Hello, I am Chad Abraham, CEO and Chairman of Piper Sandler Companies. Welcome to the Piper Sandler Companies 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I would like to start by introducing my fellow members of the board of directors. These are Jonathan Doyle, Vice Chairman and Head of Financial Services Group of Piper Sandler Companies. Stuart Essig, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation. Ann Gallo, former Senior Managing Director and Partner at Wellington Management Company. Vicki Holt, former President and CEO of Proto Labs, Inc. Robbin Mitchell, Senior Advisor of The Boston Consulting Group. Tom Schreier, former Chairman of Nuveen Asset Management. Philip Soran, former President, CEO, and Director of Compellent Technologies, Inc. Brian Sterling, former Managing Director of Piper Sandler Companies and former Co-Head of Investment Banking at Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. Scott Taylor, former Executive Vice President and General Counsel of NortonLifeLock, Inc.
Now, we will turn to formal business by calling the meeting to order. We will conduct the meeting according to the agenda and procedural rules. March 24th was the record date set by the board. The record shareholder list is available from the Inspector of Elections. Affidavits showing proper mailing of meeting notice, proxy statement, and annual report will be filed with the meeting minutes. At least a majority of the voting power of our outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote as of the record date are present in person or by proxy at today's meeting, which represents a quorum to conduct business. The polls are now open for voting electronically according to the instructions previously provided. Shareholders that have completed the proper steps may now electronically submit their vote. Cheryl Niebling of the Carideo Group is our Inspector of Elections.
Her oath of office will be filed with meeting minutes. The first item of business is the election of 10 directors to serve until the 2027 annual meeting or until successors are elected and qualified. The nominees are Chad Abraham, Jonathan Doyle, Stuart Essig, Ann Gallo, Vicki Holt, Robbin Mitchell, Tom Schreier, Philip Soran, Brian Sterling, and Scott Taylor. The second item of business is the proposal to ratify the audit committee's selection of Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditor for 2026. A representative of Ernst & Young is present. The third item of business is an advisory vote to approve the compensation of officers disclosed in the proxy statement or a say on pay vote. These are the only three items to be voted on. I am now opening the floor for shareholders who wish to discuss a business item. Please enter your comments in the fields provided.
Please hold general questions until after we close the polls. Any discussion of the business items described? If no additional discussion, we will close the polls. Seeing no further discussion, the polls are now closed. Here are the preliminary voting results. Each director nominee has been elected. More than 98% of votes cast were voted in favor of ratifying selection of Ernst & Young as independent auditor for 2026. More than 99% of votes cast were in favor of the say on pay proposal. The say on pay vote is advisory. The board will take the voting results under advisement.
Voting results are preliminary and will be adjusted to reflect any additional ballots cast during the meeting. The final vote will be reported on a Form 8-K following the meeting. We have completed the formal portion of the meeting. The meeting is now adjourned. We will now take questions of general interest to shareholders. Seeing no further questions, this concludes our annual meeting. Thank you for attending.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.