Good morning. Welcome to the IDEXX Laboratories twenty twenty Annual Shareholders Meeting. I'm Larry Kingsley, nonexecutive board chair of IDEXX Labs, and I'll be chairing the meeting. Before we begin the meeting, on behalf of the board and management, I wanna extend our thoughts and best wishes to all who've been affected by the COVID nineteen pandemic. These are unprecedented times, and I hope that you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe.
The meeting is now called to order. I'm joined by Sharon Underberg, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. We're pleased to be conducting our annual meeting once again virtually through an audio webcast. This is our fourth consecutive year holding a virtual annual meeting. We continue to use the virtual format because it enables participation by all of our shareholders regardless of their location at little to no cost.
This format is particularly helpful this year in protecting the health and safety of participants during the pandemic. Through our annual meeting web portal, you may submit questions and vote your shares online before the polls close. In addition, you'll find copies of the agenda and the rules of our conduct for today's meeting. We will conduct the formal business portion of the meeting and consider the proposals described in our proxy statement, tabulate the voting and announce the preliminary voting results. We will then conclude the formal business portion of the meeting.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the public health advisories and guidance regarding social distancing, we will not answer questions during the meeting. Instead, we will post responses to all questions on our Investor Relations website as soon as practicable after the meeting. Shareholders were able to submit questions before the meeting in our online pre meeting forum. You may also submit questions at any time during or immediately following the meeting either electronically through our annual meeting web portal or by telephone. We welcome your questions and comments.
Please also note that this meeting is being recorded and will be available on our Annual Meeting Web Portal within twenty four hours after the end of the meeting. Before we get to proposals, I would like to introduce the other board members. John Ayers, Bruce Claffin, Stuart Esig, Rebecca Henderson, Dan Junius, Jay Mazelski, who is also our President and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Samad, Anne Susik, and Sophie Vanderbroek. We're also joined by Tom Feeley and Matt McNeil, representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers. And I'll now turn the meeting over to our Corporate Secretary, Sharon Underberg, who will conduct the formal business part of the meeting.
Thank you, Larry, and good morning, IDEX shareholders. Before we proceed, we need to confirm that we have a quorum. I have been advised that the company properly mailed its meeting notice and proxy statement commencing on 03/26/2020 to all shareholders of record as of 03/09/2020. And we have received an affidavit to that effect from our proxy distribution agent. The list of our shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting is available for inspection by any shareholder during the meeting and may be accessed during the meeting on the annual meeting web portal.
In addition, we are joined by our Inspector of Election, Christopher Woods of American Election Services, who has advised me that at least a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote are represented by proxy at this meeting. I hereby declare that a quorum exists. At this time, I declare the polls to be open. If you have already voted, you do not need to do anything further. If, however, you wish to change your vote or you have not yet voted, you may do so by voting your shares online by clicking on the Vote Here button on the screen at any time during the meeting until the polls are closed.
As indicated in the annual meeting notice and proxy statement, we are here today to consider three items of business. Number one, the election of the three Class II directors for three year terms. Number two, the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the current fiscal year. And number three, the approval of a non binding advisory resolution on the company's executive compensation commonly known as the say on pay vote. The first item of business is the election of the Class II directors.
The nominees for election are Doctor. Rebecca M. Henderson, Mr. Lawrence D. Kingsley and Doctor.
Sophie V. Vanderbroek. Their biographies and information about their qualifications are included in the proxy statement. The Board unanimously recommends a vote for all the nominees. The second item of business is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the current fiscal year.
Information about this proposal is included in the proxy statement. The board unanimously recommends a vote for this proposal. The third and final item of formal business is the advisory say on pay vote in the company's executive compensation. Information about this proposal and the company's executive compensation are included in the proxy statement. The board unanimously recommends a vote for this proposal.
If you have previously voted and do not wish to change your vote, your vote will be cast as you previously instructed and no further action is needed. If you have not yet voted or you wish to change your vote, you may do so by voting your shares online by clicking on the Vote Here button on the screen at any time during the meeting until the polls are closed. The polls will be closed following this presentation of the proposals. Please note that approval of each of these proposals requires the favorable vote of a majority of the votes cast. Only votes for or against a proposal count as votes cast.
Abstentions and broker non votes are not counted as votes cast and therefore have no effect on the outcome of the vote on these proposals. Having presented the three proposals to be voted on at this meeting, the polls are now closed. The minutes of the meeting will reflect the time at which the polls were closed. We will now announce the preliminary results of the vote on the three proposals. On the first proposal regarding the election of the Class II directors, each of Doctor.
Henderson, Mr. Kingsley, and Doctor. Vanderbroek received a majority of the shares voted and each has been elected as a Class II director. The second proposal regarding the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors received a majority of the shares voted and so was approved. The third proposal regarding a nonbinding advisory vote on the company's executive compensation received a vote to approve by a majority of the shares voted and so was approved.
The final vote tallies, including ballots cast today, will be disclosed in a current report on Form eight ks filed with the SEC within four business days of the meeting. This concludes the formal business portion of the meeting. As a reminder, if you have not already done so, you may submit questions now either electronically through the annual meeting web portal or by telephone immediately following the conclusion of the meeting. We will then post responses to all questions on our Investor Relations website as soon as practicable after the meeting. I will now turn the meeting back over to Larry.
Larry you, Sharon. On behalf of the Board and management, I thank you for participating in IDEXX's twenty twenty Annual Shareholders Meeting. Stay healthy and safe everyone. The meeting is now adjourned.