Good morning. I'm Kathy Warden, Chair, Chief Executive Officer, and President of the Northrop Grumman Corporation. Thank you for joining us today for our 2023 annual meeting of shareholders. It's my pleasure to welcome you to our meeting. I would now like to call the meeting to order. Before turning to the business portion of today's meeting, I wanna provide a brief update on our company. 2022 was a memorable year. From the James Webb Space Telescope's first images to the B-21 rollout, we made significant progress in our mission to develop technology which pushes the boundaries of human exploration while continuing to connect and protect our world. Our team is driving industry-leading growth by executing our strategy, meeting the growing global demand for our products, and performing on our programs.
We're also delivering on our capital deployment strategy, which prioritizes investing in our business and returning cash to our shareholders. As we look to the long term, increasing threats to freedom and security persist around the world. Our portfolio of products is well-positioned to meet the demands of our customers, giving them the evolving capabilities they need in an increased global competitive situation. Another key element of our long-term strategy is keeping a laser focus on performance and driving cost efficiencies. The current macroeconomic conditions reinforce the importance of doing so. We continue to demonstrate our ability to deliver compelling solutions in this environment, and that has created value for our shareholders and resulted in 43% shareholder return in 2022. Executing our strategy always depends on having the right culture and people. I am so proud of our values and how we reflect them every day.
We have also continued to focus on being an industry leader in ESG. We encourage you to take a look at our latest ESG report, which provides insights into our progressive governance structure, our culture, and our commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and environmental sustainability. We also released our inaugural human rights report this year and encourage you to review this report to learn more about our deep regard for individuals and human rights. Let me now turn to the conduct of our meeting. We have set an agenda and established rules of conduct to help ensure a fair and orderly proceeding that is inclusive and affords our shareholders who are here today attending the meeting in person, the opportunity to participate in different matters before us.
In particular, we've taken steps to ensure that shareholders have the opportunity to present their shareholder proposal and to command or comment and ask questions here on any of the proposals in the proxy. Both the agenda and the meeting procedures are available on our investor relations meeting website. I intend to conduct this meeting in accordance with both. I'd now like to introduce Madeleine Kleiner, the company's Lead Independent Director, and the other nominees for the Board of Directors who are here in person today. David Abney, Marianne Brown, Anne Fudge, Graham Robinson, Kimberly Ross, Gary Roughead, Tom Schoewe y, Jim Turley, Mark Welsh, and Mary Winston. One of our other nominees, Arvind Krishna, was unable to join us today due to a personal conflict. All of the nominees are currently members of the Board of Directors.
They have consented to serve if elected, and their names and short bios appear in the proxy statement for this meeting. Would the board members please stand. Thank you. I would also like to thank our board members who did not stand for re-election at today's meeting. Don Felsinger, who is retiring after serving on our board since 2007, including 10 years as our Lead Independent Director, and Karl Krapek, who has served as a director since 2008. Both Don and Karl have been invaluable to their fellow board members and to the management of this company. Don, Karl, please stand and be recognized. We would also like to take a moment and acknowledge the passing of Bill Hernandez, who served on our board since 2013, and he will have an enduring impact on this company.
Our Board of Directors fixed March 21st, 2023, as the record date for determining the shareholders of record who were entitled to receive notice of and who may vote at this meeting. Computershare Trust Company has been appointed the Inspector of Election for this meeting, and Jennifer McGarry, Corporate Vice President and Secretary, is the Secretary for the meeting. Jennifer, will you please give the Secretary's report?
Each shareholder of record as of the record date has been given proper notice of this meeting and has been furnished with a written copy of or has provided electronic access to the proxy statement dated March 31st, 2023, a proxy card, and the 2022 annual report. Affidavits related to the mailing and electronic availability of the notice and the report and proxy statement will be filed with the records of this meeting. The holders of common stock have one vote per share. On the record date, there were 152,047,113 common shares outstanding. I'm able to report that the shares represented at this meeting represent a majority of the shares entitled to vote, and that a quorum is present.
Thank you, Jennifer. If there's any shareholder present who has not already voted or who holds a proxy card that he or she would like to vote for another shareholder and who would like to do so at this time, please raise your hand and ushers will pick up the proxy card at this time for voting. If any of you wish to vote by ballot after the proposed items of business are presented, you must use an official ballot. Anyone intending to vote in person who has not yet obtained a ballot may do so now. We will now review the matters to be voted on, and I'd like to ask Jennifer to please proceed with the transaction of business.
Before we proceed, there are a few ground rules I'd like to mention. According to the company's bylaws, any matters which were to be put to the vote of the shareholders have already been submitted according to the notice requirements and were set forth in the proxy statement. They constitute the business of this meeting. No other matters may be put to a vote at this meeting. It's May 17th, 8:06 A.M., and the polls are currently open. I'll now turn it over to Kathy to introduce the items of business.
We will now present, entertain comments and questions, and vote on the items of business set forth in our proxy statement. After which, we'll receive the report of the inspector of election on the vote and then adjourn. Please note that we do intend to solicit and address shareholder questions when the relevant agenda item is up for consideration. The first order of business is the election of the 13 directors of the company, each of whom will hold office until the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders or until his or her earlier resignation or removal. The nominees and their bios were listed in the proxy statement. Are there any questions or comments on the first management proposal? Thank you. We'll move on to the next item of business.
The second item on the agenda is the proposal to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the named executive officers. Are there any comments or questions on this second management proposal? The third item on the agenda is the proposal to approve, on an advisory basis, the preferred frequency of future advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers. Are there any comments or questions on the third management proposal? The fourth item on the agenda is the proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the independent auditor for the company for the year ending December 31st, 2023. We have in attendance at this meeting, representatives of Deloitte & Touche. Would you please stand? Are there any comments or questions on this fourth management proposal?
The fifth item on the agenda is the proposal to reduce the threshold required to call a special meeting of shareholders from 25% to 15%. Are there any comments or questions on the fifth management proposal? The sixth item on the agenda is the shareholder proposal requesting the board of directors annually conduct an evaluation and issue a public report describing the alignment of the company's political activities with its human rights policy. We were told that Jillian Lyon, a representative of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Investment Fund, is here to present this proposal. Welcome, and please introduce yourself and make your statement. I do ask that you limit your comments to three minutes.
Good morning, members of the board and shareholders. My name is Jillian Lyon. I represent the School Sisters of Notre Dame Cooperative Investment Fund. I'm here today to move shareholder proposal six, which calls for an alignment report of Northrop's political activities with its human rights policy. We encourage all shareholders to support this proposal. In a society struggling with excessive violence, nuclear threats, and climate crisis, we assert that there is a clear moral responsibility for Northrop Grumman and its investors to acknowledge the direct role that the defense industry plays in perpetuating human rights harms in war and conflict. Despite its commitments to uphold the highest standards of human rights, Northrop and its defense industry peers spend significant amounts of money on direct and indirect lobbying, electioneering, and think tank donations. In 2022 alone, Northrop spent $10.8 million on federal lobbying.
Investors are concerned that these undisclosed lobbying activities may undermine its own human rights commitments. For example, Northrop has contracts with or supplies weapons to multiple states engaged in conflict and who are connected to gross human rights violations, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Israel. Independent reporting has shown that the company lobbies heavily to ensure it continues its contracts and weapons supplies to these states, despite the significant material risks associated with their poor human rights track records. Northrop's current disclosure on political activities is limited to just a small subset, such as federal direct lobbying, and it is virtually impossible to interpret how money is used. When the details of such lobbying efforts are exposed, the reality is deeply concerning.
For example, Northrop was awarded a $13.3 billion contract in 2020 for development of ICBMs, which former Secretary of Defense William Perry described as, quote, "Some of the most dangerous weapons in the world." End quote. Leading up to this contract, Northrop lobbied heavily against an amendment which would have required the Pentagon to explore alternatives to these missiles, given their significant risk to human rights and decreasing public support for their use. We are asking for more transparency on Northrop's political activities because we want to be assured that it is not trying to shape foreign policy that is at odds with its own human rights commitments. The reputational damage that can arise from misalignment can affect the company's performance, and most importantly, political activities that promote war and conflict can have irremediable consequences, such as the loss of human life, which we uphold as sacred.
This proposal is an invitation to deeply examine the business model in the context of Northrop's human rights commitments and political activities, and a call for the company to stop incentivizing war. We offer this proposal supported by strong legal and financial risk assessments to the company and its shareholders requesting an alignment report. We remain committed to our engagement with you, and we'll continue to urge you to make progress on these important issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Jillian. Are there any questions on the shareholder proposal? I do wanna convey that we are deeply committed to advancing human rights and to transparency, including as it relates to both our human rights and political activities more broadly. We conduct our political activities in a manner that's fully consistent with all of our values. We support long-term sustainable growth and more broadly, the objectives of our companies and our shareholders through those efforts. We continue to support broad transparency regarding our human rights program and political expenditures. We provide detailed information into these expenses on our website and in our public filings. We don't believe that there's any instance of misalignment to report. We certainly appreciate the feedback from the proponent. The seventh item on the agenda is the shareholder proposal to provide for an independent board chair.
We were told that Robin Swinholt, a representative of John Chevedden, is here to present this proposal. Welcome. Please introduce yourself, make your statement, and I'll also ask that you limit your comments to three minutes.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Robin Swinholt. I am representing John Chevedden. Proposal seven, independent board chairman, sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders request that the board of directors adopt an enduring policy and amend the governing documents as necessary in order that two separate people hold the office of the chairman and the office of the CEO. Whenever possible, the chairman of the board shall be an independent director. A lead director is no substitute for an independent board chairman. According to the 2022 Northrop Grumman annual meeting proxy, the Northrop Grumman lead director has limited vague duties and has duties shared with others. When the lead director shares duties with others, it means that the lead director may need to do little or nothing in these roles in a given year, in those roles in a given year.
A lead director is not responsible for the strategic direction of the company, and a chairman CEO can ignore the advice and feedback from a lead director. There is no example of a lead director prevailing when there is a disagreement between the chairman CEO and the lead director. As director tenure goes up, director independence goes down. Independence is the most important attribute in a lead director. Mr. Donald Felsinger, the Northrop Grumman lead director until months ago, had 15 years long tenure. The current lead director, Ms. Madeleine Kleiner, also has long tenure and has no work experience in the aerospace industry. Instead, the Northrop Grumman board has experience at Kraft Foods, Hilton Hotels, Avon Products, Walmart, and Family Dollar Stores. Boeing has had endless years of poor earnings because there was not enough aerospace industry experience on the board.
It is amazing the number of companies that claim that they have a robust role excuse me, for the lead director, then the person chosen is the director with the most excessive tenure. Excessive tenure can simply mean that the lead director is a person whose greatest skill is getting along with the CEO. Please vote yes. Independent board chairman, proposal seven.
Thank you, Robin. Are there any questions on this shareholder proposal? We continue to believe the company and its shareholders are best served when the board retains the opportunity to utilize its experience, knowledge, and judgment, informed by ongoing input from shareholders to determine which director is best suited to serve as chair and lead independent director in light of the facts and circumstances at any given time. Allowing the board to have this flexibility serves our shareholders and also allows the company to operate effectively and efficiently to protect and enhance long-term success and shareholder value. Jennifer has the votes, the shares represented by the proxies that have been given to management before this meeting, and these votes have been tallied by the Inspector of Election.
Any votes that were submitted at this meeting will be included in the final tally once the Inspector of Election has had the opportunity to verify the shares. If anyone has ballots that they wish to submit at this time, you can pass those forward. I see no additional ballots have been submitted. The time is 8:17 A.M. I declare the polls are now closed. We have received the preliminary results of the meeting from the Inspector of Election. Jennifer, are the results available?
Based on the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election, each of the 13 nominees for directors received at least 108,319,220 votes and has been an elected director of the company until the 2024 annual meeting of shareholders until his or her earlier resignation or removal. The pro-proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers received 116,744,897 votes and has passed. With respect to the proposal on the preferred frequency of future advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers, the annual or one-year frequency received the majority of the votes with 119,067,507 votes.
Proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's auditor for 2023 received 130,654,911 votes and has passed. Based on the preliminary results, proposal to reduce the threshold required to call a special meeting from 25% to 15% received 119,424,417 votes, which is just over 78.55% of the shares outstanding. Based on the preliminary results, the shareholder proposal to annually conduct an evaluation and report on the company's describing the alignment of the company's political activities with its human rights policy received 24,027,963 votes, which is just over 20% of the votes cast.
Based on the preliminary results, the shareholder proposal to provide for an independent chair received 47,215,801 votes, which is just over 39% of the votes cast. This concludes my report.
Thank you, Jennifer. The board of directors very much appreciates and will carefully consider all of the inputs that our shareholders have provided in these discussions. We thank all of you for your attendance and your continued interest in our company. There being no further business to come before the meeting, I hereby declare the meeting adjourned. This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.