Exponent, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Exponent, Inc. Second 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 Constantelos. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us on Exponent's Second 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 the 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 will start off by reviewing our second 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. Exponent delivered solid second quarter results, achieving year-over-year growth in revenue and EBITDA, driven by continued demand for our scientific and engineering expertise. Growth during the second quarter remained broad-based, supported by work related to the consumer products, utilities, automotive, and life sciences sectors. Within our proactive services are asset integrity and risk management engagements with utilities, energy storage-related work, and machine learning data studies were key contributors during the quarter. On the reactive side, litigation-related work was robust. and we saw increased demand for our services related to product safety and recalls. We are committed to growing our world-class team and are pleased with the increased recruiting momentum that we're experiencing. Importantly, the pace of new hires has increased over the past few months, which underscores our ability to attract the highest caliber engineering and scientific talent to the exponent team. Turning to our engagements in more detail, Within our proactive business, momentum is building with machine learning and human factors studies, reflective of increased demand from our clients as they seek differentiated data to improve user experience and advance product performance. Our work in batteries and energy storage continues to diversify across industries, and we are advising clients with regard to safety frameworks in the automotive space to mitigate risk. We are also seeing the demand for virtual and augmented reality work pick up as we help our consumer products clients better understand the cognitive impacts of these technologies. Our work around wearable technologies continues to be a core driver of growth as clients leverage our innovative thinking and technical expertise to monitor human health and evaluate the safety and efficacy of healthcare products and treatments. Our reactive business experienced an increase in litigation-related work during the quarter, while our engagements around product safety and recall have also picked up speed across a number of end markets, including transportation, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Exponent is primed to deliver solutions for the challenges of today and in anticipation of the challenges of tomorrow. We are well positioned across the business to capitalize on macro trends in safety, health, and environmental concerns that will have a significant impact on our overall business over the next several years. Our experience in energy storage and battery technology is fueling demand across a number of clients within the electric vehicle space, particularly around the performance and safety of battery packs of the future. We are also excited about the evolving opportunities related to wearables and digital health, and we are encouraged to see positive momentum in life sciences fueled by growing work with medical devices and pharmaceuticals. On the recruiting front, we continue to successfully attract the best and brightest scientists and engineers into our business. Despite a competitive job market for technical talent, our hiring pipeline remains strong as we are actively increasing headcount, which we anticipate will accelerate in the second half of the year. Turning to our segments, Exponents engineering and other scientific segment represented 83% of our net revenues in the second quarter, increasing 7% compared to the prior year period, as we continue to see strong demand for exponents services across the utilities, consumer products, automotive, and life sciences sectors. Exponents environmental and health segment represented 17% of the company's net revenues in the second quarter. Net revenues in this segment decreased 3% compared to the same period in the prior year. This was driven by the negative impact from foreign currency exchange rates, as well as investments in recruiting and marketing on the health side. As we move into the back half of the year, we will continue to leverage our core competencies as we deepen our client relationships, expand our reputation, and bring new talent to the firm. 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. Overall, we are confident that Exponent's unique market position and the durability of our business model will continue to drive sustained growth and increased scale. I'll now turn the call over to Rich to provide more detail on our second quarter results as well as discuss our outlook for the third quarter and the full year 2022.