Laureate Education, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Lariat Education's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to speaker host, Adam Morse. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss Laureate Education's second quarter 2022 results. Joining me on the call today are Iliff Sarkanton, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rick Buzzkirk, Chief Financial Officer. Earnings precious is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at laureate.net. We've also posted a supplementary presentation to the website, which we'll be referring to during today's call. The call is being webcast, and a complete recording will be available after the call. I would like to remind you that some of the information we are providing today, including, but not limited to, our financial and operational guidance constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may change at any time, and therefore, our actual results may differ materially from those we expected. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations are disclosed in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, our 10-Q filed earlier this morning, as well as other filings made with the SEC. In addition, all forward-looking statements are based on current expectations as of the date of this conference call. and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Additionally, non-GAAP measures that we discuss, including, and among others, adjusted EBITDA, tonight's related margin, total cash, net of debt, and free cash flow, are also detailed and reconciled to their GAAP counterparts in our press release or supplementary presentation. Let me now turn the call over to Ilan.

Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm pleased to report strong second quarter performance with operating and financial results ahead of our expectation. We are again raising our full year 2022 outlook, which Rick will cover in more detail later in our prepared remarks. Enrollments continue to trend well with June year-to-date new and total enrollment both increasing 11% versus prior year. During the recent semester, we returned to face-to-face operations across all of our campuses And we are effectively deploying our hybrid operating model, allowing students to study both in person and through online. We have more than 50 campuses in Mexico and Peru that reinforce our strong brand. And we are leveraging that brand power to become the market leader in online education. Digital delivery is increasingly important in both markets, as students expect to be able to access affordable quality education through flexible online and hybrid delivery modes. And the growth of online education is accelerating in this post-COVID era, as its acceptance by employers and regulators continue to increase. Going forward, we expect to provide between 40% and 60% of our taught hours online across our five institutions. This in turn will allow us to continue to grow in a more capitalized manner as a greater number of students can be accommodated in our existing physical campus space. At the core of our growth agenda is our mission, which is to deliver affordable, high-quality education to prepare students for successful career and lifelong achievements while building pride, trust, and respect in our communities. Our 2021 Impact Report, which now is available on our website, reflects our commitment to our mission. I encourage you to download the report and read more about what is happening across our institutions and the respective communities during the second half of this year we will be defining specific kpis related to our est agenda we will share more information with you during our year-end earnings call our strong brands and highly reputable institutions in mexico and peru uniquely position us to deliver on our promises we continually evaluate the institutions to ensure that we provide high quality education. As a result, our institutions and programs continue to earn some of the highest accreditations available in our market. These quality differentiators positions as well for continued success. And today, I am particularly pleased to share that UPC in Peru has been awarded the maximum 10-year reaccreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges from the United States. This provides significant validation and recognition of the academic quality and strong student outcomes consistently delivered by UPC. I'd also like to emphasize that the WASC accreditation is in addition to UPC's local accreditation. Further, UPN in Peru was recently awarded a one-notch quality upgrade to four stars as their overall university ranking by two stars, the global university rating system. This is a great achievement and is a reflection of our quality positioning in the market. And equally impressive, all our universities in both Mexico and Peru have been graded five stars by QS stars, the highest ranking available in the category of employability. And in Mexico, I am pleased to report that UVM was recently recognized as the top university at the national level among public and private universities with 255 programs within the high academic performance program category as measured by results of the Yale exit exam taken by students upon graduation. In addition to delivering on our growth and quality commitments, we continue to prioritize return of capital to our shareholders. The $650 million share repurchase authorization program granted by our board of directors has been substantially completed at what we believe are very accretive levels for our shareholders. And we closed the second quarter with a total of 164.7 million shares outstanding. And as a reminder, we also plan to distribute the remaining net proceeds from the Walden sale in the second half of this year once the escrow account is released. Our cash-equated business model and strong balance sheet provides us with a lot of flexibility as we continue to think through future return of capital strategies, as well as shareholder value optimization approaches. That concludes my prepared remarks, and I will now turn the call over to Rick Boskirk for more detailed financial overview of the second quarter and year-to-date performance, as well as further details on our improved 2022 outlook. Rick?