Good morning, and welcome to the FirstEnergy Corp's 2026 annual meeting of shareholders. This meeting is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to the company.
Thank you. I'm Mary Swann, Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. I would like to review a few details before we begin. The rules of conduct are summarized on your webcast screen. You may find the full rules of conduct in the Meeting Materials area to the left of your screen. The polls are open as of 8:00 A.M. Eastern Time. Eligible shareholders who have not yet voted or are looking to change their vote may do so by clicking the Click Here to Vote link on your screen. The polls will remain open until the conclusion of the voting of this meeting. All links in the Meeting Materials section of the screen are now live and will remain live during the voting portion of the meeting.
In the event of technical difficulties where we are unable to provide an immediate update in this meeting, please wait 15 minutes for resolution. If after that time we are still unable to provide an update in this meeting, please refer to the newsroom area on the company's website, firstenergycorp.com, for related updates. There will be a session to answer questions pertinent to the meeting and related to company business after the formal part of the meeting. Pre-registered shareholders may submit questions in the Ask a Question area on your screen. At this time, I would like to turn the meeting over to Brian Tierney, Board Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of FirstEnergy.
Thank you, Mary. Good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome you to our annual meeting of shareholders. This webcast has two sections, the formal part of the meeting with a report on voting results, followed by a session to answer shareholder questions. At this time, I will call this annual meeting of shareholders to order. As Mary indicated, we will follow the rules of conduct available in the Meeting Materials section of your screen. The forward-looking statements disclaimer for the meeting is also located in that section. To begin, I would like to acknowledge the nominees for your board of directors, all of whom have joined us on the call today. I would also like to recognize and thank Melvin Williams, who is not standing for reelection at this meeting, for his five years of service on our board.
I also recognize and appreciate our executive team for their leadership and dedication. Together, we are executing our strategy to become a premier electric company that delivers long-term value for our investors, customers, communities, and employees. Mr. Kevin Thomas, representing PricewaterhouseCoopers, is attending the meeting as described in the proxy statement. The board appointed Corporate Election Services to act as inspector of election for this meeting. A list of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting was delivered to Corporate Election Services. A certified copy of this list is available for examination in the Meeting Materials section by eligible shareholders. The polls are open. Eligible shareholders who have not yet voted or are looking to change their vote may do so by clicking the Click Here to Vote link in the Meeting Materials section. Voting will close shortly.
Mary Swann, our Corporate Secretary, will now give her report.
Mr. Chairman, this meeting is being held pursuant to a notice which was mailed or made available beginning as of April 1st, 2026, to each shareholder of record as of March 23rd , 2026. There is a quorum present in person or by proxy.
Thank you, Mary. I refer you to the annual report located in the Meeting Materials and present the financial statements from 2025. The company's amended and restated code of regulations set forth a shareholder must follow to nominate directors or present other shareholder proposals. No matters have been submitted in accordance with the company's code of regulations. The only matters properly before our shareholders today are those set forth in the proxy statement and notice of annual meeting. The first order of business is to vote on the items identified in the proxy statement. Items one through three are the following. One, the election of the nine director nominees named in the proxy statement. Item two, the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent registered public accounting firm for 2026.
And three, an advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation. Your board has recommended that shareholders vote for the election of each of the nine director nominees in item one and for items two and three. Item four is a shareholder proposal. Ms. Ziona Bohannon is available to present item four on behalf of John Chevedden. Please limit your remarks to no longer than three minutes, and please keep your comments to the shareholder proposal being presented. Operator, please open Ms. Bohannon's line.
That line is open.
Good morning. Proposal Independent Board Chairman, sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders request the Board of Directors adopt an enduring policy and amend the governing documents in order that two separate people hold the office of chairman and the office of the CEO as soon as possible. The chairman of the board shall be an independent director. A lead director shall not be a substitute for an independent board chairman. The board shall have the discretion to select an interim chairman of the board who is not an independent director to serve while the board is required to seek an independent chairman of the board on an accelerated basis.
An independent board chairman at all times improves corporate governance by bringing in partially objective oversight and external expertise to board decisions, mitigating conflicts of interest, enhancing transparency, and boosting investors' confidence. This detached perspective allows the chairman to focus on shareholder interest, strength, management, accountability, provide critical checks and balances, ultimately contributing to the company's long-term sustainability and credibility. An independent board chairman could also help FirstEnergy deal with issues like these. Critics argue that despite FirstEnergy paying over $500 million in penalties since 2020, the consequences have not resulted in enough systematic change to prevent future political misconduct by FirstEnergy. In New Jersey, FirstEnergy subsidiary Jersey Central Power & Light face potential penalties of $44 million for failing to meet customer reliability standards. In Ohio, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel strongly criticized the FirstEnergy proposal to lower reliability performance standards.
Please vote yes, Independent Board Chairman Proposal Four. Thank you.
Her line is muted now.
Thank you for that. That concludes the items that will be voted on today. I now declare the polls closed at 8:07 A.M. Preliminary results will now be displayed on the webcast screen. Final voting results will be filed on a current report Form 8-K. This will be made available on our website and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Final voting results are also subject to certification by the Inspector of Election and will be included in the meeting minutes. That concludes our official business. With the consent of the majority of shares represented at this meeting, I declare the annual meeting of shareholders to be officially adjourned. At this time, we will pause the meeting briefly to review any submitted questions.
We have two questions. First, are we ever going to go back to in-person meetings?
In response to that, I don't wanna answer questions forever. During global pandemic, many of these meetings went to virtual meetings. As we benchmark against our peers, that seems to be the common practice today. The expense of holding an in-person meeting in today's environment where we can effectively communicate with shareholders via Teams and remotely and other such technology leads us to want to continue to do this today. We'll leave open the opportunity to change if there's a desire for people, shareholders to meet and it's something that is necessary for us to do to better communicate with our shareholders.
Thank you, Brian. The next question: Is FE investing in any solar battery storage or wind energy generation?
As you know, we are a wires-only company in four of our five states. In the state of West Virginia, where we are integrated and own generation, transmission, and distribution, we do own about 30 MW of solar presently. In the application for the CPCN that we filed with the state of West Virginia, we are requesting to be able to add an additional 70 MW of solar and believe there's broad support for that and hope that's approved by the West Virginia Public Service Commission.
Thank you.
It appears there are no further questions at this time. That concludes our meeting. Thank you for your participation.
This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.