Welcome to the 2026 annual meeting of Republic Services, Inc.'s shareholders. I would now like to introduce the first presenter, Jon Vander Ark.
Good morning. I'm Jon Vander Ark, CEO of Republic Services. Welcome to our 2026 annual meeting of shareholders. I am also a member of the board of directors, I will be acting as the Chairman of this meeting. Joining me today is Catharine Ellingsen, the company's Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Joining us by phone is Ernst & Young, our independent registered public accounting firm. They will be available during the question and answer session to respond to appropriate questions. The company has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as an inspector of elections. Andrew Wilcox, on behalf of Broadridge, is joining us by phone and has taken the oath of inspector of elections. Catharine Ellingsen will be acting as Secretary of this meeting. Before we commence the formal portion of the meeting, I'm gonna turn it over to Catharine to review a few items.
Thanks, Jon. First, if you are a shareholder of Republic Services and wish to submit a question, you may do so during the meeting by typing the question into the box at the bottom left side of the screen. To do so, you must have logged in using your unique control ID number. After we provide an overview of the items of business being considered at this meeting, we will seek to answer submitted questions that relate only to those items of business. If you have any questions related to Republic Services, but not specifically related to the items of business covered at the meeting, you may reach out to our investor relations team at investor@republicservices.com, and those questions will be answered in a timely manner.
Second, if you are a shareholder of Republic Services logged in using your unique control ID number, you may also vote your shares during the meeting by clicking on the red Vote Here button on the bottom of your screen. If you have already voted your shares, there is no need to vote again today unless you'd like to change your vote. Finally, we'd like to note that this meeting is being recorded. No one attending via webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device. It is now shortly after 10:30 A.M. Pacific Time on May seventh, 2026. This meeting is officially called to order. The agenda for the meeting should be visible in the center of your screen. The rules of conduct are available under the Meeting Materials section on the bottom right of your screen.
We intend to strictly follow the agenda and the rules of conduct in carrying out the business of this meeting. The board of directors set March 9th, 2026 as the record date for determining the shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. I have been provided with an affidavit from Broadridge Financial Solutions establishing that notice of this meeting was duly provided to shareholders in accordance with our bylaws. There were 308,956,192 shares of common stock of the company outstanding and entitled to vote as of the record date.
Our inspector of elections has informed us that there are 288,336,887 shares of common stock of the company, representing 93.32% of the outstanding shares present in person or represented by proxy. Accordingly, a quorum is present for the purposes of transacting business.
The polls are now open, and I will present the matters to be voted on at today's meeting. There are three proposals on the ballot. All of these proposals were presented and described in the company's proxy statement dated March 24, 2026. Proposal 1 is the election of directors. The current board has nominated the following 13 directors to hold office until the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified: Manny Kadre, Ian Craig, Michael A. Duffy, Thomas W. Handley, Jennifer M. Kirk, Michael Larson, Tom Linebarger, Meg Reynolds, James P. Snee, Brian S. Tyler, Jon Vander Ark, Sandra M. Volpe, and Katharine B. Weymouth. Proposal two is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the proxy statement.
This is a non-binding vote, although the board and the Talent & Compensation Committee will certainly take the vote results into account when making future compensation decisions. Proposal number three is the ratification of Ernst & Young as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026. Our board recommends voting in favor of proposals one through three. Catharine will now open the floor for any questions or comments on any of the proposals following the rules of conduct for this meeting. Shareholders may submit their questions through the web portal. As a reminder, we will seek to answer questions that relate only to the items of business previously outlined.
This question and answer session will be limited to 10 minutes, and if we're unable to answer all relevant questions during this time, we will post responses to the unanswered questions on our investor relations website. If you have any questions related to Republic Services but not specifically related to the items of business for this meeting, you may submit them to investor@republicservices.com, and those questions will be answered in a timely manner. Catharine, have we received any questions related to the business of the meeting?
No, not yet, but we'll wait a little bit longer to allow for any questions to come in. Well, we still haven't received any questions, so Jon, we'll turn it back over to you.
There being no questions, the polls are about to close. Any shareholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking the red Vote Here button on the web portal and following the instructions on the screen. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or the internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls for the 2026 Republic Services, Inc. annual shareholder meeting closed. Catharine, do we have the preliminary vote results?
We do. We have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that the preliminary vote report shows the following: Each of the 13 director nominees has been elected, the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved by advisory vote, and the appointment of Ernst & Young has been ratified as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. We will be reporting the final vote results in a Form 8-K to be filed within four business days.
Thank you, Catharine. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders of Republic Services, Inc. is now adjourned.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.