I'd like to thank everyone for joining us for New Jersey Resources' Annual Shareo wners Meeting. I'll now turn to the business matters to be decided at today's meeting. Consistent with our practice, I will waive reading the minutes of last year's annual meeting and ask Tejal to provide the required information regarding today's meeting.
Thanks, Steve. Good morning, everyone. My name is Tejal Mehta, and I am the Corporate Secretary and Assistant General Counsel of New Jersey Resources. I have certified copies of resolutions adopted by the Board of Directors at the meeting held on November 7th, 2024, determining the issues to be submitted for shareholder approval and setting the close of business on November 27th, 2024, as the record date for shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. I also have an affidavit from Broadridge, our proxy services agent, regarding the mailing of the notice of meeting and the proxy statements. Available for inspection for shareholders through the meeting portal is a list of the company shareholders as of November 27th, 2024, showing names, addresses, and number of shares held by each shareholder.
The list shows that as of that date, there were 99,769,083 shares of common stock issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. A certified copy of the resolutions fixing the record date of this meeting, the affidavit regarding mailing the notice of meeting, and the proxy statement will be filed with the records of this meeting. Linda Pescobello of Broadridge and Mary Pat Belin of NJR have been duly appointed as the inspectors of election. Each has taken her oath of office prior to the meeting. Proxies of shareholders solicited by the board and such shareholders as are present at today's virtual meeting represent a majority of the stock entitled to vote at this meeting. Therefore, we have reached a quorum for the meeting.
The minutes of the previous shareholders' meeting are available through the meeting portal for inspection by any shareholder who would like to do so. Aaron Abreu, a partner from Deloitte & Touche LLP, our external auditor, is also in attendance at this meeting. Any verified shareholder may submit a question for Deloitte using the question box located at the bottom of the screen. Questions to Deloitte will be read out loud and responded to by Aaron during the question and answer section of this meeting.
Thanks, Tejal. The polls are open for voting. Now let's move to the items requiring action at today's meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. We will elect three directors today. The Board of Directors has nominated Gregory E. Aliff, Thomas C. O'Connor, and Michael A. O'Sullivan, each for a three-year term that will expire in 2028. Based on the advance notice provisions in our bylaws, the nominations are closed. The second item on our agenda is the approval of a non-binding advisory resolution approving the compensation of our named executive officers. And the final agenda item is the ratification of the audit committee's appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP, as our company's independent registered public accounting firm. If you have already voted, you do not need to take any action.
If you have not yet voted or wish to change your vote, please do so now by using the vote button on the screen. Since all matters of business to be acted upon have been presented, I declare the polls closed and ask the inspectors of election to tabulate the results. Tejal, will you please read the preliminary report of the inspectors?
The preliminary results for the inspectors of the election will be made a part of the record of today's meeting. The results indicate that Greg Aliff, Tom O'Connor, and Mike O'Sullivan have been reelected to the board. The board's recommendation regarding the non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved. And finally, the selection of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, as our independent registered accounting firm for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2025, has been ratified.
Thanks, Tejal. This completes the formal business of today's annual share owners meeting. I will now ask Tejal to review the guidelines for shareholder questions today.
Please direct your attention to the rules of conduct for this annual shareowners meeting, which can be accessed via the meeting materials section on your screen. Since this is our annual shareowners meeting, we will take questions only from our verified shareowners using the question box located at the bottom of your screen. If you are a guest, you will not be permitted to ask a question. We will begin with the questions we received in advance of today's meeting and then take shareholder questions that have been submitted through the web portal used to access this meeting. All submissions will be gathered by Kevin Roberts with NJR, who will then facilitate the Q&A portion of the meeting.
Please note that we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but as set forth in the rules of conduct, only questions that are germane to this meeting will be addressed. As a courtesy to others, we ask that you limit your question or comment to one. Matters of personal business, grievances, or other issues that do not relate to shareowners will be provided to our employees, who will then address them after the meeting. Now, I'd like to turn the meeting back over to Steve.
Thanks, Tejal, and thank you for the questions you submitted during the meeting. So now let's go ahead and get started.
Thank you, Steve. Our first question relates to the annual meeting itself, and it reads, "Will the annual meeting be held in person again?
We believe that the virtual format that we've been executing over the past few years has made it easier and really more accessible for our shareowners and made it able to participate in the annual meeting. But I want to add that we do hold in-person lunches on a quarterly basis at our Wall headquarters. If you're interested in attending an in-person session, please contact our director of investor relations, Adam Prior, and you can find his name, phone number, and his email address on our website, and you can get in contact with him that way.
Terrific. Thank you, Steve. Our next question relates to the dividend, and it reads, will you increase the dividend again in 2025?
So good question. NJR, we've paid quarterly dividends continuously since inception when we started in 1952, and we've raised our dividend over the past 29 consecutive years. So you can see we've got a strong track record of dividend growth supported by the growth rate in our company. As always, this is subject to the review of our board and approval, but our record speaks for itself.
Great. Thank you. Our next question reads, with a new president and an election year in New Jersey for a new governor, is the company changing its strategy going forward?
So our strategy really transcends anybody in a political office. Our business is really to respond to the energy needs and demands of our customers, certainly keeping an eye on climate goals as well. We continue to drive reliability and lower our emissions through innovation, and that's particularly at our utility, but across all of our business mix. So on the federal and state policy front, reliability is critical right now. You can see that energy demand's increasing, and it's been increasing for the first time in decades. So really what that means is that all energy infrastructure is increasing in value, and we'll have to utilize an all-of-the-above approach in order to meet those needs going forward. And what I mean by saying all the above, natural gas and clean fuels are going to be essential for delivering reliability.
We've got to keep an eye on clean energy goals that are set by the state, and certainly that's got to focus on the deployment of renewables, and where some of our S&T assets are located, this is going to support LNG and certain reliability down in certain areas in the U.S., so again, taking this all-above approach in our strategy really supports our businesses going forward and is able to support our investment in our infrastructure and our growth and keeping, like I said, an eye on clean energy going forward.
Thank you, Steve. That concludes our questions.
So thank you for your questions, and certainly thank you for your time that you spent with us today. I'd like to conclude by saying thanks for being part of our annual shareowners meeting, and thank you for your investment in New Jersey Resources. As you can tell, we remain committed to executing our strategy, delivering our performance, and rewarding your confidence. So on behalf of the Board of Directors and our entire company, I wish you a safe and healthy New Year. Thank you.
This concludes New Jersey Resources' annual shareowners meeting. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.