Welcome to Stryker's annual meeting of shareholders. The meeting is being recorded for replay purposes. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the discussions during the meeting will include forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the company's most recent filings with the SEC. Also, the discussions will include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the slides for the meeting posted on stryker.com. Now I'll turn the meeting over to Mr. Kevin Lobo, Chair and Chief Executive Officer.
Good morning. On behalf of Stryker's Board of Directors, welcome to the 45th annual meeting of shareholders. I have the honor to serve as Chair and CEO of Stryker. Rob Fletcher, Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Interim Corporate Secretary, is also participating in this meeting, and Jenny Braga, Director of Communications and Public Relations, is assisting with Q&A. So that I officially call the meeting to order, I'll ask Rob to establish that this meeting has been duly called and that a quorum is present. Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. With me, I have an affidavit related to the mailing of the notice of the meeting and proxy materials on March 26, 2024, to all shareholders of record as of March 11, 2024, the record date fixed by the Board of Directors.
A certified list of the shareholders of record of the company as of March 11, 2024, and the minutes of the 2023 annual meeting of shareholders are available for inspection by any shareholder upon request. Bill Berry, Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, has been appointed to serve as Inspector of Election. Based on the proxies received, the inspector has reported to me that a majority of the 380,469,830 shares of common stock entitled to vote are represented at the meeting, either in person or by proxy. A quorum of common stock is therefore present, and the meeting may proceed.
Thank you, Rob. On the basis of the Secretary's report, this meeting is duly constituted. I would like to start by recognizing two iconic individuals who embody and help shape Stryker's rich culture and history of performance. John Brown, our Chairman Emeritus, led the company for over three decades, and his imprint is still very visible in our company today. Director Emeritus Howard Cox devoted over 44 years of service as a director and made innumerable contributions to the company's growth and success during his tenure. They are both great ambassadors of Stryker, and I am fortunate to continue to connect with them. I would also like to acknowledge Srikant Datar, who is retiring from our board after close to 15 years of exemplary service. Srikant made significant contributions to our thinking and strategy in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, innovation, global growth, digital technologies, and finance.
Thank you, Srikant. You are a great board member, and we are grateful for your positive impact on the company. Next are the individuals who serve as directors of the corporation and stand for reelection. They are in attendance today online. Starting at the top of the photo from left to right, Sheri McCoy is former CEO of Avon Products and also former Vice Chair of Johnson & Johnson. She is our lead independent director. Mary Brainerd is former President and CEO of HealthPartners, a large U.S. healthcare organization. Mary chairs our governance and nominating committee. Giovanni Caforio is Executive Chair of Bristol Myers Squibb. He served as Bristol Myers Squibb CEO until October 2023. Allan Golston is President U.S. Program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He chairs our Compensation and Human Capital Committee. Andy Silvernail is CEO of International Paper and former Chair and CEO of IDEX Corporation.
Andy chairs our Audit Committee. Lisa Skeet Tatum is founder and CEO of Landit, Inc., a technology platform created to increase the success and engagement of women and diverse groups in the workforce. Ronda Stryker serves on the boards of Greenleaf Trust and Spelman College. She is the granddaughter of Dr. Homer Stryker, the founder of the company, and the daughter of Lee Stryker, a former president of the company. Rajeev Suri is Chair of Digicel Group, a leading digital provider across the Caribbean and Central America, and former CEO of Inmarsat, a British satellite telecommunications company. We are also pleased to have identified an extremely well-qualified director candidate who is nominated for election at this meeting. Rachel Ruggeri is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Starbucks Corporation. I am also proud to introduce the Stryker leadership team.
Starting at the top of the photo from left to right, Yin Becker is Corporate Affairs Officer. Glenn Boehnlein is our CFO. Katy Fink is our Chief Human Resources Officer. Rob Fletcher is our Chief Legal Officer. Viju Menon is Group President, Global Quality and Operations. Andy Pierce is Group President of our MedSurg and Neurotechnology businesses. Spencer Stiles is Group President of our Orthopaedics and Spine businesses. We are also fortunate to have a talented and experienced leadership team that lives our mission and value every single day. In addition, I want to recognize our other corporate officers who are pictured on this slide. We have a new member in this group, Lindsay Gardner, who joined Stryker as Vice President Treasury this April. She joins us with 23 years of experience in corporate finance with General Electric.
Lindsay replaces Jeanne Blondia, who is retiring from her role as Vice President Finance and Treasurer later this year. Jeanne will provide transitional support to Lindsay and serve as an advisor to our CFO, Glenn Boehnlein. Thank you, Jeanne, for your contributions and dedication to Stryker and for your leadership of the Treasury Group over the past 15 years. Noted on this slide is our independent accounting firm, Ernst & Young, represented by J. Preston, Partner. Rob will now introduce the proposals included in the proxy statement.
Thank you, Kevin. There are four proposals included in the proxy statement. Any shareholder of record who is logged in as such on the meeting website may vote online. If you have previously granted a proxy, your vote today will automatically revoke your proxy. Voting will be tabulated after the proposals have been presented. If anyone during this period would like to ask a question related to a specific proposal, please submit your question on the meeting website. Questions submitted in advance of the meeting regarding a specific proposal will also be addressed. General questions will be addressed later in the meeting. The first proposal is the election of 10 directors. The nominees for election as directors are Mary Brainerd, Giovanni Caforio, Allan Golston, Kevin Lobo, Sheri McCoy, Rachel Ruggeri, Andy Silvernail, Lisa Skeet Tatum, Ronda Stryker, and Rajeev Suri.
As there have been no other nominations during the designated nominating period, in accordance with our bylaws, the nominations are now closed. The second proposal to come before the meeting is ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. Under SEC rules, the responsibility for the appointment and oversight of the company's auditors resides with the audit committee.
However, today we continue our practice of asking shareholders to ratify this appointment. The third proposal to come before the meeting is say-on-pay, an advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers, as disclosed in detail in the proxy statement under Compensation, Discussion, and Analysis, and Executive Compensation. The fourth proposal to come before the meeting is a shareholder proposal related to transparency and political spending. Cam Franklin will present this proposal to the meeting on behalf of John Chevedden.
Good morning. Can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can.
Can you hear me? Cool. Proposal for transparency and political spending sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders request that Stryker Corporation provide a report updated semi-annually disclosing the company's, one, policies and procedures for making expenditures to, A, participate in any campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office, or, B, influence the general public with respect to an election. Two, monetary and non-monetary contributions and expenditures used in the manner described above, including, A, the identity of the recipient as well as the amount paid to each, and, B, the titles of the persons in the company responsible for decision-making. The report shall be presented to the Board of Directors or relevant board committee and posted on the company's website within 12 months from the date of the annual meeting. This proposal does not encompass lobbying spending. Long-term shareholders of Stryker support transparency and accountability in corporate electoral spending.
This includes any activity considered intervention in a political campaign under the Internal Revenue Code, such as direct and indirect contributions to political candidates, parties, or organizations, and independent expenditures or electioneering communications on behalf of federal, state, or local candidates. A company's reputation, value, and bottom line can be adversely impacted by political spending. The risk is especially serious when giving to trade associations, Super PACs, 527 committees, and social welfare organizations, groups that routinely pass money to or spend on behalf of candidates and political causes that a company might not otherwise wish to support. The Conference Board's 2021 Under a Microscope report details these risks, recommends the process suggested in this proposal, and warns a new era of stakeholder scrutiny, social media, and political polarization has propelled corporate political activity and the risks that come with it into the spotlight.
Political activity can pose increasingly significant risks for companies, including the perception that political contributions are at odds with core company values. This proposal asks Stryker to disclose all of its electoral spending, including payments to trade associations and other tax-exempt organizations, which may be used for electoral purposes. Without knowing the recipients of Stryker's political dollars, Stryker's board of directors cannot sufficiently assess whether Stryker's election-related spending aligns with or conflicts with its policies on climate change and sustainability or other areas of concern. Thus, it will be a best practice for Stryker to expand its political spending disclosure. Thank you very much.
Our corporate bylaws do not require motions and seconds. All of the proposals on the agenda are now before the meeting. As previously mentioned, any shareholder of record who is logged in as such on the meeting website may vote online. If you have previously granted a proxy, your vote today will automatically revoke your proxy. Jenny, do we have any questions on the proposals?
We have no questions on the voting items.
Thank you, Jenny. Voting is currently open on the meeting website. Voting has been open on the meeting website since the meeting commenced. We are currently allowing additional time for any shareholder wishing to vote at this time. After voting ends and we close the polls, the inspector will complete the vote count, and we will announce the preliminary results later in the meeting. While the inspector is completing the vote count, Kevin will share a review of Stryker's performance and future outlook. We are continuing to hold to allow additional time for any shareholder wishing to vote at this time. The voting is now ended, and we will close the polls. Kevin, please go ahead. Thank you, Rob. Turning to the business update, I always like to start every presentation with our mission and values.
We launched these about 10 years ago, and they are the unifying force of our entire corporation globally. Turning to financial results, you can see that we had an important milestone in 2023, surpassing $20 billion in sales for the very first time. On this chart, you can see that we grew revenue every year since we went public in 1979, except for the pandemic year of 2020. But following the pandemic, our growth momentum has continued, and we had an absolutely outstanding year of sales growth of over 11% organic growth in 2023. Turning to the next slide, you can see that we are a very well-diversified global medtech leader with strong market positions in Orthopaedics and Spine and MedSurg and Neurotechnology. All of these businesses have been strengthened over time with organic innovation as well as acquisitions.
Turning to the next slide, you can see just here a few examples of our innovations, which is really the engine of growth for Stryker. Our R&D pipelines have never been stronger, in my experience at Stryker, across all of our businesses. You can see that every single business has new products either being launched right now or soon in their pipeline to be launched. Turning to the next slide, you can see that we are a company that is very mission-driven and positively impacting the world. We are receiving global recognitions as a great place to work in different countries, as a great place to work for women, as a great place to work for minorities. This is something that we take pride in, and talent and culture are true differentiators for our company.
In 2023, we positively impacted over 150 million patients with our products and technologies. We are on track with our goals related to a healthier planet in renewable resources, in emissions. We had a tremendous giving and volunteering plan last year with over $8 million of employee and matched contributions made to global nonprofits. With that, I'll turn the microphone back to Rob, who will report the preliminary voting results. Thank you, Kevin. I'm advised by the inspector of election that each of the persons nominated for director in proposal one received at least 291,931,700 votes in favor of his or her election, and therefore each has been duly elected a director of the company.
I am also advised by the inspector of election that shares representing a majority of the total votes cast on proposal 2 were voted for ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. I am also advised by the inspector of election that shares representing approximately 91% of the total votes cast on proposal 3 were voted in favor of the advisory vote on the resolution relating to the company's named executive officer compensation.
I am also advised by the inspector of election that shares representing approximately 37% of the total votes cast on proposal 4 were voted for the shareholder proposal related to political disclosures. The proposal was not approved. The final results of the meeting will be filed on Form 8-K with the SEC shortly, and the meeting is now adjourned. General questions will now be addressed.
They will be grouped by topic and answered as time permits. Answers to questions not addressed that are pertinent to Stryker and the meeting matters will be published following the meeting on our website. Okay, it's now time for questions. Jenny, can you please read the first question?
Yes, Kevin. The company has in place a director resignation governance policy that provides the board post-election discretion to determine whether to accept or reject the resignation of an incumbent director who fails to be reelected. Does the policy undermine the voting rights of shareholders by allowing the board to have the final say on the unelected director's status?
No, we do not feel this policy undermines voting rights of shareholders, as our directors will sign an irrevocable resignation in the event that they are not reelected. The board would only not accept such a resignation in very special circumstances.
Thank you. We have no additional questions.
Thank you for joining us today. I would like to take a moment to thank our employees for their efforts in delivering innovation, providing excellent service to our customers, and making Stryker brand stronger than ever. Our mission and values unify our employees, and our culture is built on purpose, talent, relationships, and growth. I'd also like to thank our customers, whose dedication to patient care continues to inspire our work and whose collaboration keeps us innovating to make healthcare better. The Stryker spirit is alive and well, and we are well-positioned for a strong 2024 and beyond. Thank you all for your continued support of Stryker.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.