Good afternoon, and welcome to MSCI's 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting, held virtually today, Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. 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 2026 annual shareholders meeting. My name is Henry A. Fernandez, and I am the CEO and Chairman of the Board of MSCI Inc. Joining me in today's meeting are Robert J. Gutowski, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Affairs of MSCI, Cecilia B. Attias, 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 at the end of the formal presentation. 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 two sets forth the agenda for our meeting. At our meeting today, Rob will present the proposals on which you are voting. 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. 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 2025. 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 27th, 2026, as the record date 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 2026 proxy statement, and the 2025 annual report to shareholders were made available to shareholders of record on or about March 11th, 2026. We had 73,120,206 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 turn 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 3 items to be voted upon. Each of the proposals will be presented in the order that it appears in MSCI's 2026 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 11 directors. Each nominee has indicated that he or she is willing and able to serve if elected. Henry Fernandez, CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board, Rob Ashe, who is our current independent Lead Director, Robin Matlock, Jacques Perold, Sandy Rattray, Linda Riefler, Michelle Seitz, Marcus Smith, Rajat Taneja, Paula Volent, and June Yang. The board recommends a vote for each of the director nominees. Moving on to slide 4.
Item two is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as described in our 2026 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 2026 proxy statement pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC. Item three 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 31st, 2026.
The board recommends a vote for ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. 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 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 11 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 2026 has been ratified. 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 a report on Form 8-K with the SEC containing the final tally no later than 4 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 2026 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 five. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date 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 subsequent slides, 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 2025 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 2025. In 2025, MSCI delivered another year of growth across key financial and operating measures, reflecting the strength of our subscription-based business model and demand for our products that bring clarity to investment decisions. Specifically, operating revenue was approximately $3.1 billion, which has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 11% since 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.9 billion, which has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12% since 2021. We reported adjusted earnings per share of $17.28. Since 2021, MSCI has delivered a compound annual growth rate of 15% in adjusted EPS. Finally, run rate was $3.3 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11% since 2021.
Earlier this morning, we reported our financial results for the first quarter of 2026 and hosted our earnings call. 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 2025 full year results reflect our attractive business model and the benefits of the investments we have made across our large and broad opportunity set.
We continue our disciplined approach to investments and managing capital, and above all, we remain highly committed to driving value for our shareholders, clients, partners, and employees in 2026 and beyond. We believe we are well-positioned as an all-weather franchise, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. We will now proceed with our question and answer session. If you have a question, please enter it into the appropriate box on your screen. 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 at next year's meeting.
The meeting has now concluded. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.