Good day and welcome to the Mattel Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ynon Kreiz. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm Ynon Kreiz, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Mattel. On behalf of the Board of Directors, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. As Chairman, I call this meeting to order. Let me first say that, on behalf of all of us at Mattel, we hope that you are safe and healthy during these unprecedented times. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, for everyone's health and safety, we made the decision to conduct a virtual annual meeting of stockholders by live webcast. During this virtual meeting, stockholders can vote and ask questions as if they were present at an in-person meeting. Joining us today are the other members of our Board of Directors and representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Mattel's independent registered public accounting firm.
As is our custom, we will conduct the formal portion of the meeting first, after which I will give a short presentation and answer questions. As we turn to the formal portion of today's meeting, I'd like to introduce Bob Nomile, Mattel's Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, and David Zbojniewicz, Mattel's Vice President of Investor Relations, who are also with us today. I'll ask Bob to serve as the Secretary of the meeting. Bob, will you please take us through the business to be conducted at today's meeting?
Certainly, and thanks, Ynon. Today we will be following the meeting agenda, which you can see in the main panel on your screen. Other materials, including the rules of conduct for today's meeting, can be found in the Meeting Materials panel at the bottom right of your screen. Before we begin, I should point out that statements made in today's meeting may include forward-looking information, and actual results may differ materially. The Safe Harbor statement on your screen provides more details as to the assumptions and factors that we consider in making forward-looking statements.
We encourage you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in Mattel's SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2019 and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter 2020, which identifies certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made during this meeting. With that, let's begin the formal portion of the meeting. The affidavit of mailing signed by a representative of Broadridge, Mattel's mailing and tabulation agent, confirms that notices of internet availability of proxy materials were mailed beginning on April 27, 2020, to stockholders of record at the close of business on the record date, April 13, 2020. On the record date, there were 346,899,733 shares of common stock outstanding, each entitled to a single vote.
There are represented at this meeting in person or by proxy approximately 330,432,107 shares. This is approximately 95% of the voting power of the shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote, thus establishing the required quorum for this meeting. I have delivered to the Inspectors of Election the official list prepared as of the record date of stockholders of record entitled to vote at this meeting. That list is available in the Meeting Materials panel at the bottom right of your screen. There are five proposals to be considered at this meeting, all of which are set forth and described in the proxy statement. Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their 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 voted via telephone or internet and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. The five proposals are as follows. First is the election of nine directors. Second is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020. Third is an advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation, also known as the Say On Pay vote. Fourth is the approval of an amendment to Mattel's amended and restated 2010 Equity and Long-Term Compensation Plan. Fifth is the consideration of a stockholder proposal regarding an independent board chairman. The stockholder proponent of this fifth proposal previously gave the company notice that he intends to present this proposal at the meeting today.
I ask that we now open the line to the proponent, who will be given up to three minutes to present the proposal. You may proceed.
Hello. This is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, Mr. Chevedden, we can hear you. Please proceed.
Proposal five, independent board chairman. Stockholders request that our board of directors adopt the policy and amend our governing documents as necessary to require that the chairman of the board be an independent member of the board whenever possible. Although it would be better to have an immediate transition to an independent board chairman, the board would have the discretion to phase in this policy for the next chief executive officer transition. Boeing is an example of a company changing course in naming an independent board chairman in October 2019. Boeing did not wait for the next CEO succession, and Boeing is in better shape than Mattel. Boeing stock is up 40% in five years. Mattel stock fell from $32- $10 in less than four years. The Mattel lead director, Michael Dolan, was rejected by 16 times as many shares as certain other Mattel directors. Mr.
Dolan also has 16 years long tenure, which can take a toll on director independence. Mr. Dolan also chaired the Executive Pay Committee. Mattel Executive Pay was rejected by 13% of shares in 2019, which compares unfavorably with a normal rejection rate of 5%. Plus, Mattel management spent extra shareholder money to pressure some shareholders to change their vote after they initially rejected Mattel's 2019 Executive Pay. Apparently, Mattel's stockholder engagement fell short. There was even a heading in the 2019 proxy, "Extensive stockholder engagement led to meaningful compensation changes." Mattel's Executive Pay may not have the right incentives since the stock price is in the seller. Mr. Dolan does not serve on any other major company board, which denies him the benefit of keeping his skills sharp.
A member of Mattel's audit committee was rejected by 11 times as many shares as certain other Mattel directors, and Mattel's accounting may still be under investigation by the SEC in regard to the 2019 departure of the Mattel CFO. This proposal topic won 52% support at the 2020 Boeing annual meeting. This proposal topic also won impressive 42% support at the 2015 Mattel annual meeting. This 42% support would have been higher if more shareholders had access to independent proxy voting advice. The 42% would have also been higher if management had not spent shareholder money to pressure some shareholders to change their vote after they initially voted yes. It is ironic that the board wants flexibility on the topic of this proposal, but it does not want to give shareholders flexibility.
For instance, the board opposed giving shareholders the flexibility of allowing more than 20 shareholders to initiate shareholder proxy access. Mr. Chevedden, you are?
Please vote yes. I'm concluding. Please vote yes. Independent board chairman proposal five.
Thank you, Mr. Chevedden. The board has recommended a vote against this stockholder proposal for the reasons set forth in the proxy statement. In a moment, we will close the polls. As a reminder, stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not wish to change their vote do not need to take any further action. At this point, the polls are closed, and I will now report the preliminary results of the voting.
The preliminary results are based on the proxies that we received prior to the start of this meeting and indicate that: first, each of the nine director nominees has been elected as a member of the board of directors. Second, ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm has been approved. Third, the advisory vote on named executive officer compensation, also known as the Say On Pay vote, has been approved. Fourth, the amendment to Mattel's amended and restated 2010 Equity and Long-Term Compensation Plan has been approved. Fifth, the stockholder proposal regarding an independent board chairman has not been approved. I will now turn the meeting back over to Ynon.
Thank you, Bob. There being no other business, the formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned. I'd now like to take a moment to talk about the organization. This year marks Mattel's 75th anniversary. Since 1945, Mattel has had trusted relationships with generations of children and parents. We are there when babies are born with Fisher-Price, grow with kids through Barbie, Hot Wheels, and American Girl, and are part of the family with Uno and many more of our beloved brands. This is a relationship and responsibility we take very seriously. We also take our role as a corporate citizen very seriously. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew we could help in a moment of great need. The Mattel team came together to leverage our expertise, products, and resources to support our consumers, our communities, and the many frontline heroes around the world.
I'd like to share with you today some great examples of how, throughout the enterprise, Mattel has made a positive impact on the communities in which we live, work, and play. We recognize the unique challenges that parents and caregivers were going to face both working and playing from home as safer-at-home orders were put in place across the country and around the world. In late March, the Mattel team leaped into action to create a meaningful way to help parents and caregivers encourage kids to keep playing with the launch of the Mattel Playroom, a free digital destination. The Mattel Playroom features activities and content from our iconic portfolio of brands, including printable coloring pages, free and ready-to-play games, crafting and DIY projects, animated stop-motion and live-action videos, and downloadable apps. It also features parenting resources from partners such as the Toy Association and insights from Mattel's play experts.
We are also leveraging our brands as a way to give back. We recently introduced our Mattel Play Forward platform to enable our brands to support important causes. The first program we launched was Thank You Heroes. Our team at Fisher-Price designed a special line of toys to pay tribute to frontline healthcare workers and the everyday heroes keeping communities up and running. The line included a variety of action figures featuring doctors, nurses, EMTs, delivery drivers, and grocery store workers. All net proceeds from the line are going to First Responders First, an initiative created to support First Responders healthcare workers as they serve on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expanded the Thank You Heroes program with initiatives from Barbie, Matchbox, MEGA, and UNO supporting frontline healthcare workers, as well as the children of First Responders.
The reaction to this program has been tremendous and truly demonstrates the societal impact that Mattel brands have. In addition, the Mattel Children Foundation has provided grants to a number of nonprofit organizations. Globally, we have supported Feed the Children and Save the Children, and domestically, we have donated art supplies, games, and other toys to the Los Angeles Unified School District, Baby to Baby, Feed the Children, LA Family Housing, and the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, as well as others. Early on, we committed to helping provide much-needed personal protective equipment for the medical community. We are producing cloth masks and 500,000 face shields for donation to hospitals and healthcare providers in the US , Canada, and Mexico. I'm incredibly proud of how the entire organization has responded during these unprecedented times. Our purpose is to empower the next generation to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.
At no time in our 75 year history has our purpose been more vital than now. I would now like to address stockholders' questions and comments. We remind you that all questions and comments must adhere to the rules of conduct for the meeting, which, as Bob noted earlier, can be found in the meeting materials panel at the bottom right of your screen. Dave, do we have any questions?
Yes, Ynon. There are eight questions to ask. The first question is, when was the last in-person board meeting, and has the board transitioned to telephone meetings?
The last in-person board meeting was in November of 2019, and yes, the board has transitioned to telephonic meetings.
The second question is, how many shareholders are attending this meeting?
It looks like we currently have 32 shareholders on the line at this point in time. We will have the information from Broadridge after the meeting concludes.
The third question is, what percent of employees can work mostly from home?
As we've said before, the vast majority of our employees worldwide have been able to work remotely from home.
The fourth question is, how many employees have contracted COVID-19?
As of today, we have confirmed 31 cases of employees that contracted COVID-19 worldwide.
The fifth question is, what is the pandemic impact on Mattel's supply chain?
We have taken mitigating actions to return our manufacturing and distribution operations to near-normal operating capacity, including in China, and we are taking similar actions in other parts of the world where necessary, while, of course, we adhere to the necessary social distancing and other health measures to protect our employees. As we've said on our first quarter earnings call, our supply chain organization responded rapidly and executed very well. We largely restored global manufacturing and distribution capacity. During the month of April, we experienced temporary closures of certain manufacturing plants and distribution centers, but as we are several months away from the beginning of our peak production and are actively working to meet inventory demands for our product throughout the year, we believe we have sufficient time leading up to and including the holiday season.
The sixth question is, is the SEC still investigating Mattel's accounting associates with the departure of the Mattel CFO?
It is common for the SEC to take an interest whenever a public company announces a whistleblower letter and an audit committee investigation, and in this case, Mattel is no exception. To our knowledge, the SEC is looking into the same issues and time period reviewed by the Mattel audit committee as part of its independent investigation of the matters raised by the whistleblower letter.
The next question is, a big reason why our share price dropped was we lost the Disney Frozen account to Hasbro. Are we going to actively pursue this license and getting it back?
As we've said before, a key part of our strategy is entertainment licenses. We will always look to partner with entertainment companies like Disney, but for competitive reasons, we do not comment on our licensing strategy nor what potential licensing deals we are looking to bid for or negotiating on with customers.
The next question is, please advise the percent votes for each ballot item.
We will disclose the vote results for today's meeting on a Form 8-K filed with the SEC within four business days following today's meeting.
Our last question comes from Phoebe. I am eight years old and picked Mattel as my first stock to buy. Can you provide any information on merger or partnerships with MGA Entertainment?
Hi, Phoebe. Thank you for your question. I'm so thrilled you have chosen Mattel as your first stock pick to buy, and we welcome you as a shareholder. I can tell you that our priority is always to maximize shareholder value. Our board recognizes and takes seriously its fiduciary duties and would seriously consider any credible opportunity if and when such offer or situation is received. We remain focused and confident in our ability to execute our transformation strategy and deliver long-term shareholder value.
Ynon, there are no further questions.
Thank you, Dave. Before we finish the meeting, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing this past March of Marie Claude Heisler-Grisel, a longtime Mattel stockholder and a committed advocate for toy industry factory employees. Many of you will remember Ms. Heisler-Grisel from our prior annual meetings, where she would regularly pose thoughtful questions and offer valuable comments on the health and safety of factory employees. She was always passionate and determined about her cause, and yet unfailingly respectful and polite. We will cherish her memory. Our thoughts are with her husband, Pierre, and her family. On behalf of the board of directors and the management team, I would like to thank our stockholders for joining us today. Thank you for your investment in Mattel and your continued support of our mission to create innovative products and experiences that inspire, entertain, and develop children through play.
We hope that you and your family and friends are healthy and safe. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.