Exponent, Inc.

Good day and welcome to Exponent, second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in the listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw a question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Joni Constantelos, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us on Exponent Second Quarter 2025 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.investors.exponent.com. 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. Catherine Corey, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rich Schlenker, 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 will start off by reviewing our second quarter 2025 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. Revenues in the second quarter were flat, but exceeded our expectations, reflecting our team's disciplined execution and resilience in this dynamic environment. Demand for our failure analysis expertise drove growth in dispute-related activities, particularly in the construction, automotive, and medical device sectors. Proactive engagements were led by risk management work in the utilities sector, offset by softer demand for chemical regulatory work. Our broad portfolio that is diversified across industries, technical disciplines, and the product's lifecycle continues to support resilience in an environment of higher than usual uncertainty for our clients. We're pleased to see continued growth in litigation-related activities where the technical issues are increasingly novel and complex, and clients turn to us for extraordinary specialized expertise when the stakes are high. This market is fueled by rising safety and performance expectations, with companies recognizing that they are under greater scrutiny and that the consequences of failure continue to escalate. These dynamics, coupled with our unmatched capabilities, continue to reinforce our competitive moat. Turning to our engagements in more detail, reactive engagements in the quarter were driven by strong activity in the automotive sector related to advanced driver assistance systems, as well as increased demand in complex construction-related matters. In medical devices, we supported high-stakes intellectual property issues alongside product liability and safety-related matters, leveraging our specialized technical knowledge coupled with regulatory and industry expertise. Proactive engagements were led by risk management work in the utilities sector, where we continue to evaluate the resilience of critical infrastructure and help mitigate safety risks for consumers and communities. A growing example of this is our wildfire work, where we are leveraging deep expertise in structural and electrical engineering, metallurgy, and data science to develop advanced quantitative risk models that inform decision-making around system hardening, maintenance priorities, and power shutoff strategies. We are encouraged by the progress we are making in headcount as our recruiting efforts gain traction. We began the year with a 5 to 6% headwind in technical full-time equivalent employees, but narrowed that gap to 2% by the end of the second quarter, and we expect headcount to be up in the third and fourth quarters. Our ability to attract top-tier talent is driven by a compelling employee value proposition, a development-focused culture, and the opportunity to do impactful, challenging work. As we enter the second half of the year with encouraging demand across several key areas, we will continue strengthening our talented team that is already regarded as industry-leading. Looking ahead, Exponent is well positioned to capitalize on key market drivers at the intersection of safety, health, and the environment. Our multidisciplinary experts are actively engaged in early-stage initiatives tied to transformative innovations, including distributed energy systems and large-scale battery storage. where we guide clients through the evolving risks and technical complexities of the energy transition. Our work in wildfire mitigation is expanding, reflecting the growing need for resilient infrastructure and risk reduction strategies in the face of increasing extreme weather. At the same time, we're leveraging our unique capabilities in scientific user research to support clients with their emerging artificial intelligence applications. such as evaluating human-machine interaction across safety-critical systems, like advanced medical devices and vehicles. We are also advising clients as they develop augmented and virtual reality technologies, helping ensure safety, reliability, and quality of immersive user experiences. Our recent early-stage engagements represent significant long-term growth opportunities as innovations scale and become increasingly vital to industry and society. We are encouraged by the high potential activity across our business and are continuing to recruit strategically in our highest growth areas. In a world where innovation is rapidly accelerating and expectations around health, safety, and the environment are rising, our clients are facing increasingly complex, high stakes challenges. That's exactly where we excel. Clients turn to Exponent for our multidisciplinary insight, deep failure analysis expertise, and decades of risk and regulatory experience. With a team of exceptional professionals and a strong reputation for delivering clarity in the face of complexity, we are confident in our ability to capitalize on these enduring growth drivers and deliver sustainable long-term value. 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 2025. Rich?