Welcome to MSCI's 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I will now turn the call over to MSCI's CEO and Chairman of the Board, Henry Fernandez.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining MSCI's 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting. My name is Henry Fernandez, and I am the CEO and Chairman of the Board of MSCI, Inc. Joining me in today's meeting is Rob Gutowski, General Counsel of MSCI, Cecilia Aza, Corporate Secretary of MSCI, members of our Board of Directors, and several members of MSCI's Management Committee. Additionally, representatives of our independent registered accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, and our Inspector of Elections from American Election Services are in attendance as well. I am pleased to report that the polls are now open, and you may submit your vote online until we officially close the polls following the formal presentation of the proposals. Please remember that if you have already submitted a proxy, it is not necessary to submit your vote online unless you wish to change your vote.
Slide 2 sets forth the agenda for our meeting. At our meeting today, Rob will present the proposals that you're voting on. If you have any questions about the proposals, you may submit them through the web portal. Following the presentation of all proposals, we will address any questions about the proposals. Then we will hear the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections and adjourn the formal annual meeting. I will then proceed with a brief discussion of our financial results for the full year 2023. Following this discussion, you will be given another opportunity to ask questions not related to the proposals. Our meeting rules require shareholders wishing to raise questions on topics other than the proposals to wait until that time. Our Inspector of Elections for the meeting has executed his inspector's oath.
The board fixed February 29, 2024, as the record day for determining the shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. An affidavit is with the Inspector of Elections attesting to the fact that the notice of meeting, the 2024 Proxy Statement, and the 2023 Annual Report to Shareholders were made available to shareholders of record on or about March 13, 2024. We had 79,223,562 shares outstanding and entitled to vote on the record date. It has been confirmed that we have a quorum present today, represented by proxy or virtually. The annual meeting is therefore now formally called to order. I will now pass it over to Rob for our official agenda items, and I look forward to answering your questions shortly.
Thank you, Henry. I will begin by presenting the four items to be voted upon. Each of the proposals will be presented in the order that it appears in MSCI's 2024 Proxy Statement. As a reminder, we will acknowledge any comments or questions submitted by shareholders on the proposals themselves after all proposals have been presented. Item 1 is the election of directors. Slide 3 presents each of our director nominees. The current board has nominated 12 directors: Henry Fernandez, CEO and Chairman of the Board; Robert Ashe, who is our current independent lead director; Chirantan CJ Desai; Wayne Edmunds; Robin Matlock; Jacques Perold; Baer Pettit; Sandy Rattray; Linda Riefler; Marcus Smith; Rajat Taneja; and Paula Volent. The board recommends a vote for each of the director nominees. Moving on to Slide 4.
Item 2 is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers, as described in our 2024 Proxy Statement. Even though this vote, which is often called a "say-on-pay" vote, is a non-binding vote, the Compensation, Talent, and Culture Committee and the board will take the results of the vote into account when making future compensation decisions. Our board recommends a vote for the approval, on an advisory or non-binding basis, of the compensation of MSCI's named executive officers, as disclosed in the 2024 Proxy Statement, pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC. Item 3 is the ratification of the Audit and Risk Committee's selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, as MSCI's independent auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024. The board recommends a vote for ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, as the company's independent auditor for the fiscal year ending 2024.
Item 4 is a shareholder proposal submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The proposal requests that the board conduct and publish a review within the next year of whether and to what extent MSCI includes in its indexes companies that supply goods or services to the Chinese military. A prerecorded presentation of this proposal has been submitted and will now be played.
First, many thanks to Ravi Ramchandani for his thoughtful and thorough engagement with our proposals and concerns. Given that our Free Enterprise Project recently uncovered - I kid you not - a months-long scheme by a different corporation that used this same process to set up a defamation opportunity, which was then sprung on us, your total counterexample has been immensely reassuring at an important time. Thanks. Moreover, Ravi's deep dive laid out MSCI's process, activities, and positions, and then reached conclusions that we completely agree with. MSCI believes that it is best qualified to decide whether it is relevantly in the supply chain of products funding PLA munitioners without disclosure, that MSCI best knows what disclosures are material to it, and makes sense for it. Absolutely agreed. Companies are best placed to decide for themselves, absent evidence of relevant breaches.
They don't need interfering and usually partisan political forcing or pressuring from outsiders with niche agendas. But positions aren't principled unless they're applied to everyone, not just notionally but in practice. Here, MSCI has a problem, though I fully stipulate it may not have recognized it before. Many MSCI products ease investment in companies in part by how fully they make disclosures and even product line and energy source decisions in accord with these outside pressures, thereby accidentally aiding the interferers. In contrast, it, so far as I can tell, and if I'm wrong, instantly I'll correct, offers no equivalent for companies that best resist outside pressures, even though by MSCI's own logic these companies best use company assets.
In fact, those resisting companies are downright heroes for telling behavior forcers like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard in "Too Big to Fail, All-Taxpayer-Backstopped Banks" like Bank of America and JPMorgan to mind their own companies and their own fiduciary duties and violations. Doubly so, because while the forcers loudly claim they're not acting on anti-fiduciary, partisan-driven grounds, none can or do provide objective, neutral, valid, and significant evidence to support those facially pretextual claims. It'll take some effort for MSCI to align its product offerings with its principles, and this was far too much to raise or ask for in a proposal discussion, although we did let MSCI know my theme for today far in advance. When beginning a long task, it's key to face an immutable motivator that bars procrastination.
So, fellow shareholders, support this proposal now to help MSCI do quickly what principle requires and that promises improved returns, given that most American capital investors oppose corporate management by pressure group whim. Then, when preparing this report, MSCI can simply cut and paste the following: Since the shareholders requested this report, we have aligned our company's offerings with the principle that companies know best when disclosures are appropriate. We have disclosed everything we consider relevant in this regard, play no meaningful role in our clients' use of this product, and consider our duty here complete. We'll send a thank-you note and a copy of MSCI's ticker showing the galloping returns from principled consistency, and I won't even ask for a commission.
For the reasons set forth in MSCI's 2024 Proxy Statement, the board recommends a vote against the shareholder proposal. The board's statement of opposition to that proposal was included beginning on page 103 of the 2024 Proxy Statement. All of the proposals on the agenda are now before the meeting. If any shareholder has a question or would like to make a comment regarding any of the proposals, and if you have not done so already, please submit your question through the web portal. Note that questions on similar topics may be combined and answered together. We will now proceed with the business of the meeting. This is now your final opportunity to vote. Any shareholder who has not voted or who wishes to change his or her vote, may do so by following the instructions on the web portal. We will now pause to allow for such votes.
The voting has now ended, and the polls are now closed. The next agenda item is the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections. I will summarize the report. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections indicates that: Each of the 12 director nominees has been elected. The advisory approval of our executive compensation has passed. The Audit and Risk Committee's selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, as the company's independent auditor for the fiscal year ending 2024, has been ratified. The shareholder proposal to report on Chinese military industry companies in MSCI indices has not passed. Any ballots cast before the polls closed but not reflected in the preliminary report will be included in the final vote tally. We will file the report on Form 8-K to the SEC, containing the final tally, no later than four business days following this meeting.
That summarizes the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections. This concludes the formal part of our annual meeting. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders of MSCI is now adjourned. Before I turn the call over to Henry to discuss the company's financial results, I would like to remind you that his remarks contain forward-looking statements, which are governed by the language on Slide 5. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the day on which they are made, are based on current expectations and current economic conditions, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, please see the risk factors and forward-looking statements disclaimer in our most recent Form 10-K and in our other SEC filings. In addition to results presented on the basis of U.S. GAAP, we also refer to non-GAAP measures. We believe our non-GAAP measures facilitate meaningful period-to-period comparisons and provide insight into our core operating performance. On Slides 10 through 13, you will find reconciliations to the equivalent GAAP measures in the presentation and an explanation of why we deem this information to be meaningful, as well as how management uses these measures. Now, Henry will give a brief report on the company's 2023 financial results. Before I talk about MSCI's longer-term growth strategy, let me first go over Slide 6, which provides a quick summary of our financial results for 2023.
In the face of global market headwinds, we delivered strong financial performance for 2023 to cap off another successful year. Specifically, operating revenue was approximately $2.5 billion, which has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 13% since 2019. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.5 billion, which has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 16% since 2019. Our business also generated Free Cash Flow of $1.1 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15% since 2019. Finally, we reported adjusted earnings per share of $13.52. Since 2019, MSCI has delivered a compound annual growth rate of 20% in adjusted EPS. Earlier this morning, we reported our financial results for Q1 2024 and hosted our earnings call, where we also share our latest outlook for the full year.
A copy of the earnings release and earnings presentation, as well as a webcast of the earnings call, are available on the Investor Relations section of MSCI.com. Slide 7 highlights the key pillars of our growth strategy. From the start, over 50 years ago, our mission has always been to provide critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. Our strategy is to support the investment process needs of our clients with highly differentiated solutions, supported by best-in-class capabilities. In summary, our 2023 full-year results demonstrate the durability of our strong, resilient, and all-weather franchise and our rigorous financial management. We continue our disciplined approach to investments and managing capital, and above all, we remain highly committed to driving value for our clients, partners, employees, and shareholders in 2024 and beyond.
We believe we're well positioned as an all-weather franchise, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. We will now proceed with our Q&A session. If you have a question, please enter it into the appropriate box on your screen.
We received one question. My name is Michael Piccirillo. I am representing the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. The company has in place a Director Resignation Bylaw that provides the board post-election discretion to determine whether to accept or reject the resignation of an incumbent director who fails to be reelected. Does the bylaw undermine the voting rights of shareholders by allowing the board to have the final say on the unelected director status?
Thank you for your question. I would start by noting that this is a common bylaw provision across S&P 500 companies. We believe that a policy that requires automatic resignation presents risks of losing a director who provides valuable skills and insights, which may be particularly important at a critical time.
Therefore, it is important for the board to have the ability to accept or reject a resignation after thoughtful deliberation, including regarding the needs of the company and the relevant facts and circumstances at the time, which are consistent with the board's fiduciary duties under Delaware law.
There are no further questions relevant to the business of the company. We appreciate the opportunity to serve MSCI on your behalf. Thank you for your confidence in and continued support of MSCI. We look forward to seeing you on next year's meeting.