Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Spire Inc. annual meeting of shareholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rob Jones. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning. This is Rob Jones, Chair of the Board of Directors of Spire Inc., and on behalf of my fellow board members and the more than 3,500 employees of Spire, we welcome you to our annual shareholders' meeting. We're conducting this meeting virtually, which we believe allows us to reach the greatest number of our shareholders, and the meeting is officially called to order. We plan to conduct today's meeting according to the agenda and rules of conduct provided on the portal. Please note that later in the meeting, we'll be addressing questions submitted by shareholders, and validated shareholders may type in questions in the designated field on the portal. We'll be happy to address those questions, but please note that this meeting is being recorded.
The polls are currently open for voting and will remain open until the proposals have been presented and the polls are declared closed. Until that time, any shareholder who has not voted or wishes to change a vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the portal and will follow the instructions there. Any shareholder who has already voted and does not wish to change their vote does not need to take any further action. Now, let me introduce Spire's Board of Directors and the executive officers, as well as a representative from our independent registered public accountant, Deloitte & Touche, all of whom are participating in this virtual meeting. My fellow directors are Mark Borer, retired Chief Executive Officer, DCP Midstream Partners, LP. Sheri Cook, Chief Administrative Officer, Altec Incorporated. Vinnie Ferrari, retired Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Edward D.
Jones & Co., L.P., Maria Fogarty, retired Senior Vice President, Internal Audit and Compliance, NextEra Energy Inc., Carrie Hightman, retired Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, NiSource Inc., Paul Koonce, retired Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Power Generation Group, Dominion Energy, Brenda Newberry, founder and retired Chief Executive Officer, The Newberry Group, and John Stupp, President, Stupp Bros., Inc. Steve Lindsey, our President and Chief Executive Officer, who is also a member of the board, is on a health-related leave of absence and is not present today. We wish him a speedy recovery and appreciate the support our shareholders and the broader community have shown during this time.
For our executive officers present, we have Adam Woodard, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Scott Doyle, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Matt Aplington, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Steve Rasche, Executive Vice President, Senior Advisor, Ryan Hayman, Senior Vice President, Chief Customer and Information Officer, Courtney Vomund, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Vomund will be serving as secretary during this meeting. Justin May, Deloitte & Touche, the Deloitte & Touche partner, is also present. I will now begin the formal meeting. Ms. Vomund, do we have proof of mailing?
Yes. I have the affidavit of distribution from Joanne Vogel of Broadridge Financial Solutions, which shows that the notice of annual meeting and availability of materials was distributed on approximately December 18th, 2024, as required to shareholders of record. On the record date, December 4th, 2024, there were 57,800,460 shares that were issued and outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. As of the opening of this meeting, Broadridge has reported that there are, represented by proxy at this meeting, holders of at least 90% of common shares of the company, and therefore a quorum is present. If any shareholder in attendance at this meeting plans to vote their shares, you may vote your shares online using the vote button until the polls close.
Thank you. Since we have more than the majority of the outstanding common shares represented here by proxy, we have a quorum and therefore may proceed with the business of the meeting. This morning, we have four items of business that Ms. Vomund will now present, which are described in further detail in the proxy statement filed with the SEC on December 18th, 2024.
In accordance with the materials that were sent to shareholders, for the first item of business as proxy, I move for the approval of nominees Carrie J. Hightman, Paul D. Koonce, and Brenda D. Newberry as directors for a three-year term expiring at the annual meeting in the year 2028. These were the individuals nominated in the proxy statement. We note that no other nominations were submitted as provided in the company's bylaws. For the second item of business as proxy, I move the approval of an advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. For the third item of business as proxy, I move the approval of the Spire 2025 equity incentive plan.
For the fourth item of business as proxy, I move the approval of the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accountant for the 2025 fiscal year.
Thank you, Courtney. The proxies have cast the votes in accordance with the instructions received from the shareholders giving such proxies. Any shareholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so now by clicking on the voting button on the portal and following the instructions. Shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any action. Nancy Hoffman, representing Broadridge Financial Solutions, has been appointed as inspector of election and will report the results to the secretary as soon as they are available. The polls are closing momentarily, and we will pause now for a minute to allow anyone wishing to cast a ballot to do so. All right. The polls are now closed.
While we await the report of the inspector of election, I would like to share some thoughts with you about the state of the company. 2024 was a year of significant change for Spire, with the new executive leadership bringing energy and innovative perspectives to execute the company's strategic plan. Steve Lindsey completed his first year as President and CEO, and we have been excited to see his leadership in action. The company responded proactively to headwinds in the markets related to weather, interest rates, inflation, and was able to grow earnings and dividends year over year. In addition to supporting new leadership in management, which is part of the board's ongoing management succession planning efforts, the board remains focused on its oversight responsibilities with respect to ensuring the board is made up of directors who are independent, committed, diverse, experienced, and accountable to our shareholders.
The board is excited about the newest director we've added to the board in April 2024. Sherry Cook, current Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Altec Inc., brings tremendous experience with human resources and finance, as well as the valuable perspective of a working executive. She also lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama, so she's part of Spire's service territory, which allows her to have a unique perspective on the company as a customer. We continue to evaluate the composition of the board and look for opportunities to add diversity and experience going forward. I'd like to thank our shareholders for your investment in Spire and your continued support of the company. I'm confident that our ability to deliver value over the long term to our shareholders, employees, customers, and communities will achieve this through our strong focus on providing safe, affordable, reliable, and efficient energy.
Scott Doyle, our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, is filling in for Steve Lindsey today during his medical leave. Scott, would you like to share some thoughts about management priorities in the fiscal year 2025 and beyond?
Thank you, Rob. I would like to begin by saying my first year with Spire was exciting and rewarding. We have been focused on operational excellence and executing our strategy, which remains the same. We are committed to growing our businesses, investing in infrastructure, and driving continuous improvement to ensure we provide value for our shareholders every day. I would like to recognize Steve Rasche, who just stepped down from the role of Chief Financial Officer after 15 years of dedicated service to our company. Steve will retire at the end of March, leaving behind a legacy of driving transformative growth and playing a key leadership role in building the company we are today. I would like to congratulate Steve for a successful career and thank him for his immeasurable contributions. Adam Woodard, our previous treasurer, has succeeded Steve as CFO effective January 1.
Adam has a deep understanding of the company, industry, and financial markets, and has played a key role in developing our strategy since joining Spire in 2018. We are confident in Adam's ability to lead us in his new role. While fiscal year 24 presented some challenges, including warmer weather, inflation, recovery of increased commodity costs, and higher interest rates, we were still able to execute our capital plan focused on our gas utilities. In addition to pipeline modernization, we also invested in connecting new homes and businesses, as well as installing 350,000 advanced meters. We implemented a successful customer affordability initiative to lower our overall cost structure and improve operational efficiency across the organization. We expect to see the benefits of this initiative for a number of years to come.
The midstream segment performed well as we acquired, integrated the MoGas and Omega pipeline companies and moved toward completion of the expansion at Spire Storage West. As we move forward in fiscal year 2025 and beyond, we will continue delivering on our long-term growth strategy. Focusing our investments on modernizing our gas utilities will drive our earnings growth. This past November, we filed a rate case in Missouri to recover costs already incurred for investment in infrastructure and technology upgrades to better serve customers. This case seeks to update our cost of service, rate base, and rate of return. We are also proposing options to improve recovery of volumetric revenue, including the impacts of both weather and conservation. At the end of 2024, we finalize the Alabama regulatory process that establishes the budget and rates for our customers on time and within the regulatory timelines established.
Finally, I want to recognize our more than 3,500 employees dedicated to ensuring our customers have safe and reliable natural gas service with renewed focus on improving the way we operate. 2025 has started out with sustained winter weather across Spire's footprint, with snowfall even in places like Mobile, Alabama, and Houston, Texas. Our employees are our most valuable assets, and they continuously work to deliver for our customers under challenging conditions.
Thank you, Scott. We'll now address any questions. Ms. Vomund, do we have any questions?
Yes, we have one question to answer, and I will direct us to you, Rob. Our pension funds support the use of a classified board structure. Could you address the value of the board's fees in the use of a classified board and whether it facilitates long-term strategic planning?
That's a good question. We have always had a classified board here at Spire, although I know it's probably not necessarily the current in vogue structure for board. But the classified board we use has three-year terms for each director. And in fact, it does help us plan because we have the ability both to recruit directors for three-year terms for their service to the company rather than a series of one-year commitments where you have a little more instability in the board composition. We find that the three-year cycle has proven to give us the ability to look through business cycles and look through what's going on in the markets in order to plan the strategy for the company, which has been here for well over 100 years. So with that, it does assist us in doing that long-term planning.
We now have the preliminary report of the inspector of election for the Secretary to please report the results.
Yes, the results were as follows. For the first proposal, Carrie J. Heitman, Paul D. Koonce, and Brenda D. Newberry each received favorable votes from greater than a majority of the voted shares, which is sufficient for each of them to be elected for a term of three years. Therefore, the proposal passes. The second proposal for advisory approval of compensation of our named executive officers received favorable votes from greater than a majority of the voted shares, which is sufficient for its advisory approval. The third proposal to approve the Spire 2025 equity incentive plan received favorable votes from greater than a majority of the voted shares, which is sufficient for approval.
The fourth proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche to audit the accounts of Spire for fiscal year 2025 received favorable votes from greater than a majority of the voted shares, which is sufficient for its approval.
Thank you. As you heard, the nominees named in the proxy statement have been elected, and the advisory approval for compensation of our named executive officers has been obtained. The Spire 2025 executive extended plan has been authorized, approved, and the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP has been approved. I will now ask Ms. Vomund for a closing statement and motion to adjourn.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, along with its representative, Nancy Hoffman, the independent inspector of election and proxy tabulator for this annual meeting, will be providing a final vote tabulation report after this meeting is complete, certifying the results of the four proposals, which will then be reported in a Form 8-K the company plans to file on or before January 31st, 2025. Some of today's comments may have included forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected. A description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause future performance or results to be different from those anticipated are contained in the company's Form 10-K and other documents filed with the SEC, which are readily available.
We also note that to the extent any of the remarks contain non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures can be found in our Form 10-K available on our website. As secretary, I move that the meeting be adjourned.
So ordered, and thank you all for being with us today.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.