Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome all of you and call to order the 2016 annual meeting of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. I am Jim Manzi, your chairman. I'd like to introduce eight of our outside directors who are here with us today. Mr. Nelson Chai, Dr. Martin Harris, Dr. Tyler Jacks, Ms. Judy Lewent, Mr. Thomas Lynch, Mr. William Parrett, Mr. Scott Sperling, and Ms. Elaine Ullian. They're all here today. We'll first conduct a formal portion of our annual meeting of stockholders. Marc Casper, our Chief Executive Officer, will then update you on the company's business, followed by a general discussion and questions if there are any. This format allows us to complete the formal business of the meeting and move on to matters of general interest afterwards.
Seth Hoogasian, our general counsel and secretary, will now introduce the company's auditors and the Inspector of Election, review the procedures for the annual meeting, report on the quorum of the meeting. He will then present the voting results, proposals and results. Mr. Hoogasian will file the proof of notice of this meeting with the minutes. Seth?
Thanks, Jim. Before we begin, I would like to introduce the representatives of our auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, who are attending today's meeting. We have Mike Papetti, Ken Richardson, and Scott Godsoe. They're available to answer any questions you may have regarding the financial statements of the company. I'd also like to introduce our Inspector of Election, Thomas Watt from Broadridge Financial Solutions, who has taken the oath of office. He will now review the meeting protocol for today's meeting. As Jim mentioned, time's been reserved for questions after Marc's remarks. If you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. When you're recognized by a company official, please stand, state your name, your status as a stockholder, and your affiliation. The meeting is being webcast live and will be archived on our website, thermofisher.com, through June 18th, 2016.
To reach a replay of the meeting on our website, click on Investors, then on Webcasts and Presentations. Various remarks that we may make at today's meeting about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects 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 our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 2nd, 2016, under the caption Risk Factors, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change. Therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today.
During the meeting, we will 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 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-GAAP Reconciliation and Financial Package in the Investors section of our website, thermofisher.com. As indicated in the notice that was mailed to all stockholders, we're here today to consider the following business items. First, the election of directors for a one-year term expiring at the next annual meeting of stockholders, or until his or her successor has been duly elected and qualified, or until his or her earlier resignation, death, or removal.
Two, an advisory vote on executive compensation. Three, ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors for 2016. We'll consider each item in turn in the same order that they appear in the notice of meeting. The polls for each matter will open when the matter is called to a vote and will remain open until we announce that the polls are closed. No ballots or proxies or revocations of or changes to ballots or proxies will be accepted after the polls are closed. I will announce the results of the voting on each matter following the tabulation of the voting. Voting at today's annual meeting is by proxy.
However, if anyone has not voted their shares of the company and would like to do so now, or has voted their shares but wishes to change their proxy or change their vote, please raise your hand and we'll provide you with a ballot. All right. I see no request for ballots. We have 91% of the shares of the company outstanding on the record date, March 28, 2016, represented here today in person or through representation by proxy, and that constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business at today's meeting.
The first matter to be voted on is the election of the directors. The 10 nominees for election are the following: Marc Casper, Nelson Chai, C. Martin Harris, Tyler Jacks, Judy Lewent, Thomas Lynch, myself, Bill Parrett, Scott Sperling, and Elaine Ullian. Is there any discussion on this matter before we proceed to a vote? We'll now proceed to the vote. Anyone voting in person should complete the portion of the ballot covering this matter. The next matter to be voted on is the advisory vote on executive compensation. Is there a discussion about this item? We'll now proceed to the vote on this. Again, anyone voting in person should complete the portion of their ballot covering this matter. Finally, the last matter is to be voted on, is the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors for the current fiscal year.
A discussion of this? We'll now proceed to the vote. Once again, anyone voting in person should complete the portion of their ballot covering this matter. This concludes the business items on the agenda for the annual meeting. I'll declare the polls now closed. I'll ask Mr. Hoogasian to collect the ballots, tabulate the votes. We now have the preliminary report of the results of the meeting, which I'm going to ask Mr. Hoogasian to read.
The preliminary tally of proxies shows that each of the nominees for director received the majority of the votes cast by stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting, that the advisory vote on executive compensation received more than the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting and voting affirmatively or negatively on the matter, and that the management proposal to ratify the audit committee's selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors for 2016 received more than the affirmative vote of a majority of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting and voting affirmatively or negatively on the matter. Mr. Chairman, this completes my voting report.
Thank you, Seth. I declare that the nominees for director for the one-year term expiring in 2017 of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have been elected, the advisory vote proposal on executive compensation has been approved, and that the proposal to ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors for 2016 has also been approved. The final vote results will be published in a current report on a Form 8-K as filed by the company with the SEC. This does conclude the formal portion of our meeting. I'd like to ask Marc Casper, our CEO, to give a state of the union, as it were, about your company, Thermo Fisher, and its prospects for the future.
Jim, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for attending the annual meeting of stockholders. I thought I would give you a brief update on the company. Then take any questions that you might have. Today, we continue to be the world leader in serving science with revenues over $17 billion, 50,000 colleagues working with customers around the world. We have the industry-leading scale and depth of capabilities and a stable of premier brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, and Unity Lab Services. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Our formula for success hasn't changed. It's been a proven formula that has driven very substantial growth in earnings per share over many years.
It's driven through a strong organic growth outlook, which comes from high-impact innovation, our unique customer value proposition, and the benefits of our scale in emerging markets. We take that top-line growth and turn it into strong earnings growth through the disciplines we have of our PPI business system. Then the combination of how we run the company today generates substantial cash flow. We deploy that cash flow to create additional shareholder value through strategic M&A, as well as return of capital. That combination of activities has delivered and will continue to deliver consistently strong earnings per share growth. Looking back at the track record, we've averaged 16% growth in our earnings per share since 2006, and 2015 was another strong year for the earnings growth in the company.
Our shareholders have benefited substantially over that period. When you compare our performance of the stock price since 2006, it's far outstripped the S&P 500. Most importantly, we're very excited about our in terms of continuing to create substantial share value. When I look back at last year, here are some of the highlights. From a revenue growth, we gained market share. We were able to really capitalize not only in emerging markets but in the developed markets. We had very strong performance in Western Europe and in the U.S. That allowed us to deliver 5% organic growth in 2015. From a margin perspective, a strong year of operating margin expansion. We were active from a capital deployment perspective, acquiring Alfa Aesar and ASI, and continued to focus on generating improving returns on invested capital. Very successful year in strengthening the strategic position of the company.
In terms of our key growth drivers, R&D fuels our future. When you look at how we invest our $700 million, it's really focused on some of society's biggest challenges. From a healthier perspective, you see our focus on infectious disease, precision medicine, and in the area of oncology testing. We also have big initiatives in terms of environmental areas where air monitoring and water quality is a big part of what we do. From a safer perspective, food safety is a substantial driver of our innovation and our growth prospects. The second aspect of our growth strategy is our unique customer value proposition. We are our customers' source of innovation and enabling them to achieve their productivity objectives from those R&D spends as well. I use as an example, our presence in the biopharma market. In 2010, it represented about 25% of the company's revenue.
Today, represents over 30% of the company's revenue. That growth is far greater than the rate of market growth. We're not done. Looking forward, the opportunity ahead is continuing to gain share of wallet with those existing customers. Then continuing to add additional customers to this methodology. Every time we buy a new company, every time we launch a new product, it's another opportunity to call on our customers and gain share of their expenditures. The third of our growth drivers is our presence and the benefits of our scale in emerging markets. Today, over $3 billion of our revenue comes from the high-growth regions of the world. It's averaged 19% growth since 2010 and is 19% of our total revenue. Here, it's portfolio.
We have some markets where we're very mature in terms of our capability. We deliver a, what I call a developed market experience in a developing market, and that's allowed us to continue to gain share. China, India, South Korea would be examples of that. We have other areas where our position continues to expand. Southeast Asia, where we've made recent investments, has been a good growth driver as well. It's a portfolio of markets and generally has been a strong catalyst for us in driving organic growth. We take that top-line growth. We drive good earnings from it, and that's through our PPI business system. When I look back since 2010, we've expanded our operating margins by 500 basis points using our well-ingrained continuous improvement methodology.
That's both how we come to work every day using the tools of 5S and Lean and Kaizens, also strategically, making sure that we're driving efficiencies through our global sourcing efforts, our use of shared services, and certainly how we optimize our facilities. PPI is our operational discipline and creates a very bright financial outlook. Finally, the third lever of our earnings growth strategy is how we deploy capital. Looking back over the same period of time, we've deployed $28 billion of capital, just under 80% on M&A of varying sizes, just over 20% in terms of return of capital, having repurchased $5 billion of shares since 2010. We have many opportunities ahead. Looking forward, our industry continues to be very fragmented, with 60% of market share coming from small orders and the opportunity to continue to deploy capital to create shareholder value.
Where are we going? Our vision for the future. From a customer perspective, continue to fulfill our mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer, bringing out breakthrough technologies to enable that. From a colleague perspective, inspire our colleagues to help our customers be successful. From a shareholder perspective, continue to generate very significant shareholder returns through our proven formula for driving earnings growth. With that, let me open up the floor to any questions that you might have about our business. Okay. Seeing no questions, I'd like to thank you for attending the meeting today. I'm going to hand it back to our chairman, Jim Manzi.
Thank you, Marc. I want to thank all of you for attending the meeting. If there's nothing further to come before the meeting, I'll declare it adjourned. Thank you all