Good morning. Thank you for attending the MSA Safety Incorporated Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to MSA Safety.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2026 MSA Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Nish Vartanian, Chairman of MSA Safety. On behalf of the MSA Board of Directors, thank you to all shareholders attending today, and thank you for your interest and continued support in MSA. Before we proceed with the meeting agenda, I'd like to introduce the following members of our board who are present with me today.
Steve Blanco, Director and MSA's President and Chief Executive Officer, Bob Bruggeworth, Greg Jordan, Bill Lambert, Diane Pearse, Sandra Phillips, Luca Savi, and Bill Sperry. We're also joined today by Ernst & Young, our independent auditors, who are participating remotely. With those brief introductions, I'll now ask the meeting to please come to order. In accordance with the company's bylaws, I will act as Chairman of the meeting, and Mr. Richard Roda will act as Secretary of the meeting. I now ask Mr. Roda to report with respect to the call of the meeting.
Mr. Chairman, an affidavit has been delivered attesting that our annual meeting materials were properly mailed to the shareholders of record as of February 13th, 2026, the record date set by the board of directors by way of a notice of internet availability of such materials or hard copies of the documents if so selected by a shareholder. The annual meeting materials include the notice of the meeting, the proxy statement, and the 2025 annual report to shareholders.
The secretary will please file the company's affidavit showing the mailing of the notice and proxy materials with records of this meeting. Ms. Julie A. Beck was appointed Judge of Election and has taken her oath. The secretary will file the oath with the records of this meeting. I will now ask the Judge of Election to advise whether a quorum is present.
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that there is a quorum of common shares represented at this meeting.
I declare that a quorum is present, that this meeting has been duly called and convened, and that we can proceed to the transaction of business. We will now proceed to consider the proposals to be voted upon at this meeting. The first proposal is for the election of three directors to serve until the 2029 annual meeting. The nominees for director under the first proposal are William M. Lambert, Diane M. Pearse, and Nishan J. Vartanian.
N o other persons having been nominated in accordance with the company's bylaws. The nominations are closed. The second proposal is for the selection of the independent registered public accounting firm of the company. The board has recommended that the shareholders approve the selection of Ernst & Young to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company and its subsidiaries for the year-ending December 31st, 2026.
The third proposal is for the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of the named executive officers as described in the company's proxy statement. We will now proceed with the vote. Only shareholders of common stock as of the record date are entitled to vote. Those who voted by proxy and have not revoked their proxies do not need to vote again. If you are a shareholder entitled to a vote and have not yet voted, or if you wanna change your previously cast vote, please do so via the website you used to access this meeting using the control number included with your proxy materials. After voting has been completed, we'll close the polls, and the Judge of Election will provide a preliminary report. I will now pause while any remaining voting is completed. Ms. Beck, has voting been completed?
Mr. Vartanian, voting is now complete.
With voting now complete, will the Judge of Election please present her report?
Mr. Chairman, with respect to the first proposal, the election of directors, William M. Lambert, Diane M. Pearse, and Nishan J. Vartanian has each received no less than a majority of the votes cast.
I therefore declare that William M. Lambert, Diane M. Pearse, and Nishan J. Vartanian have been elected directors of this company to serve until the annual meeting of shareholders in 2029.
Mr. Chairman, with respect to the selection of the independent registered public accounting firm and the advisory vote on the company's named executive officer compensation, each of the proposals has received at least a majority of the votes necessary for approval.
I therefore declare that Proposals 2 and 3 have been approved. The secretary is directed to file the judge's report with the records of the meeting and to report the final voting results on Form 8-K to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of this meeting. That concludes the business of the meeting, and the meeting is now adjourned.
During the meeting, shareholders were able to submit written questions in accordance with the rules of conduct established for the meeting. Only those questions related directly to the business of the meeting or to the company's business will be answered. Furthermore, in the interest of time, and as questions may be repetitive or overlap, we may not answer every question presented. I will now ask Mr. Roda to assemble the questions.
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions in the queue.
Since there are no questions in the queue, the question and answer session is concluded. Thank you for attending today's meeting, and thank you for your ongoing interest and continued support of MSA Safety.
This concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a wonderful rest of your day.