Seeing the members of the Board of Directors of Howmet Aerospace who are in attendance today. James Albaugh, Amy E. Alving, Sharon R. Barner, Joseph S. Cantie, Robert F. Leduc, Jody G. Miller, John C. Plant, Ulrich R. Schmidt, and Gunner S. Smith. Certain members of the Howmet Aerospace leadership team are also joining us today. Patrick Winterlich, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Neil Marchuk, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Ann Humphrey, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. I will now formally call this meeting to order and will conduct the business portion of the meeting. In order to conduct a fair and orderly meeting, we've established rules of conduct and meeting procedures for the annual meeting of shareholders. The rules and procedures can be found at the lower right-hand corner of your screen.
We will conduct the meeting in accordance with these rules and procedures, and your cooperation in observing them is greatly appreciated. While the meeting is virtual only, we welcome questions from our shareholders. Shareholders who logged into this meeting using their 16-digit control numbers may submit questions at any time during the meeting. You may submit your questions by typing the question in the Ask a Question field in the lower right-hand corner of your screen and clicking Submit. Any questions pertinent to the company will be answered during the question and answer session of today's meeting. Any questions that are not answered due to time constraints will be answered and posted on our website after the annual meeting. Next, I'd like to advise you that we've met the legal requirements for today's meeting.
Notice of this meeting and the proxy materials were made available to each shareholder entitled to vote beginning on or about April 6, 2026. As stated in the notice and proxy statement, the record date for voting for this meeting was the close of business March 24, 2026. We have mailed or made available the notice of this meeting and the company's proxy statement and annual report to each shareholder entitled to vote as of the record date. An affidavit of mailing these materials has been filed with the company's records. A list of shareholders as of the record date has been made available for examination by shareholders for purposes of this meeting and can be obtained on your screen. The board of directors has appointed American Election Services to act as the inspector of election for this meeting.
Present by phone is John Merva, a representative of American Election Services. A total of 400,713,557 shares of common stock are outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. The inspector of election reports that proxies for approximately 362 million shares were received from Howmet Aerospace shareholders holding approximately 90% of the common shares. This satisfies the quorum requirements of Delaware law for this meeting. This meeting is properly organized with a quorum present, and we can proceed with the business of today's meeting. Present is Sean Hoover from our independent auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers is available to respond to any questions that are appropriate for them to address during the question and answer session at the end of this meeting.
Proxy committee members appointed by the Howmet Aerospace Board of Directors are also present to represent those shareholders who are providing their proxies to the committee. All items of business are now formally before the meeting. The time is 9:07 A.M. Eastern Time, and I declare the polls now open for each item to be voted on today, May 19th, 2026. Voting today is by proxy and electronic ballot. Most of our shareholders have already voted by returning their proxies. Their shares are being voted by their proxies accordingly. If you are a shareholder who has not voted or wishes to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen and following the instructions provided. Please remember that if you have previously voted by mail, Internet, or phone, you do not need to vote again.
At this time, the polls are open for voting on the proposals. There are three items of business for this meeting. Each of these items is further discussed in the proxy materials that were distributed in connection with this meeting. We have not received any other items of business in accordance with our governing documents or the SEC's proxy rules. As a result, we will not consider any additional items of business at this meeting, and all nominations and proposals are hereby closed. The first item is the election of directors to serve for a one-year term expiring at the 2027 annual meeting of shareholders. The nine director nominees for election are James Albaugh, Amy Alving, Sharon Barner, Joseph Cantie, Robert Leduc, Jody Miller, John Plant, Rick Schmidt, and Gunner Smith. The board of directors recommends voting for the election of each of these director nominees.
The second item of business is the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Howmet Aerospace's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The board of directors recommends voting for this item. The third item of business is to approve on an advisory basis our executive compensation. The board of directors recommends voting for this item. All nominations and proposals have been presented, I declare that the poll is now closed as of 9:09 A.M. Eastern time, May 19th, 2026. At this time, I'd like to provide the preliminary voting results based on the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election. Each of the nine director nominees has been elected to the board of directors, with all nominees receiving the support of a majority of the votes cast.
The proposal to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Howmet Aerospace's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 has been approved with the support of a majority of the votes cast. Executive compensation on an advisory basis has been approved with the support of the majority of the votes cast. We will report the final election returns on a Form 8-K that we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of this meeting. This completes our formal business, and the business portion of this meeting is formally adjourned at 9:10 A.M. Eastern Time, May 19th, 2026. At this time, I'd like to open the meeting for questions. You may ask a question by using the Ask a Question field in the lower right-hand corner of your screen and clicking Submit.
Now I'd like to turn the meeting to Mr. Plant for the question-and-answer session.
We have one question submitted so far, and that is, has the conflict in the Middle East had any material impact on the company so far? The only impact that's discernible currently appears to be the uptick in inflation as a result of the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil. Of course, where that goes to in the future remains to be seen and how sustained that is, and I guess it's also wrapped up in the resolution of the conflict. I think a secondary impact will be if inflation is sustained at a higher level than it was in recent months, then there could be a long-term impact on interest rates.
In terms of what I think you may be getting at is has it impacted our volumes of business? The answer to that is currently no. The only impact that I think could have been would be on the use of spares, because clearly aircraft in the Middle East are flying less, because it's commercial aircraft, and therefore, there could have been an impact on the replacement of parts for those. Currently, the backlog of in MRO shops for I'd say the service and an upgrade of aircraft is such that there has been zero impact so far. There always remains the question is, if the conflict remains on a sustained basis, then what is the impact later this year or into next year?
On the other hand, clearly the flip side of that is, given the amount of missions which have been flown by aircraft of all types, then I expect that on the defense side or the military side of our business, there will be an increase in orders for the replacement of those parts coming through. Whether the timing exactly matches any impact from the commercial aerospace side remains to be seen. At the moment, my guess is that it's a wash between them, or if not, then the increased demand from replacement of some missile stocks will also help and benefit Howmet.
Thank you, John. Having received no additional questions, I'd like to thank all participants for attending. We appreciate your continued interest in Howmet Aerospace, and our program for the day is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's meeting. You may now disconnect.