CRA International,Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Charles River Associates' first quarter 2024 conference call. Please note that today's call is being recorded. The company's earnings release and prepared remarks from CRA's chief financial officer are posted on the investor relations section of CRA's website at CRAI.com. With us today are CRA's president and chief executive officer, Paul Malley, chief financial officer, Dan Mahoney, and Chief Corporate Development Officer Chad Holmes. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Mahoney for opening remarks. Dan, please go ahead.

Mr. Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Please note that the statements made during this conference call, including guidance on future revenue and non-GAAP EBITDA margin, and any other statements concerning the future business, operating results, or financial condition of CRA, including those statements using the terms expect, outlook, or similar terms, are forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21 of the Exchange Act. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is based on management's current expectations and is inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to many important factors, including the level of demand for our services as a result of changes in general and industry-specific economic conditions. Additional information regarding these factors is included in today's release and in CRA's periodic reports, including our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. CRA undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this call. Additionally, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures and certain measures presented on a constant currency basis on this call. Everyone is encouraged to refer to today's release and related CFO remarks for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their GAAP-comparable measures and descriptions of the calculation of EBITDA and measures presented on a constant currency basis. I will now turn it over to Paul for his report. Paul?

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Building on the momentum we gained at the end of last year, CRA carried its strong performance into the first quarter of fiscal 2024 and delivered record financial results. During the first quarter, revenue increased by 12.4 percent to $171.8 million, which represents the highest quarterly revenue in the company's history. Profits grew at an even faster rate with non-GAAP net income, earnings per diluted share, and EBITDA increasing year-over-year by 48%, 52%, and 34% respectively. Each profit metric also set a new quarterly record for CRA. Broad-based contributions drove this strong performance, with eight of 11 practices growing year over year. CRA's legal and regulatory services led the way, with a 16% increase in revenue relative to the first quarter of fiscal 2023. For the company as a whole, we continue to replenish our sales pipeline. Our project lead flow increased in the third quarter by 3% year over year. This growth is in line with the broader legal market, which saw total case filings and total court judgments each increase 2% year over year. CRA's conversion rates remain strong and consistent with historical norms, with new project originations growing by more than 10% relative to the first quarter of 2023. During the first quarter, six practices posted double-digit revenue growth, and I trust in competition economics, energy, financial economics, forensic services, labor and employment, and risk investigations and analytics. I would now like to spend a few minutes highlighting some of the projects delivered by these practices during the first quarter. Capitalizing on continued demand for antitrust services and ongoing merger-related activity, our antitrust and competition economics practice established a new high for quarterly revenue. During the quarter, the practice continued to support clients on high-profile mergers. For example, CRA experts were retained by Cisco to provide economic analyses across worldwide jurisdictions in support of its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, a leader in cybersecurity. With CRA's assistance, Cisco received unconditional clearance from the European Commission, while the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division declined to issue a second request. Elsewhere, CRA advised INEOS in its acquisition of certain assets of Total Energies The CRA team conducted extensive economic analysis to assess the vertical effects of the transaction, focusing on the overlap between the target's upstream activities and the production of ethylene and INEOS's downstream polyvinyl chloride business. Consistent with results of CRA's analysis, the European Commission concluded the merged entity would have neither the ability nor the incentive to pursue any foreclosure strategy. CRA's antitrust and competition economics practice also continued to support clients in legal disputes. During the first quarter, CRA consultants prepared and delivered expert reports and testimony, and antitrust class actions, international disputes, and other matters arriving from competition claims. The matters span various industries, including technology, healthcare, retail, and commercial goods, among others. In addition to client projects, CRA's competition team was recently recognized for its outstanding performance in support of the high-profile acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. At the 2024 Global Competition Review Awards in April, CRA was part of the winning team in the categories of Overall Matter of the Year, Matter of the Year in the United States, and Matter of the Year in Europe. Additionally, Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, a transaction for which CRA advised VMware globally, was named Matter of the Year in Asia Pacific. Last but not least, for an article that she co-authored on the topic of private equity investment and its effect on competition, Isabel Teku, a principal in the practice, one in the category of Best Business Article, General Economics, at the 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards hosted by Concurrences, an independent legal publisher dedicated to antitrust law and competition economics. Congratulations to Isabel and the entire antitrust and competition economics practice for these well-earned accolades. Turning to the energy sector. In the first quarter, CRA's energy practice had continued success with utilities, large energy consumers, and government agencies. The utility work included developing integrated resource plans for companies like NIPSCO, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, and Alliant Energy as they continue their journey of transitioning away from fossil fuels. The practice also has been asked by multiple utility clients, to evaluate reliability risks to avoid the types of rolling blackouts experienced during severe winter storms. The challenge of keeping the lights on is common in an industry that is facing significant load growth while at the same time retiring fossil plants and placing greater reliance on renewables. Reacting to these industry changes, the energy practice has been supporting several large companies that develop, own, and operate data centers around the world. As clients see rapidly growing demand for data processing services, they have turned to CRA for assistance with market modeling, energy procurement, rate design, and utility negotiation. During the first quarter, experts in CRA's financial economics, practice continued to assist multiple banks and their counsel in responding to regulatory inquiries on overdraft, non-sufficient funds, and related fees charged on deposit account activity. Implementing these consumer remediations requires extensive analysis and reconstruction of account-level daily transaction history and a detailed understanding of the policies embedded in the bank's core processing systems. Elsewhere, the practice prepared a range of fair lending analyses for a large national bank covering credit card, auto, mortgage, and small business lending and advised the bank on the development of its internal fair lending compliance monitoring procedures. CRA's forensic services practice continued to experience strong demand from clients who seek help preparing for, responding to, and emerging from allegations of fraud and misconduct. For example, as two technology companies sought to resolve multi-year theft or trade secret litigation, our digital forensic experts were retained to search the defendant's computer systems in order to identify and purge any remaining files that had originated from the plaintiff's business. Our forensic practice also continues to help companies respond to a broad range of cyber incidents. For example, We were retained by a national law firm to investigate suspicious activity involving its network. We determined that certain systems had indeed been accessed by a threat actor over a three-week period and that certain files had been filtrated. We undertook a thorough review of these files to identify what specific information was present and to whom it relates. Ultimately, we helped the law firm notify affected parties in a timely and compliant manner while assisting the client bolster its information security environment and reduce the risk of future cyber incidents. CRA's labor and employment practice continues to assist clients in navigating critical employment issues. During the first quarter, Merit Reviews cycle multiple clients, including clients Businesses in the healthcare, telecommunications, information technology, pharmaceuticals, and legal sectors engaged CRA experts to assist in the proactive assessment of compensation and promotion decisions. In addition, during the first quarter, a team of CRA consultants assisted a building supply manufacturer examine the exposure associated with the miscalculation of the regular rate of pay for non-exempt employees as it considers a possible ownership change. Also during the first quarter, the risk investigations and analytics practice executed several large multidisciplinary investigative and expert assignments. The team was retained to investigate inconsistencies for a U.S.-based software company with respect to revenue and receivables reporting for certain divisions of its business. A team of forensic accountants, investigative staff, and data analysts conducted employee interviews, performed investigative research into certain individuals and entities, collected relevant documents, and analyzed relevant accounting and financial data to assess whether the revenue and related receivable transactions were recorded in accordance with relevant revenue recognition guidance. The team reported our results to the Board of Directors, external auditors, and regulators. Additionally, during the quarter, members of the practice, including a former federal prosecutor and risk and financial compliance specialist, provided expert support to a banking institution and its external counsel related to accusations that the bank failed to perform adequate due diligence and transaction monitoring activities for corporate accounts used in a fraud. Overall, I'm grateful to all of my colleagues for their hard work during the first quarter as we helped our clients address their most important challenges. We are encouraged by the strong start to the year, but are mindful of macroeconomic uncertainties that can affect our business. We are trending towards the top half of our revenue and profit ranges, but we'll wait for another quarter of performance before providing any updated thoughts on our full year guidance. As such, we are reaffirming our full year of financial guidance. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chad and then Dan for a few additional comments. Chad?