Welcome to the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Thermo Fisher Scientific. I would now like to introduce the first presenter, Mr. Mark Casper, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
Thank you, and good afternoon to all attending Thermo Fisher's 2021 Annual Meeting. I'm Mark Casper, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher, and I'll be presiding over this meeting. I welcome you and call the meeting to order. Due to the public health impact of the COVID-nineteen pandemic and to support the health and well-being of our Shareholders, employees and communities, this year we are again holding our annual meeting in an all virtual format And are pleased to have everyone join this live webcast. We have designed this meeting to provide shareholders the same rights and opportunities to participate As they would at an in person meeting.
All shareholders who access this meeting by using their unique control number Have the ability to cast their votes during the meeting until we announce the closing of the polls and to submit questions until the close of today's meeting. These buttons are available on the bottom right hand corner of your screen. The closing of the polls will be announced after we review the voting matters. Before we get to the formal business of the meeting, I would like to make some introductions. Joining us virtually are each of our outside directors Michael Braunstein, a representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent registered public accounting firm and Terrence Hassett, a representative from Broadridge, who have been appointed to act as Inspector of the election.
I will now turn the meeting over to Sharon Ryansky, our secretary, who will conduct the formal part of the meeting.
Thank you, Mark. In order to conduct an orderly meeting, I call your attention to the rules of conduct posted on the virtual I call your attention to the rules of conduct posted on the virtual meeting website, which include information about participating in the meeting, including asking questions. Please note that various remarks that we may make about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company constitute forward looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward looking statements as a result of various important factors, Including those discussed in the Risk Factors section of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10 ks and subsequent quarterly report on Form 10 Q, which are on file with the SEC and available on our website. In addition, these forward looking statements represent the company's expectations only as of today.
While the company may elect to update these forward looking statements, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. Any forward looking statements should not be relied As representing the company's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to today. During this meeting, we will also be referring to certain financial measures not prepared In accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP, the non GAAP financial measures of Thermo Fisher's results of operations referred to at this meeting Are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for Thermo Fisher's results of operations prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of the non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available under the heading GAAP Non Reconciliation and financial package in the Investors section of our website, www.thermofisher.com. I have received an affidavit from Broadridge certifying that the notice of annual meeting and proxy statement were sent to all shareholders of record as of March 26, 2021, a copy of which will be included in the minutes of the meeting.
Our first order of business is to determine whether the shares represented at this meeting, Either in person via this virtual meeting or by proxy are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. In excess of a majority of the shares of the company outstanding on the record date, March 26, 2021, Are represented here today in person or through representation by proxy, and that constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business at today's meeting. Turning now to the items to be voted on at this meeting. As indicated in the notice of meeting and the accompanying documents that were made available to shareholders, The first matter to be voted on is the election of 12 directors to serve until the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders And until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The 12 nominees for election are Mark Casper, Nelson Shea, C.
Martin Harris, Tyler Jacks, R. Alexander Keith, Thomas Lynch, Jim Manzi, James Mullen, Lars Sorensen, Deborah Spahr, Scott Sperling and Dion Weisler. The second matter to be voted upon is the advisory vote to approve executive compensation. The proxy statement for this meeting contains the text of the resolution that shareholders are asked to approve. The 3rd matter to be voted on is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's registered public accounting firm for the current fiscal year.
The final matter to be voted on is the shareholder proposal. As specified under the rules of conduct for the meeting, the introduction and presentation will be limited to 3 minutes. Operator, please open the for Mr. James McRitchie, speaking on behalf of Mr. John Chibetin.
Welcome, Mr. McRitchie. Please introduce your proposal and make a brief supporting statement.
Thank you. Yes. This is shareholder proposal number 4, shareholder right to call special meetings. It's a good corporate governance proposal, comes from My wife, Myra Young, our proposal to allow shareholders with 15% of shares to call a special meeting Prompted the Board to amend the bylaws. Shareholders with 25% of shares can now hold special meetings.
So that's already a win for shareholders. However, many shareholders do not vote, so are not potential Shareholders who would call a special meeting. Last year, for example, 12% of shareholders did not vote. Additionally, companies often impose a difficult administrative burden on shareholders calling a special meeting. 15% is the more appropriate threshold.
The beauty of a good corporate governance proposal like this one Is that it's highly unlikely to result in lower costs or a special meeting. They may or presence of the good governance right Empowering shareholders serve as a guardrail that helps ensure the Board nominates the best directors And act in our interest because if they don't, they know we can take action. Please vote for proposal number 4 and do so immediately Before the Board closes the polls, which was announced to be as soon as proposals are submitted and presented, I hope the Board will leave the polls open for a moment or 2 to allow shareholders to vote this item if they have Not, where they have voted against and now want to change their vote. All too often, I've witnessed Virtual shareholder meetings where voting polls are closed immediately after the final proposal is presented. Closing the polls so rapidly render presentations meaningless.
So I'm stalling a bit I'll give you a little time to vote just in case the Board intends to close the polls immediately after I finish As they have indicated, they will do. However, I don't want to be accused of wasting your time or filibustering. So I'll close now by once again asking you to vote for proposal number 4, requesting the right Shareholders with 15% of shares to hold special needs. Thanks for your attention and consideration, vote for proposal number 4.
Thank you, Mr. McRitchie. We appreciate your recent engagement with the company. After the proposal, the Board unanimously recommends that As stated in the proxy statement, the Board believes that it is not in the best interest of shareholders In light of the special meeting right that we have already approved, which allows shareholders who hold in the aggregate at least 25% of our outstanding common stock to call a special meeting of shareholders. Our current ownership threshold provides shareholders owning a meaningful minority of shares With the right to call a special meeting, while maintaining procedural safeguards against abuse by a small minority of shareholders, corporate waste and disruption.
Further, a 15% threshold is unnecessary given our strong corporate governance standards and demonstrated openness and responsiveness to shareholders. We will now answer questions related to the 4 proposals presented to you today. This Q and A to discuss our proposals will be followed by the closing of the polls, A business presentation for Mark Casper and then finally, a general Q and A session to close out today's meeting. As a reminder, you may submit your questions on the virtual meeting website by selecting the Q and A button on the bottom right hand side of your screen. If asking a question, please also include your name and affiliation to the company.
Any questions we receive during this virtual annual meeting That we don't have time to answer will be posted and answered on our website as soon as practicable following the meeting. Where we receive multiple questions on the same topic, We may group them together and provide one answer. Questions answered during this meeting or later, posted on our website will be answered in accordance with our rules of conduct. We will now commence the Q and A. As there are no questions related to the proposals, we will proceed to final voting on the proposals.
As a reminder, if you have not voted or if you previously voted By proxy and wish to change your vote, you may vote by clicking on the voting button on the virtual meeting website and following the instructions there. We'll pause briefly to allow shareholders to vote, and then Mark will close the polls.
Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the business items on the agenda for this meeting are complete and the polls are closed. We have the preliminary report of the results of the meeting, and they are as follows. Each of the nominees for Director has been elected as a Director. The advisory resolution approving executive compensation has been approved. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers has been ratified.
The shareholder proposal regarding the right to call special meetings The final results will be included in the Form 8 ks that will be filed within 4 business days after this meeting. This concludes the formal part of our meeting. I'll now give you an update on the company's progress following, which we will use our remaining available So exciting times at the company. When you look at how the company has evolved and who we are today, we continue to be the world leader in serving science. Dollars 30,000,000,000 plus in revenue, 80,000 amazing colleagues operating around the world.
We invest more than $1,000,000,000 in R and D to have the best products For our customers, strong brands and our customers know us for our industry leading scale as well as our unmatched depth of capabilities, all of which are powered by our PPI Business System. Our mission and why it all matters is we enable our customers to make the world healthier, Cleaner and safer. And there are so many countless examples of how we do this every day. And I picked out three highlights From recent events. One is our technologies are being used to contribute to a new cell therapy For difficult to treat blood cancer that was recently approved by the FDA.
A second example is our instruments Are being used to allow for greener environmental greener environment Helping battery manufacturers develop new technologies. And finally, from a SAFR perspective, our radiation detectors are used by law enforcement To ensure that radiation events can be detected and prevented. So we continue to play a very important role And enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. While we do that, we consistently deliver Exceptional financial performance. 2020 was a spectacular year.
And when you look at 3 of the key financial metrics, Revenue, we grew 26 percent over $32,000,000,000 Adjusted earnings per share grew 58% to 19.5 $5 per share and adjusted free cash flow grew even faster at 67% to $6,800,000,000 Continuing our long track record of exceptional financial performance. When I think about the role that we've played In responding to the pandemic, our technologies, our services and our colleagues He played an enormous role in the societal response to COVID-nineteen. I'll give you three examples, the first of which is around Testing for COVID. We're the leader in PCR testing. We were able to scale up our technologies very rapidly.
We were approved by the FDA for emergency use over a year ago, right at the beginning of the pandemic in March. We scaled our testing to over 20,000,000 tests per week and we're able to provide 100 of millions of tests to allow the medical community to diagnose patients and help get the pandemic more under control. Because of our PPI business system and the strength of our relationships with our customers and governments around the world, We were able to address critical bottlenecks across the response of the pandemic. An example of this was There was an acute shortage of viral transport media during the pandemic, and we were able to get agreements with both the U. S.
And governments in the United Kingdom to build dedicated facilities rapidly in a matter of weeks to be able to increase capacity And solve those bottlenecks playing a very significant role in the response to the pandemic. Those capabilities, of course, will get repurposed To support our growth into the future. And from a vaccine and therapy perspective, we are the behind the scenes company making that all happen. Over 250 different projects work through our network. We entered into long term partnerships with governments in the U.
S. And in Singapore to bring on new capacity and we've been enabling the production of therapies and vaccines around the world. Three different types of examples of how we responded to the pandemic, and that generated over $6,000,000,000 worth of activity during the course of 2020. Our growth strategy is why we were able to respond to the pandemic and why we're so excited by the future What lies ahead for us in the future? As a reminder, our growth strategy really lies on 3 premises.
The first of which is our commitment to high impact innovation. The second is leveraging our scale in the high growth and emerging markets to create a superior Customer experience. And the third is to use our unique customer value proposition to help our customers accelerate their innovation And improve their productivity. All of that is complemented by our disciplined strategic deployment of capital And the M and A that we conduct to build our company for an even private future. Let me give you a few highlights on each of those pillars.
Great year in 2020 and innovation. Whether it was our response to COVID-nineteen with our testing solutions that we brought out very rapidly In the Q1 of last year, to the new instruments we lost in mass spectrometry, to the solutions across cell and gene therapy For the new instruments in electron microscopy, really another very strong year in terms of innovation. From leveraging our scale in the high growth and emerging markets, we continue to provide a differentiated experience for our customers and are investing heavily For an even brighter future, we generate over $6,000,000,000 of our revenue in these markets. And in 2 of the articles you can see on the right, We announced the opening of a new biologics facility in China as well as a sterile fill finish facility In collaboration with the Singapore government for biologics and vaccines to be produced in Singapore, continuing to strengthen our presence In these important markets around the world. The third element of our growth strategy is strengthening our customer value proposition.
We're doing that through expanding our capabilities, whether that was through capacity and capability expansions across the world Or whether that was through targeted M and A to build out that value proposition, we continue to make it more and more compelling For our customers to choose Thermo Fisher Scientific and 2020 was a year of enormous progress in terms of our customer value proposition. Because of the strong financial performance, we further accelerated our investment plans to create an even brighter future for our company. Earlier this year, we announced a large acquisition, an acquisition of PPD, which we expect to close Later this year before year end, it is an outstanding strategic fit and will complement that growth strategy that I just articulated. It's a natural extension of our capabilities. It's going to create extremely exciting benefits for our customers.
It allow us to help our customers In the biotech, pharmaceutical and academic sectors to go from a scientific idea all the way through the approval of a medicine. It will allow us to collaborate with our customers to shorten the time to market for those medicines and it's a very attractive transaction from a financial perspective. It's a company with over $4,700,000,000 in revenue, and we're excited to welcome the 27,000 colleagues that PPD has today To be part of Thermo Fisher Scientific later this year. So we continue to aggressively execute our strategy to create an incredibly bright future for Thermo Fisher. An important part of how we operate is doing business the right way.
If you go back to the founding of The company, it was around using science to address society's biggest challenges. And that mission hasn't changed one bit. We wake up every day enabling our customers to make the world a better place. And we take that same mission To how we operate our company within our own four walls, focusing on the operational integrity of the business, the Business practices that we conduct, creating an environment for our colleagues that creates a diverse and inclusive culture. From a community perspective, giving back in a meaningful way to our communities and from an environmental perspective To have a significant focus on sustainability and leaving a minimal footprint on the world that we work.
So very important In terms of our focus on environmental, social and governance best practices. So I'll end with a reminder of what our long term vision is. Each decade, we set out our 10 year goals. Long enough out that we can have bold aspirations, but short enough that we can accomplish them and then set the next goal for the next decade. We'll focus on being an unrivaled industry leader in one of the world's most admired companies.
Our team We'll bring a collaborative energy and a passion to excel every day. Our customer centric culture will allow us to deliver unique Solutions for our customers, our commitment to innovation will ensure we have the most relevant products and services for our customers as they embark upon their efforts To make the world healthier, cleaner and safer, and we'll continue to deliver that exceptional financial track record of performance That you know us over the last 2 decades. So with that, we're going to go to the Q and A session. And I know that there were a number of questions that were submitted in advance of the meeting. And so So we're going to go through those and then if there were additional questions as well, then we would cover that.
So Sharon, I thought that I would cover some of the pre So the first two questions we received were focused around The company's positions on political matters such as voters' rights, support for candidates and PAC PAC contributions. So the Thermo Fisher Political Action Committee contributes to candidates who reflect on Thermo Fisher well, Right. And they demonstrate integrity and they show alignment with our company culture. As the PAC committee considers contributions, They're going to select candidates who demonstrate positive leadership, a commitment to bipartisan solutions and align with our mission and scientific leadership. For more information on these topics, I encourage shareholders to review Pages 3637 of our 2021 Proxy statement, where we discuss the company's public policy engagement and political participation.
We also received a few questions about what we're doing to ensure the availability and affordability of testing kits And vaccines globally, especially for low income countries. Thank you for those questions. Through many years of organic and inorganic Investment, we have created a company with exquisite capabilities and deep customer linkages. Over that same period, we have developed the PPI business To enable us to act with speed at scale and have the capacity needed to meet our customers' requirements. In a time of critical societal need, we have been able to rapidly deploy all of that to make an enormous impact.
We've been able to deliver the right products and services for our customers. We price them appropriately, enabling our customers to rapidly adopt these technologies. We have translated the strong top line growth benefits to help benefit all of our stakeholders. We've invested in our colleagues in terms of rewards and recognition for all of their contributions to the success of the company. We increased our investments in R and D and commercial capabilities and long term capital investment programs for our customers' benefits.
We increased our giving back to our communities very substantially and we drove excellent returns for our shareholders. From the beginning of the pandemic, we've worked tirelessly to enable our customers and governments around the world to navigate These unprecedented challenges. We received a number of questions concerning the fluctuations in stock price, the level of dividends And what we are and whether we're considering a stock split. We have a strong track record of creating shareholder value And outperforming S and P 500 and the Life Science Tools Peer Index. As I look to the future, Our proven growth strategy enabled by our PPI business system puts us in a strong position to generate strong return for our shareholders.
We returned capital to our shareholders primarily via share buybacks as well as a growing dividend. In 2020, that Combination amounted to $1,800,000,000 returned to our shareholders. In terms of the dividend, we have increased it in each of the last 3 years. In terms of a stock split, our Board discusses it periodically and currently we do not have any plan to split the stock. We also received a question about how we ensure our commitment to our ethics policies And 4I values all across our company.
It's an area I'm very passionate about and I'm pleased to really share how we think about it. The foundation of our culture is our 4I values and the first of those values is integrity. We are committed to business ethically and in full compliance with laws of the countries where we operate. The overarching principles to conduct our business this way Are set forth in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which is available on our website. The Code covers a very broad range Topics including, but not limited to, policies related to conflicts of interest, gift giving, honest and ethical fair dealing, Inside of trading, export control awareness, health and safety, privacy matters and sexual harassment.
We provide annual scenario based training on the code and ask all of our colleagues, directors and officers to complete it To ensure they are familiar with the policies. Another question that we received was about our PPI business system Why we've adopted this approach to continuous improvement. The PPI business system drives significant benefits for Thermo Fisher By enabling us to consistently deliver world class products and services, improve operational efficiency to strengthen our competitive advantage And exceed the expectations to maximize customer success. The impact of PPI on the financial results of the organization Includes accelerated organic growth, margin expansion and enhanced cash flow, all of which lead to increased shareholder value. Our PPI business system enabled us to successfully navigate the challenges of the pandemic over the past year and respond with speed of scale To meet our customers and society needs.
Sharon, have we got any questions during the course of the meeting?
We have a question From a shareholder that I'd like to ask. So Mark, how vulnerable are Thermo Fisher's operations to deepening diplomatic, trade, Political and military tensions between the U. S. And China.
Thank you for the question. We have A meaningful presence in China represents about 10% of our revenue. Most of the activity we do within China It is for the Chinese market. And we have had good relations in governments around the world And have been in compliance with all of the rules and regulations. And we feel that we have been able to successfully navigate that And we'll continue to do so and be very attuned to how the landscape is evolving over time.
Are there other questions? Okay. So there was a couple of the topics that were submitted in advance. We received a couple of questions about diversity and inclusion, Including our hiring commitment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the progress of women within our company. Let me start with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Thermo Fisher has always been committed to diversity and inclusion and our 80,000 colleagues represent nearly every race, Ethnicity, background, gender and orientation. In fact, we view diversity and inclusion as a strategic priority for our company. And by ensuring that our workforce represents society globally, we strengthen our position as the world leader in serving science. And by creating a culture where unique backgrounds and Our colleagues are inspired to bring their best every day, which drives continuous improvement for our company and new solutions for our customers. Our recent hiring commitments are part of our comprehensive talent strategy, which considers the critical role diverse thinking continues to play in our success.
And these commitments build upon an existing partnership with Thermo Fisher and historically Black Colleges and Universities. In terms of the second question on DNI, while there's still room for improvement, we have taken great strides to support the development of women in our company. Today, a number of women hold significant leadership positions within Thermo Fisher, including Vice Presidents, General Managers, Leading our businesses, Vice Presidents with leadership positions across our functions and a number of women serving on our company leadership team. Women make up more than 40% of our global team. They represent 36% of our colleagues in manager level roles and 35% of our colleagues At Director level or above.
We remain deeply committed to diversity and inclusion within our company, including advancing women and minority colleagues There were other questions concerning the growth expectations and debt management. In 2019, pre pandemic, the underlying market growth rate was estimated at between 3% 5%, And our organic growth line was a bit ahead of market. As we work as we look at what happened in 2020 and the investments we made, We have positioned the company to grow even faster, and our goal is to accelerate our growth well above the market growth rates going forward. We expect that to be higher than the 3% to 5% that we enjoyed prior to the pandemic. In terms of debt, at the end of 2020, we had a leverage ratio Of 2.1 times gross debt to adjusted EBITDA and 1.1 times on a net basis.
So a very, very strong balance sheet. The last question that we received was around the size and the diversity of our Board of Directors. We believe that the varied perspectives and experiences resulting from having a diverse Board of Directors enhances the quality of decision making. We also believe diversity can help the Board identify and respond more effectively to the needs of customers, shareholders, colleagues, suppliers and other stakeholders. We consider a number of demographics, including race, gender, ethnicity, age, culture and nationality and seeking to develop a Board That as a whole reflects diversity points, background, skills, experiences and expertise.
The Board has appointed 4 new directors since 2017. We also believe that having directors with different tenures is important in order to provide both fresh perspectives and deep experience and knowledge of the company. We encourage you to read pages 13 through 19 of our 2021 proxy statement, which provides detailed biographies of our directors, Detailed Director's skill, experience and background matrix and includes our thinking around diversity and tenure. So with that, I'm going to turn it back to you, Sharon.
Yes. Thank you. One more question has come in, Mark. So I'll read that to you now. Mr.
Chairman, the Carpenter Funds hold a total of 416,300 shares of the company's stock. We believe that the company's executive compensation plan should drive the successful execution of the Board's long term strategic business plan. Sorry about that. Today's public company executive compensation plans are largely formulaic peer related plans with simplistic annual say on pay voting, Reinforcing plan homogeneity. We have complemented the company for the quality of its plan in the past, But could you or the compensation committee chair speak to whether Thermo Fisher Scientific might be better served buying an executive compensation plan tailored specifically to the company's particular circumstances And its unique long term strategic business plan.
So thank you for the question. Thank you for being a shareholder. And our view is that we really do tailor the program To be ensuring we drive the long term strategy of the company, we do look at many peers and other things because there's insights to be learned, Our compensation system actually is to align in the long term success and interest of the shareholders, and We have a great track record of delivering that and a very engaged Board that ensures that we have strong performance in alignment With our shareholders' interest. So thank you for the question. And let me wrap up the meeting by thanking everyone for attending today's meeting.
On behalf of the customers that we serve and all of my colleagues, I'd like to thank you for your investment in Thermo Fisher. The 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is now adjourned.