Medpace Holdings, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MedPace third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instruction will follow at that time. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star, then zero on your attached tone telephone. As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference call, Lauren Morris, MedPace's Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining MedPace's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Also on the call today is our CEO, August Trundle, our President, Jesse Geiger, and our CFO, Kevin Brady. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our remarks and responses to your questions during this teleconference may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve inherent assumptions with known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as well as other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. These factors, including the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on our business are discussed in our Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Please note that we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements even if estimates change. Accordingly, you should not rely on any of today's forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date after today. During this call, we will also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not superior to or replacement for the comparable GAAP measures but we believe these measures help investors gain a more complete understanding of results. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings press release and earnings call presentation slides provided in connection with today's call. The slides are available in the investor relations section of our website at investor.medpace.com. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to August Trundle.

Thank you, Lauren. I would like to make just a few comments. At the end of quarter three, our backlog of 1.85 billion was up 29% from the end of quarter three last year and up 51% from the end of quarter three of 2019. This book of future programs is well diversified and contains only a small component of COVID work. All of this change is organic. Over the last several years, we've improved our technology, global footprint, and overall competitive position in the clinical CRO industry with a focus on biotechnology firms. Our organic backlog and revenue growth from biotechnology firms has historically been above that of our peers, and as COVID becomes less of a driver of the clinical trial business over the next few years, our superior organic growth characteristics will become all the more evident. Jesse will now make some remarks on our performance, and then Kevin will review our quarter's results in more detail, as well as our guidance. Thank you.