Welcome to the annual meeting for Laureate Education, Inc. Our host for today's call is Andrew Cohen, Chairman of the Board of Directors. I'll now turn the call over to your host. Mr. Cohen, you may begin.
Good morning, everyone, and a special welcome to our shareholders who are listening. Welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders of Laureate Education, Inc. I'm Andrew Cohen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and I will preside over today's meeting. We are pleased to host our meeting virtually, enabling increased stockholder participation. We now call the meeting to order. If you have not yet reviewed the rules of conduct, they can be accessed via the link on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen under the heading Meeting Materials. The rules of conduct will govern how we run the meeting. As of the start of the meeting, the polls are open for each matter to be voted on today. There are eight current directors who have been nominated for re-election and one new director nominee.
The nominees for election are Andrew Cohen, Julian Coulter, William Davis, Pedro del Corro, Aristides de Macedo, Barbara Mair, George Muñoz, Eilif Serck-Hanssen, and Ian Snow. The director nominees are in attendance at today's meeting. Leslie Brush, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary, will act as secretary of the meeting. Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. has acted as the tabulator for this annual meeting. Ken Frank of The Carideo Group will act as the independent inspector of elections. He has taken his oath as the inspector of elections, which will be filed with the company's records. David Woodall of PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent registered public accounting firm, is also with us today. He will be available during the question and answer session after the meeting to respond to any questions you may have.
The record date for voting at this annual meeting was the close of business on March 24, 2026. The secretary has delivered an affidavit of mailing to show that notice of this meeting was given. Today, we are asking shareholders to, one, elect the nine director nominees to our board. Two, approve by a non-binding advisory vote the compensation paid to our named executive officers. Three, ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. Four, approve the Laureate Education, Inc. 2026 Long-Term Incentive Plan. After we complete our official business, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Eilif Serck-Hanssen, will provide remarks on the state of our company, after which there will be a Q&A session for our stockholders. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to two questions, and please note that this meeting is being recorded.
Our bylaws require that a majority in voting power of the outstanding shares of the company's capital stock be represented in person or by proxy at the meeting for us to have a quorum. Ms. Brush will now report on whether we have a quorum for the meeting.
Based on the number of shares of the company's common stock outstanding as of the record date and entitled to vote at this meeting, and the number of shares of the company's common stock represented in person or by proxy at this meeting, there are represented in person or by proxy, at least a majority in voting power of the shares of the company's common stock entitled to vote at this meeting. Accordingly, a quorum is present.
Thank you. This meeting is now duly convened. The report of a quorum will be filed in the company's records. We will now consider today's proposals. If any stockholder has a question concerning these proposals, please submit your question through the web portal. Note that we will answer any submitted questions and commence voting after all proposals have been presented.
Any unaddressed questions will be answered on our corporate website shortly following the meeting. Proposal 1, election of directors. The first proposal is the election of nine directors. The nine nominees receiving the highest number of votes at this meeting will be elected as directors and will hold office until the 2027 annual meeting of stockholders. The nominees have been introduced and are listed in your proxy materials. The board recommends voting for the election of each director nominee listed. Proposal 2, say- on- pay.
The second proposal, commonly known as say- on- pay, is a non-binding advisory vote to approve the compensation paid to our named executive officers as disclosed in our proxy statement. The Board recommends voting for the approval of the compensation of named executive officers. Proposal 3, ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Third proposal before us today is the ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The Board recommends voting for the ratification of appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers. Proposal 4, approval of the Laureate Education, Inc. 2026 Long-Term Incentive Plan.
The fourth proposal before us today is the approval of the Laureate Education, Inc. 2026 Long-Term Incentive Plan. The Board recommends voting for the approval of the plan as disclosed in our proxy statement. There is no further business on the agenda to come before this meeting.
Before we move on to voting, if any stockholder has a question concerning any proposal, please submit your question through the web. Ms. Brush, are there any questions related to any proposal?
There are no questions regarding the proposals.
Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change his or her vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal, and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or who voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their votes do not need to take any further action.
Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for the 2026 annual meeting are now closed. We have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that based on preliminary results, the nominees for the election to the Board of Directors have been duly elected, and proposals 2, 3, and 4 have been approved. There being no further business to come before this meeting, the 2026 annual meeting is now adjourned. We will now proceed with the informal portion of the meeting.
Eilif Serck-Hanssen, President and Chief Executive Officer, will now provide a brief report about the company, after which we will have a brief Q&A period.
Thank you, Andy. 2025 was another strong year for Laureate. We delivered on our commitments to all stakeholders. Through disciplined execution, we achieved robust operating results, driving our margin profile to a new historic high and further reinforcing our dedication to continued growth and enhanced profitability. In addition to favorable financial results, our cash-accretive business model and strong balance sheet enabled us to return $217 million of capital to shareholders during 2025. Since 2019, total capital return to shareholders have exceeded $3 billion through share repurchases, cash distributions, and cash dividends. We remain well-positioned to execute on our growth plans while continuing to prioritize the return of excess capital to shareholders.
In 2025, we continued to strengthen our academic offerings and made further investments in our campus network, including the opening of two new campuses for our value brands, one in Monterrey, Mexico, and one in Lima, Peru's east district of Ate. We also made further investments in our health sciences portfolio, including the opening of a new medical school and a new veterinary school.
Our institutions continue to be recognized among the best private universities in their respective countries and consistently lead the way in academic excellence. 2026 is off to a good start, having just completed our first quarter enrollment intake cycles, which were in line with our expectations. We see sustained growth opportunities in both markets, including building additional new campuses for our university brands, in new cities and new site locations over the next five-year period and beyond.
Despite current geopolitical uncertainty, we remain confident that the demand for quality higher education in both Mexico and Peru will continue to increase for years to come. This demand is fueled by rising participation rates, strong wage premiums for graduates, and the affordability of our programs. The key points of promotable differentiation for Laureate are our leading brands, strong culture of innovation and student centricity, and track record of delivering quality education at scale. These assets drive our long-term value creation for all stakeholders. Thank you for attending our annual stockholder meeting. I now turn the call back to our Chairman, Andrew Cohen.
This concludes the management presentation. Our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Rick Buskirk, will join Eilif and me in responding to any stockholder questions received through the web portal. Please note that we will attempt to answer questions as time allows, but only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed. Any unaddressed questions will be answered on our corporate website shortly following the meeting. Ms. Brush, are there any questions?
There are no additional questions.
Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. Thank you for joining us today. You may now disconnect.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.