Exponent, Inc.

Please stand by. Good day and welcome to the Exponent, Inc. first quarter of fiscal year 2022 financial results conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Joni Constestalo. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us on Exponent's first quarter 2022 financial results conference call. Please note that this call will be simultaneously webcast on the investor relations section of the company's corporate website at www.exponent.com backslash investors. This conference call is the property of Exponent and any taping or other reproduction is expressly prohibited without prior written consent. Joining me on the call today are Dr. Katherine Corrigan, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rich Lenker, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we start, I would like to remind you that the following discussion contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, exponents market opportunities and future financial results that involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed here. Additional information that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements can be found in exponents periodic SEC filings including those factors discussed under the caption risk factor in Exponent's most recent Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements and risks in this conference call are based on current expectations as of today, and Exponent assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise. And now I will turn the call over to Dr. Katherine Corrigan, Chief Executive Officer. Katherine?

Thank you, Joni, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I'll start off by reviewing our first quarter 2022 business performance. Rich will then provide a more detailed review of our financial results and outlook, and we will then open the call for questions. We had a solid start to the year, achieving year-over-year growth in revenue and EBITDA while continuing to advance our long-term goals. Our business model persists in demonstrating our resiliency against a challenging macroeconomic environment. as evidenced by the strong demand we are seeing for our services across the business during the quarter. I'm pleased that clients are increasingly relying on Exponent for our scientific and engineering expertise to help solve their most complex problems. Growth in the first quarter was driven largely by work related to the consumer electronics, utilities, chemicals, and life sciences sectors. On the proactive side, demand was driven by clients seeking optimization of their product designs and performance, as well as risk mitigating data analytics. On the reactive side, we saw a continued rebound in our litigation related work, as well as increased activity related to product recalls. We are excited about the evolving opportunities related to digital health, as we are continuing to see positive momentum in life sciences driven by increased work with medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Looking ahead, our expertise will be increasingly sought after as the world places greater emphasis on safety, health, and environmental issues. We are well positioned to capitalize on this trend as we help our clients build safer and more sustainable products and processes. Turning to our engagements in more detail, within our proactive business, we continue to see elevated demand for machine learning data studies and user experience research across a range of end markets. Momentum continued with our consumer products and electronics clients as demand for virtual and augmented reality work continues to increase. Within the automotive end market, we are seeing an increase in engagements in the electric vehicle space, particularly around the performance and safety of battery packs of the future. Clients are coming to Exponent to understand the performance, reliability, and safety of their next generation designs. Our risk and vulnerability work with utilities continued to increase as a result of the broadened scope of our risk models, and we expect further growth in this area. International arbitration work was also robust during the quarter, further amplifying our brand recognition in this arena. Across the business, Exponent is well positioned to capitalize on macro trends, including escalation in safety, health, and environmental concerns, that will have a substantial effect on our overall business over the next several years. We are excited about the evolving opportunities related to energy storage, vehicle electrification and automation, consumer electronics, and digital health, which we expect will deliver increasing impacts over time as we continue to execute on our long-term strategy. Further, as the energy sector decreases dependence on foreign oil, We expect that the secular trend toward renewables will drive future engagements with Exponent. On the recruiting front, we remain focused on building upon our differentiated position by growing and developing our world-class engineering and scientific team to meet the evolving needs of our clients and the market. Although the job market remains highly competitive, our hiring pipeline remains robust. and we continue to rely on our strong reputation and targeted outreach to add exceptional talent. We are confident in our ability to attract and retain talent to support the future of Exponent. Turning to our segments, Exponent's engineering and other scientific segments represented 81% of our net revenues in the first quarter, increasing 9% as compared to the prior year period, with continued strong demand for Exponent's services across the utilities, consumer electronics, and life sciences sectors. Exponent's environmental and health segment represented 19% of the company's net revenues in the first quarter. Net revenues in this segment increased 4% compared to the same period in the prior year. Growth in this segment was primarily driven by Exponent's work evaluating the impacts of chemicals on the environment. As we mark our 55th anniversary this month, We are encouraged to see Exponent growing in new emerging verticals and constantly evolving to meet the needs and challenges of our clients while maintaining our reputation for technical excellence, objectivity, and disciplinary diversity. As standards and regulations evolve around environmental, social, and governance issues, clients will increasingly reach for Exponent's trusted advice to help them improve the safety and performance of their products and processes. Our first quarter results exemplify the strength of our adaptable business model, unique market position, and strong client relationships, which will continue to drive enhanced profitability and long-term value for our shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Rich to provide more detail on our first quarter results, as well as to discuss our outlook for the second quarter and the full year 2022. Rich?