Public Policy Holding Company, Inc.

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PPHC first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we'll open up for questions. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand it over to our first speaker, Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer.

Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Matthew Mazzanti, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during this call, management will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. In addition, during this call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our earnings press release, which can be found on the investor section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to our CEO, Stuart Hall.

Thanks, Matthew. Good afternoon to everyone who's joining us today. I'll keep this set up brief. We covered a great deal of background on the company and its marketplace on the last call. And for anyone looking for a deeper dive on PPHC, I'd encourage you to go ahead and listen back to that call or feel free to reach out to our investor relations team. They're always available for you. So turning quickly to the first quarter, we had a strong start to 2026. Revenue grew 27.5% to 50.1 million, with organic growth of 5.1%. That was a step up from the 4.7% we saw in the first quarter of last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was a record first quarter result at 11.2 million, up nearly 29.7%, with a margin of 22.3%, while we reported a gap loss of 11.5 million. And with the IPO proceeds on the balance sheet, We ended the quarter with net debt of just $1.8 million down from $44.6 million a year ago, and that's a very different balance sheet picture than where we were. A few other notes from the quarter that I'd like to call out quickly. On M&A, we continue to execute in the same fashion we always have using the same discipline playbook that you've heard about before. On April 1, we closed the acquisition of WPI Strategy. WVI is a UK-based public affairs and economics consultancy that deepens our London presence through page field communications, but also has applications and a cross-sell potential with a number of our companies across the worldwide platform. Alongside platform-level acquisitions that we are consistently evaluating and progressing to at various stages, we also pursue what I like to call common sense talent additions, or sometimes called acquihires. The molar deals that bring experienced professionals with established client relationships into existing firms. They aren't transformative in size by themselves, but they're immediately accretive and they compound over time. Last week's addition of Lee Cowan and Nicholas Evans to multi-state associates is a good example of this. We expanded the firm's stakeholder engagement practice across federal, state, and local government relations. Lastly, in March, we were added to the Russell 2K and 3K indices, a welcome milestone just a couple of months after the NASDAQ listing and one that will expand our shareholder base. On the operating environment, it remains favorable for our business. Federal lobbying spending continues at record level. State-level activity is intense. Legislatures have filed over 100,000 bills in the last year. on issues that our clients care about most, things like data centers, AI, healthcare, energy, financial services. The policy agenda remains active at every level, and our clients are turning to PPHC companies to help them navigate it. That's exactly the operating backdrop that we constructed the company for and we continue to take advantage of. I'm going to have Thomas at the end of the call cover some of the relevant ways we're capitalizing on these tailwinds. And with that, I will hand it over to Roel for a closer look at the numbers. Roel?