Medpace Holdings, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MedPace fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. 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. Good morning. And thank you for joining MedPace's fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. Also on the call today is our CEO, August Trendle, 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 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 Grendel.

Good morning. I'd like to give a quick update on the business environment. The business environment continues to be challenging. Our most forward-looking business development metrics have weakened and were depressed in the fourth quarter. New RFPs, pending RFPs, and initial award notifications were all down moderately. Cancellations across the pipeline were elevated with backlog cancellations above our usual range in Q4. That is above 5% of opening backlog. Delayed financing or reprioritization of pipeline is frequently the feedback from sponsors. Biotech sentiment has remained poor to date in Q1. I believe we've prepared as best as possible for this downturn. We have diversified our pipeline, improved selectivity of clients based on quality of asset and likelihood of financing, tightened our ongoing monitoring of sponsor financial condition, and consistently negotiated safe payment terms to avoid write-offs. Our DSO and minimal write-offs of bad debt speak to our diligence. We remain confident in our 2023 guidance and believe we will continue to generate robust above-industry growth in 2024 and beyond. Jesse and Kevin will now review our financial results for Q4.