Welcome to the Textron Inc. 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Scott Donnelly, Executive Chairman of Textron.
Thank you and good morning, everyone. On behalf of the board of directors and our management team, welcome to the Textron's 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting. I would like to begin this morning's meeting by first covering some housekeeping items concerning the virtual meeting webpage. The meeting agenda is posted in the center of your screen. Shareholders may cast their votes at any time until voting has been completed on all matters on the agenda, at which time the polls will be closed. Please click on the button labeled Vote Here, located below the agenda to cast your votes if you have not already done so. The Ask A Question box located in the bottom left-hand corner of the webpage has been open for shareholder questions beginning 15 minutes prior to the start of our meeting and will remain open until our formal business is completed.
The volume adjustment is located in the lower left-hand corner of the webpage. Additional materials, including our annual report and proxy statement and the rules of conduct for the meeting, are available in the Meetings Material box located in the bottom right-hand corner of the webpage. This meeting is being recorded, and the webcast will be posted on the investor page of our website at www.textron.com approximately 24 hours after the meeting and will remain available for six months thereafter. Here with me today is Lisa Atherton, Textron's new President and Chief Executive Officer. Lisa became President and CEO in January 2026, and she and I will be available during the question- and- answer portion of the meeting to respond to any questions we receive. I would now like to introduce the independent directors who, in addition to Lisa and me, comprise the full board of directors.
Each of the independent directors standing for re-election is here with me today. Richard F. Ambrose, retired Executive Vice President, Space of Lockheed Martin Corporation. R. Kerry Clark, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cardinal Health, Inc. Michael X. Garrett, retired Commanding General, United States Army Forces Command. Deborah Lee James, retired 23rd Secretary of the United States Air Force. Thomas A. Kennedy, retired Executive Chairman of Raytheon Technologies. Cristina Méndez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Otis Worldwide Corporation. Rob Mionis, Board Chair and President and Chief Executive Officer of Celestica. Lionel L. Nowell III, retired Senior Vice President and Treasurer of PepsiCo, Inc. Maria T. Zuber, Presidential Advisor for Science and Technology Policy, and the EA Griswold Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that following the meeting, Kathleen Bader will be retiring from the board, and we want to thank her for her many years of service to Textron. She has been an excellent director, a valued colleague, and she will be missed. Also present today are David Rosenberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Julie Duffy, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and Bob Lupone, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary. Also with us is Patty Janecek, a representative from Ernst & Young LLP, Textron's independent registered public accounting firm. She is on the telephone. The Inspector of Election appointed for this meeting is John Merva, a representative from American Election Services, LLC, who is also present via telephone.
As stated in the 2026 proxy statement and notice of annual meeting previously made available to our shareholders, the record date of voting at this meeting was the close of business on March 2nd, 2026. The Secretary has delivered an affidavit of distribution establishing that notice of this meeting was given to our shareholders. Our first order of business is to determine whether the shares represented at the meeting, either voted during the meeting or by proxy, are sufficient to constitute a quorum. The Inspector of Election has informed us that a quorum is present with 92% of the outstanding shares entitled to vote represented at this meeting by proxy. This meeting is now duly convened for purposes of transacting business properly before it.
I hereby declare the polls are now open and will close following the completion of voting on the three matters noted on the agenda. If you have already voted online or returned a signed proxy card, your vote has been counted according to your instructions, and you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. If you have not yet voted or wish to change your vote, please cast your vote using the box labeled Vote Here, located below the agenda. The next order of business is a description of the matters to be voted on at today's meeting. The first proposal before the shareholders today is the election of 11 directors to serve until the next annual meeting of the shareholders in 2027 and until their successors are duly elected and qualified.
Nine independent members of the board of directors, Lisa Atherton and I, have been nominated for election as directors as set forth in the proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for each of the directors on the ballot. The next proposal, number two, is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The board recommends approval of the proposal. The last proposal, number three, is an advisory, non-binding vote to approve the compensation of Textron's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. The board recommends approval of the proposal.
If you have any questions related to any of these proposals or to our business or governance, and you have not yet submitted it, please type your question in the box labeled Ask a Question, located in the bottom left-hand corner of the meeting webpage. Lisa and I will now turn to answering the questions submitted by shareholders, if there are any. There being no questions, relevant to shareholder questions, the discussion for matters for shareholder consideration is now closed. I will pause for a moment to let any shareholder attending the meeting today who has not yet cast his or her vote to do so. Since it appears that all those desiring to vote have done so, I hereby declare the polls closed. As I stated earlier, the vast majority of Textron shareholders are represented today by proxy.
Based on those proxies, the preliminary report of the Inspector of the Election shows that each of the 11 persons nominated for election as a director has been elected, the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 has been ratified, and Textron's executive compensation has been approved on an advisory basis. The inspector will prepare a report documenting the final vote totals, and the voting results will be reported in a filing made with the SEC in the next four business days. Since we've completed the business of the meeting, the meeting is now adjourned. On behalf of the board of directors and our management team and employees, thank you for your continued support for Textron.
The meeting has now concluded. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.