Good morning and welcome to the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of Oshkosh Corporation. I'm Dick Donnelly, the Director and Chairman of the Board, and the meeting is now called to order. Joining me today are the other Directors of Oshkosh Corporation, as well as the Company's Executive Officers. I would like to introduce the other Directors at this time and thank each of them, both personally and on behalf of our shareholders, for their support and service as a Director to Oshkosh Corporation. Would each of you please stand as you're introduced? Peter Hamilton, who is the Retired Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Brunswick Corporation. Kathy Hempel, who is the Former Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer of Fort Howard Corporation. Leslie Kenne, who is a Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General. Stephen Newlin, Chairman, President, and Chief Operating Officer of PolyOne Corporation.
Craig P. Omtvedt, who is the Retired Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Fortune Brands. Duncan J. Palmer, who is the Chief Financial Officer of Reed Elsevier, a large UK company. John S. Shiely, the Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Briggs & Stratton Corporation. Richard G. Sim, Retired Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of APW Limited. Charles L. Szews, Chief Executive Officer of Oshkosh Corporation. And William S. Wallace, who is the Retired Commanding General of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Sitting next to me is Bryan J. Blankfield, Executive Vice President and General Counsel and Secretary of the Company. Here today are also P.J. DiStefano, Scott Wrobbel, and James Stewart of Deloitte & Touche, the Company's Independent Public Accountants, and Gary Farrar, the Company's Independent Inspector of Elections. The Inspector has taken the Oath of Office, which I direct to be filed with the minutes of the meeting.
In accordance with the Notice of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, this meeting is being held for the following purposes: 1, to elect 11 Directors. 2, to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP, an Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm, as the Company's Independent Auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014. 3, to consider an advisory vote on the compensation of the Company's named executive officers. 4, to vote on a shareholder proposal, if promptly presented today. And 5, to consider and act upon such other business as may properly come before this meeting. Bryan, please report on the mailing, the notice, and the attendance at this meeting.
Thank you, Dick. The notice of this meeting was mailed on December 13, 2013, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 10, 2013, the record date set by the Board of Directors for this meeting. I have an affidavit signed and sworn to by a representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions as to the mailing. I will include the Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and the affidavit as to its mailing as part of the minutes of this meeting. There are persons present here today holding shares or proxies representing greater than a majority of the shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of the December 10, 2013, record date. I therefore deem there to be a quorum present, subject to certification by the Independent Inspector of Elections. Mr. Chairman, this meeting is lawfully convened.
Thank you, Bryan. If you are a shareholder of record and wish to vote your shares in person, hold your hand open, and you may obtain a ballot now from the Inspector of Elections table in the back of the room.
If anyone is voting today on the authority of a legal proxy, please note that fact on your ballot, and you should give both the proxy and the ballot to the Inspector of Elections. Shareholders who've already voted by proxy, including by the Internet or over the phone, do not need to complete a ballot.
The first item of business to come before this meeting is the election of 11 Directors for terms that expire at the 2015 Annual Meeting. Bryan, would you please read the names of the Board of Directors nominees to be voted on by the shareholders?
The names of the Board of Directors nominees are Richard Donnelly, Peter Hamilton, Kathleen Hempel, Leslie Kenne, Stephen Newlin, Craig Omtvedt, Duncan Palmer, John Shiely, Richard Sim, Charles Szews, and William Wallace. The Board's statement in support of its nominees is on pages 14 through 32 of the Company's Proxy Statement.
Thank you, Bryan. The nominations are closed. Are there any questions on this item of business? There being no further discussion on this item, we will proceed to a vote.
Properly marked ballots cast today with the Inspector of Elections in the back of the room will be included in the official final tabulations. As of now, I currently hold proxies for at least 71.2 million shares of common stock authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for the election of each of the named nominees as Directors, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note for the record that shares representing at least 97.6% of the common stock voting today were voted for each of the nominees for Directors set forth in the Proxy Statement for this meeting.
Thank you, Bryan. In accordance with the by-laws, I declare each of the nominees elected to the Company's Board of Directors for a term to expire at the 2015 Annual Meeting. The second item of business to come before this meeting is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the Company's Independent Auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014. The Board's statement in support of this proposal is on pages 43 through 45 of the Company's Proxy Statement. I currently hold proxies for at least 76.1 million shares of common stock authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company's Independent Auditors for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and we have voted these shares accordingly.
I note for the record that shares representing over 97.3% of the common stock voting today were voted in favor of the proposal ratifying Deloitte & Touche as the Company's Independent Auditor for our 2014 fiscal year. The proposal is approved. The third item of business to come before this meeting is the consideration of a resolution to approve on an advisory basis the compensation for executive officers named on page 74 of the Proxy Statement.
The Board's statement in support of this resolution is on pages 96 through 98 of the Proxy Statement. I hold proxies for at least 71.5 million shares of common stock authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote these shares for the resolution to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the Company's named executive officers, and we have voted these shares accordingly. I note for the record that shares representing over 98% of the common stock voting today were voted in favor of this resolution.
This resolution is approved. The fourth item of business to come before the meeting is to consider a shareholder proposal included in the Proxy Statement for this meeting regarding accelerated vesting of equity awards in the event of a change in control of the Company. I will recognize Lee Splitt, the proxy holder of the sponsor of the proposal, who may introduce this proposal and make a brief statement.
Thank you. Proposal four, shareholder proposal to limit accelerated executive pay, sponsored by John Chevedden of Redondo Beach, California. Resolve, shareholders ask our Board of Directors to adopt a policy that in the event of a change in control as defined under any applicable employment agreement, equity incentive plan, or other plan, there shall be no acceleration of vesting of any equity award granted to any senior executive, provided, however, that our Board's executive pay committee may provide in an applicable grant or purchase agreement that any unvested award will vest on a partial pro-rata basis up to the time of the senior executive's termination, with such qualifications for an award as the executive pay committee may determine. For purposes of the policy, equity award means an award granted under an equity incentive plan as defined in Item 402 of the SEC's Regulation S-K, which is just executive pay.
This resolution shall be implemented so as not to affect any contractual rights in existence on the date this proposal is adopted. The voting of equity pay for executives over a period of time is intended to promote long-term improvements in performance. The link between executive pay and long-term company performance can be disconnected if this executive pay is accelerated. Please vote to protect shareholder value. Limit accelerated executive pay, proposal four. Thank you.
Thank you. We will proceed to a vote.
The Board's response opposing this proposal is on pages 99 to 102 of the Proxy Statement. I currently hold proxies for approximately 29.6 million shares of common stock authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote those shares in favor of the shareholder proposal, and proxies for approximately 41.6 million shares authorizing Dick Donnelly and me to vote those shares against the proposal, and we have voted those shares accordingly. I note then for the record that shares representing over 57% of the common stock voting today were voted against the shareholder proposal.
The proposal is defeated. After the adjournment of this meeting, Charlie Szews, Oshkosh Corporation CEO, will report on the Company business and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions. As there is no further business to come before this meeting, absent a motion to the contrary, I declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you all for coming today. Now, Bryan has a brief important announcement.
Thank you, Dick. Mr. Szews, our Chief Executive Officer, former Chief Financial Officer, will now report on the Company's activities and provide other information regarding the Company's operations. Today's presentation is being webcast and is accompanied by a slide presentation which includes a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures used and which is also available on our website. The audio replay and slide presentation will be available on our website for approximately 12 months. The remarks that follow, including the videos shown at this meeting, include statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different.
Those risks include, among others, matters that we've described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on November 13, 2013, including an amendment filed on November 19, 2013, our first quarterly report of fiscal year 2014 filed on January 28, 2014, and other filings we make with the SEC. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings press release, if at all. References in Mr. Szews' remarks to a quarter or a year are to our fiscal quarter or fiscal year unless stated otherwise. We'll now show a brief video before Mr. Szews comes up to speak.
At Oshkosh, we move the world at work. We've been doing so since 1917 when William Besserdich and B.A. Mosling started Oshkosh Motor Truck Manufacturing Company to introduce the world to Old Betsy and four-wheel drive. Since then, we've introduced or acquired many new products and innovations to safely and efficiently move customers at work. We aspire to a higher purpose because nearly all of our products protect people or materials. This provides us added motivation to serve and delight customers. Through nearly 100 years of operation, we've faced a lot of adversity. From wars to economic disasters, we've emerged bigger and stronger, transformed. Oshkosh introduced our MOVE strategy to shareholders in September 2012 to communicate our roadmap to grow bigger and stronger despite a slow recovery in our non-defense businesses following the Great Recession and a declining defense business as the U.S. emerged from war.
MOVE includes four initiatives: capture recovery in our non-defense markets, a $220 million operating income opportunity from 2013 through 2015. Optimize our cost and capital structure to improve operating income margins by 250 basis points by 2015. And utilize our free cash flow to enhance returns for shareholders. Value innovation to extend Oshkosh's leadership in introducing new products valued by customers. And expansion into emerging markets to grow our core businesses. These four initiatives provide a roadmap for Oshkosh to target nearly doubling earnings by 2015. But Move is more than a business strategy; it is a business transformation. While Move evolves Oshkosh from a largely U.S. industrial company focused on defense in 2012 to a global industrial in 2015, it also transforms us to place customers at the center of our universe as we focus our business processes and talent on satisfying and delighting our customers.
We introduced the Oshkosh Operating System to lead a cultural transformation of our business, to align our talent to work together as one team and put the customer first, with customer supporting systems designed to delight our customers and continually improve our customers' experience with our products and services, and processes to validate customer satisfaction as well as create additional value and even delight our customers. We have designed one quality management system for use across the company. We deploy Advanced Product Quality Planning when launching all new products to prevent customer dissatisfaction. We have created Critical-to-Quality processes and procedures where we apply additional design and testing emphasis to control product launch quality across the company, and we have instituted Corrective Action Review Boards to correct any process that may impact customer satisfaction. All of these quality processes are intended to create a satisfied customer experience with our products.
The Oshkosh Safety Management System was launched across the company to further improve our safe working environment for employees. Each Oshkosh facility strives to reach the four SMS levels of safe working environments, and in 2014, we are expecting our first locations to aggressively pursue level four certification. Meanwhile, our workers' compensation costs continue to decline and are about half that of comparable industrial companies, a clear indicator that we have created a safe workplace, and our team members go home to their families safe. The result of these and other initiatives is that our team has been transformed. We're stronger, and we're smarter. More and more of us are trained in Oshkosh Operating System tools, transforming our business to use best practices, leading to margin improvement and improved cash flow.
Yes, our team is transformed and continually improving to better serve our customers and to better serve our shareholders, who are also our customers, as we work to generate strong financial returns on shareholder capital that could be invested elsewhere. We believe this means MOVE is on track to achieve $4-$4.50 earnings per share in 2015, but also on track to transform the business to be a global industrial and to transform our team to be able to lead and sustain long-term superior growth for our shareholders. Enjoy the ride as we move the world at work.
Yes, Oshkosh has talent. Nick Voight, artist from Pierce. John Schwartz did the video work, and Dave Guinther is the voice of Oshkosh. Please give them a round of applause for the show. Dave, stand up. Good morning and welcome to all our shareholders present here in Oshkosh as well as on the web. Yes, MOVE is more than a strategy to target earnings of $4 and $4.50 in 2015. It's a business transformation as we transform Oshkosh into a global industrial with a business culture built to sustain superior shareholder value. Before discussing our business transformation, I'd like to express my appreciation to our directors for their sage advice, particularly in capital allocation, their encouragement to do more for shareholders, and their commitment to doing what's right for all shareholders.
Now, one director, our chairman Dick Donnelly, was recognized as 2013 Public Company Director of the Year for the National Directors Institute for his active engagement on the Oshkosh board to support shareholder interests. This award is well-deserved and is indicative of the performance and commitment exhibited by each of our directors, but can only be awarded to one person. Thank you, Dick, and all our directors for all that you do for Oshkosh. Additionally, we have two new members of our Executive Operating Team I'd like to introduce. First, please recognize Senior Vice President Marek May, who was promoted in 2013 to lead and transform our global manufacturing operations. So Marek, you transformed our defense operations; now let's do it globally. Also, Senior Vice President Brad Nelson now leads our commercial segment.
After serving JLG in marketing and business development, we've asked Brad to lead our commercial segment through the housing recovery. Congratulations to Marek and Brad. Now, in the interest of time, Wilson Jones, our President and Chief Operating Officer, would you please stand and be recognized along with the rest of the Executive Operating Team? Thank you for your service. Let's move forward. As shareholders, you know we exist to move customers at work around the world, performing important missions for nearly 100 years on construction job sites, defending the world's freedom, fighting fires, and cleaning up afterwards. Our one-year and 15-year total shareholder returns of approximately 80% and 1,200% reflect that we are focused both on serving and delighting our customers that use our products and services, as well as shareholders who provide us the capital to do our business.
MOVE is our roadmap to transform our company into a global industrial, with our non-defense businesses becoming an increasingly larger percentage of our business. We're expanding globally in our core industrial markets to take advantage of superior growth rates in many areas of the world. Now, let's take a quick look at how we are performing a little over one year after we introduced our transformation strategy to shareholders in September 2012. I'm pleased to report that we've performed quite well. In fact, we significantly exceeded our first-year targets. We met our sales targets. We expected total company revenue to decline from 2012 to 2013 as U.S. defense spending declined, but sales in all our non-defense businesses would grow in 2013. Most importantly, we met our operating income margin expansion objectives. In fact, we far exceeded them. A clear sign that MOVE is transforming the business.
This led to earnings per share 44% above the high end of our initial expectations for 2013. It also drove strong free cash flow. Yes, Oshkosh has mojo and we're delivering results for our shareholders. Consistently strong free cash flow amounting to $3 billion over the last seven years is creating options for the business. This slide depicts how we prioritize our options for use of our free cash flow. Our first priority is maintaining a strong balance sheet. Our balance sheet today is in great shape. Over the past few years, we've paid down a substantial amount of debt. Today, our debt minus cash on hand is a little more than 1x annual cash flow, which is well within our target range. This allows us to pursue other options with our free cash flow. Next, we reinvest in our current businesses to drive higher earnings.
Those investments were quite successful in 2013. We then look to return capital to shareholders or invest in external growth opportunities like acquisitions. Today, we're focused on transforming our current businesses because we believe we have opportunities to provide significant returns to shareholders by increasing margins in those businesses and growing them. That led us to announce a $300 million share repurchase program in November 2012. We also stated a quarterly cash dividend in December. We'll remain disciplined in our capital allocation to use available cash to provide the best returns for shareholders, and we expect to be able to sustain and grow our dividend over time. Our team's execution of Move is on track to drive Oshkosh to achieve our 2015 EPS target of $4-$4.50.
Unless we see faster recovery in the excess equipment markets in Europe and Australia, we may not achieve our objective of delivering $220 million of incremental operating income from recovering global markets. But we are excited and encouraged by our activities to lower our product, process, and overhead costs by our new product innovation initiatives and by our global expansion activities. So essentially, we believe our cost reduction initiatives will allow us to absorb a slower global recovery. In our first quarter of 2014, we significantly exceeded both our own and Wall Street expectations, and we demonstrated our confidence by raising our 2014 full-year earnings per share expectations to a range of $3.40-$3.65. Further, we exceeded our share repurchase expectations as we took advantage of favorable trading levels in our stock.
Now, through December 31, 2013, we repurchased $347 million, or 9.1 million shares, compared to our original plan to repurchase $300 million a share. Importantly, in the first quarter, we again raised margins in all our non-defense businesses in the seasonally weak quarter. Quite simply, Move is delivering value for shareholders. Let's discuss how Move also represents more than just a three-year earnings growth strategy, but a business transformation that will permit Oshkosh to deliver superior shareholder returns beyond 2015. Now, we are building a business fundamentals foundation that is focused on serving and delighting customers. You saw it in the video. It's not a novel concept, but if you create an organization that serves customers really well, then our customers win, the business wins over the long term, and so do shareholders. We've talked about the Oshkosh Operating System before. It's powering our business transformation.
External and internal customers are the center of our universe, the reason that we exist. We are creating a culture where we seek to delight customers by developing our talent and providing them with the tools and processes to delight customers. Our culture is growing stronger by the day. We provided foundational training to over 11,000 employees in different aspects of the Oshkosh Operating System. Leaders like myself cascade the training across the company. We walk the talk. We are training employees in all three parts of the Oshkosh Operating System. First, we provided customer-first training on the guiding principles of how we seek to serve customers. Second, we conducted customer supporting systems training, which provides employees with the tools to provide an exceptional customer experience.
Third, we are cascading customer satisfaction training, where we validate the true customer experience, course correct as necessary, and seek to create real value for our customers. We believe we are entering phase three of our journey to transform our business culture. The Oshkosh Operating System is integrated into the daily work of many of our employees on the road to full integration. Let me share just some examples of that work. The Oshkosh Operating System is transforming how we do things all over the company. Continuous improvement events to improve our processes to serve customers have become standard work for our employees. We are deploying a new quality management system across our company to ensure that we flawlessly launch new products and improve customer experiences with our products.
As evidence of our progress, JLG, which forms the heart of our access equipment segment, was named Supplier of the Year in January by United Rentals, the world's largest equipment rental company. Congratulations to JLG. JLG is the only two-time winner of the award. Customers like to save money and want us to be good stewards of the environment. So Oshkosh is at the forefront of green initiatives to reduce customer costs to operate our vehicles. We're also deploying sustainability initiatives across the company to lower our own operating costs. Now, to recognize and foster our business culture transformation, just this year, we began awarding Oshkosh Excellence Awards. The Oshkosh Excellence Awards are an annual competition for all of our employees. They encourage continuous improvement activities to benefit Oshkosh, our customers, as well as our local communities.
Now, winners at each of our locations are able to designate the qualified charity of their choice to receive cash awards. We had over 650 submissions involving approximately 3,000 employees in just the first year of the awards. This demonstrates the passion and enthusiasm we have for serving customers and for giving back to our communities. I'm very, very proud of our team. Our business transformation is gaining momentum. Our commitment to you, our shareholders, is to drive hard to deliver our 2015 earnings per share target range of $4-$4.50. Initial 2013 and first quarter 2014 results were very positive. Our markets are improving. We are delivering on our cost reduction activities. And yes, we are prudently allocating free cash flow to enhance shareholder returns. We also commit to continuing the transformation of Oshkosh's business culture to delight customers with our products and our services.
We believe this transformation will allow Oshkosh to sustain consistent long-term value creation for shareholders. We hope to see you again next year, where we expect to reflect on a solid 2014. So now, let's open up the floor for a few questions. Please raise your hand, and someone with a microphone will step up so all of us can hear your question, including those on the web. We have one question in the back. You show the defense business sinking or shrinking, I should say, to about 15% in the next two years. Is the board discussing selling that business or some other transformation? As a board, we do look at strategic alternatives for all of our businesses at least a couple of times a year, so that's always a consideration.
Today, we believe that it provides value to shareholders, particularly in the near term, because we are competing for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, as well as a number of M-ATV and Heavy Tactical Vehicle programs in the Middle East, which provide significant upside value to shareholders over the near term. But it is something that's continually looked at.
Okay. Thank you all for your support of Oshkosh Corporation. Have a great day.