Hello, and Welcome to the 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of The Williams Companies, Inc. Also, please note that the links to the company's annual meeting materials, the rules of conduct for this annual meeting, and the company's forward-looking statement cautionary language are available on the meeting portal. Registered stockholders may electronically submit questions at any time during this annual meeting by clicking on the Q&A icon at the top of the meeting portal. Following the business portion of today's annual meeting, the company's CEO, Alan Armstrong, will make a presentation and respond to stockholder questions. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Williams Companies, Inc., Mr. Stephen Bergstrom. Mr. Bergstrom, the floor is yours.
Thank you. The meeting is now convened and will please come to order. I'm Steve Bergstrom, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, and will act as the presiding officer of this annual meeting. First, I'd like to welcome all of you to our third virtual annual meeting. I would now like to introduce to you our board of directors. Our current directors, in addition to myself as chairman of the board, are Nancy Buese, Steve Chazen, who will be retiring after this meeting, Casey Cogut, who will also be retiring after this meeting, Mike Creel, Stacey Doré, Rick Muncrief, Peter Ragauss, Rose Robeson, Scott Sheffield, Murray Smith, Bill Spence, Jesse Tyson, and Alan Armstrong, who is also our President and Chief Executive Officer.
We will begin with the formal business portion of the meeting, during which the voting on the proposals contained in the company's proxy statement will be conducted. Following the formal business portion of the meeting, we will transition to the informal portion of the annual meeting. During this portion of the meeting, our CEO, Alan Armstrong, will provide a report on operational and strategic matters. We will then entertain stockholder questions which have been electronically submitted through the meeting portal. To address some meeting administration, I note that Ms. Cheryl Mann will act as secretary of the meeting, and that Mr. Doug Ives of Computershare Trust Company will act as inspector of elections for the receipt, validation, and tabulation of proxies and votes. Our corporate secretary, Bob Riley, will read the submitted stockholder questions aloud.
The secretary has reported that a meeting quorum is present, and I have received proof in the form of an affidavit of mailing that proper notice of the annual meeting has been given. In order to conduct an orderly meeting, I ask that you please follow the rules of conduct which are linked on the meeting portal. We will now begin the business portion of the meeting. The first item of business is the election of directors. Do I have a nomination?
Mr. Chairman, I nominate to serve as directors for the ensuing year the entire slate of directors listed in our proxy statement, specifically each of Alan S. Armstrong, Stephen W. Bergstrom, Nancy K. Buese, Michael A. Creel, Stacey H. Doré, Richard E. Muncrief, Peter A. Ragauss, Rose M. Robeson, Scott D. Sheffield, Murray D. Smith, William H. Spence, and Jesse J. Tyson.
Mr. Chairman, I second the nominations.
I declare that the nominations for directors are now closed. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent public accountants for 2022.
Mr. Chairman, I move that such appointment be approved and ratified.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
The next item of business is to approve on an advisory basis the vote on executive compensation.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the company's executive compensation be approved on an advisory basis.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
The polls are now open. If you have not already cast your vote, there's a link to vote on the meeting portal. If you previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. Before proceeding with the meeting, I will wait a few moments for the submission of any votes. I declare that the polls are now closed. The next item of business is the preliminary report of the inspector of elections. Any votes cast before the polls closed but not reflected in the inspector of election's preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the inspector of elections. I now call on the inspector of elections for his preliminary report.
Mr. Chairman, I report that on proposal one, each of the nominees for director received a majority of the votes cast. On proposal two, a majority of the votes cast were voted in favor, thereby ratifying the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditors for 2022. On proposal three, a majority of the votes cast were, on an advisory basis, voted in favor of the company's executive compensation.
Based on the Inspector of Elections' preliminary report, I now declare the election of each of the nominees as directors of the company. The appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditor for 2022 is approved and ratified. That on an advisory basis, the company's executive compensation is approved, and final voting results will be available in a Form 8-K, which the company will file with the SEC within four business days. I now declare the business portion of the annual meeting adjourned. We will now proceed with the informal portion of the annual meeting. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you our company's President and CEO, Mr. Alan Armstrong.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our 2022 annual meeting of stockholders. We appreciate your continued interest and investment in Williams. Before I begin my prepared remarks, I would like to acknowledge and thank two directors who are retiring from the Williams Board of Directors, Casey Cogut and Steve Chazen. Casey, who joined the board in 2016, has been an incredibly talented legal advisor, whose guidance has been instrumental in helping shape the great company we have today. Steve, who also joined the board in 2016, brought a wealth of experience to Williams, particularly his history with company transformations. Steve has worked hard to help set the company's strategy for sustainable growth and shareholder value. During their years on the board, both gentlemen have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to protecting and delivering value to Williams stockholders.
On behalf of the rest of the board, Casey and Steve, I wanna thank you for your service. While these two men are leaving, I'm glad to be able to recognize two new directors who have joined the Williams board since our last annual meeting, Rick Muncrief and Jesse Tyson. Rick brings more than 40 years of experience in energy, primarily from the upstream sector. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Devon Energy, having previously served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of WPX Energy before its merger with Devon in 2021. At Williams, Rick will serve as a member of the board's Compensation and Management Committee and the Environmental Health and Safety Committee.
Jesse, after retiring from a 35-year global career with ExxonMobil, became President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Black MBA Association, where he led strategic development of corporate and university partnerships. At Williams, Jesse will serve as a member of the Audit Committee and the Governance and Sustainability Committee. With the addition of these two outstanding individuals, the Williams Board of Directors consists of 12 members, 11 of whom are independent. As we look to the future of Williams and our evolution as an energy company, I'm grateful to have such an experienced and diverse board to oversee our strategic decisions and ensure we are staying true to our core values that have allowed Williams to flourish for over 100 years. Let me start my recap of 2021 by saying that Williams' natural gas-focused strategy delivered phenomenal results again in 2021.
We exceeded expectations on our comprehensive set of key metrics while executing on bold initiatives and transactions. We achieved all-time operating records with gathering volumes of nearly 14 billion cubic feet per day and contracted transmission capacity of almost 24 billion cubic feet per day, and an all-time high operating margin ratio, which is an important measure of efficiency that we constantly track. While these results are impressive, they are simply a continuation of Williams' dependable performance. We have always run our business with the long-term shareholder in mind. In fact, we now have met or exceeded our annual guidance and quarterly street consensus for 24 consecutive quarters and have paid a common stock dividend every quarter since 1974, putting Williams amongst an elite group of NYSE energy companies that have paid a dividend for 45 years or more.
In 2021, we received top ESG rankings for the midstream sector, won a prestigious award for industry leadership, and we're the only U.S. energy company to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. This tremendous momentum has set the pace for Williams to execute against our vision to be the best transport, storage, and delivery solution for reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy. We have earned an enviable position within our industry, and we are committed to setting our sights even higher to lead and deliver on this vision. Our strategy to connect the best U.S. natural gas supplies with the world's growing demand for clean energy is more relevant than ever as customers turn to our unmatched infrastructure for reliable energy.
As the balance between reducing emissions and meeting growing energy demand grows in importance, Williams is committed to embracing the opportunities presented by our evolving industry. We are leveraging our infrastructure, our expertise, and our strategic relationship to develop such pragmatic solutions as solar installations to power our facilities, renewable natural gas interconnect from dairy farms and landfills, and digital platforms that provide market transparency for responsibly sourced natural gas. In these emerging areas, we follow strict investment criteria to ensure scalability and returns that are competitive with our base business opportunities. Looking to 2022 and beyond, we have an enviable platform of irreplaceable assets, a large number of growth drivers, a strong balance sheet and excess free cash flow. All of this positions us to execute on a broad capital allocation strategy poised to generate meaningful and sustainable value for our shareholders.
In closing, I want to commend our leadership team for their commitment to being the very best in the space and for leading Williams through such a dynamic time in our industry. I also want to express my gratitude to our employees who continue to safely and successfully deliver on our goal of being the best-in-class operator of the critical infrastructure that is fueling our clean energy future. With that, I wanna thank you, the shareholder, on behalf of the entire Williams organization for your continued trust and investment in Williams. Thank you.
This is Bob Riley, the company's corporate secretary. At this time, we will entertain stockholders' questions electronically submitted through the meeting portal. As a reminder, to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon at the top of the meeting portal. We'll wait a moment. Mr. Chairman, at this time, we've not received any questions from stockholders.
Very well. Our 2022 annual meeting of stockholders is now concluded. Thank you for attending and for your continued support of the company.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.