection launches such as Aerelex, Zorvec, Isoclast and now Enitrak. We secured significant regulatory approvals for several proprietary traits, including our ENLIST E3, CHROME and Conchesta Technologies. We accelerated product development and production of Enlist E3 Soybeans well ahead of the 2021 selling season, a critical component of our long term strategy to reduce dependence on 3rd party licenses. We added capacity to support the sales growth for spinosan insecticides globally. We continue to manage our portfolio and sold several non core assets during the year.
These portfolio actions were supported by our more recent announcement that we would stop the production of chlorpyrifos by the end of 2020. We kept cost synergies on track with $350,000,000 in cost synergies delivered in 2019. We also maintained a strong balance sheet and from a liquidity perspective ended 2019 with approximately $1,800,000,000 in cash. Importantly, we achieved all of this while supporting our customers and tightly controlling what we could in the face of those historic headwinds, such as U. S.
Weather related disruptions, impacts from a prolonged trade dispute with China, currency and price and competitive market pressures in soybeans. So this brings me to our 5 priorities for shareholder value creation. I'm proud to say we made significant progress in all five areas in 2019 and we continue to use these priorities as a guide for how we execute as an organization going forward. We are approaching 2020 with the same focus and resolve you saw in 2019. As we look ahead to a future on the other side of this crisis, the actions we are taking now will ensure we are ready for recovery when it comes and I believe it will.
I am confident as a result of our planning and our focused execution that we will emerge a stronger, more efficient and even more resilient organization. I'll end on a fundamental promise we made in establishing Corteva. Our singular focus on agriculture means we can now share a common purpose, to enhance the land we work and the lives of those who work it. We are committed to delivering a more responsible food system, one that sustains lives and enriches our planet. We are taking on the challenges facing the global food supply by innovating and collaborating.
This involves engaging with consumers, NGOs, regulatory bodies and industry with environmental, social and government efforts that underscore our dedication to this promise and to our purpose. Every day, we're developing and delivering sustainable solutions that protect the source of our food and provide tools for healthier lives. We're serious about our responsibility to increase yield, optimize inputs and to drive climate resilience inside the farm gate. In fact, at the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug International positive role in addressing climate challenges. We positive role in addressing climate challenges.
This year, we will implement our Climate Positive Challenge Grant Program, which as announced in 2019 will reward efforts that offset carbon emissions and protect the environment while sustaining farms and farmers. As we develop and launch new products, we've put in place a structured process to rapidly ramp up new product sales, while efficiently managing working capital deployment. Now our approach to capital allocation is rooted in a culture of accountability that has been led by my management team. This diverse and experienced team brings a critical perspective, industry relationships and years building and growing disciplined organization. I thank my team for their extraordinary actions, which have stewarded us through a lot and whose leadership will continue to benefit Corteva.
Importantly, I want to also thank my Board and Chairman, Greg Page, for their counsel and continued support on our strategy. With that, thank you to our shareholders for your continued interest in Corteva. In 2019, we not only formed a new company, but we built a solid foundation for the future, setting a new standard as a key player in the ag industry. I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Now at this time, we will hold a brief session to answer your questions.
I'm joined here by Megan. Megan, could you please provide the first question?
Jim, we have no questions related to the proposals at this time.
Great. Thank you, Megan, for that update. And thank you to all of our shareholders for your interest in Corteva. Before I turn the meeting back to Cornell, on behalf
of our team, I wish all of you and your loved ones health and safety during this time. Cornell? Thank you, Jim. Our questions and answer session has now concluded and the polls remain open. The first item of business on our agenda is the election of our 12 Director nominees to serve until the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their respective successors shall have been elected and qualified.
There were no nominations by stockholders submitted to the company prior to this meeting in accordance with our bylaws. Therefore, I declare the nominations closed. The second item on our agenda is the opportunity to cast a non binding advisory vote on the compensation of Corteva's named executive officers. The 3rd item on our agenda is the opportunity to cast a non binding advisory vote on the frequency of the vote on the compensation of Corteva's named executive officers for which the Board has recommended frequency of 1 year. The 4th item on our agenda is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2020 fiscal year.
And the final item on our agenda is the approval of the Corteva Inc. Omnibus employee stock purchase plan. With the conclusion of our final agenda item and our Q and A session closed, I now declare the polls for this meeting are closed. The report of the Inspector of Elections provides that each of the Director nominees listed in the company's proxy statement has been elected. The advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved.
The advisory vote on the frequency of the vote on executive compensation has been approved. The ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers is the company's independent public accounting firm for 2020 has been approved and the Corteva Inc. Omnibus employee stock purchase plan has been approved. I hereby direct the results of the voting to be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. The business for which this meeting has been held is now complete, and I declare the meeting formally adjourned.
Thank you again for your participation in this meeting.