Skyward Specialty Insurance Group, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 Skyward Specialty Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Natalie Schoolcraft, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Today, I am joined by our Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Robinson. and Chief Financial Officer Mark Hochul. We will begin the call today with our prepared remarks, and then we will open the lines for questions. Our comments today may include forward-looking statements, which by their nature involve a number of risk factors and uncertainties which may affect future financial performance. Such risk factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. These types of factors are discussed in our press release, as well as in our 10-K that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Financial schedules containing reconciliations of certain non-GET measures, along with other supplemental financial information, are included as part of our press release and available on our website, skywardinsurance.com, under the Investors section. Now I will turn the call over to Skyward CEO, Andrew Robinson. Andrew?

Thank you, Natalie. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2Q is another excellent quarter. We continue to execute our ruler-knee strategy and to deliver solid financial performance. We reported strong underwriting results in the face of a high level of industry-wide CAT losses in the quarter. Specifically, gross written premiums grew approximately 29% in the quarter. The quality and breadth of our growth is a testament to the high level of execution across our underwriting divisions. We continue to benefit from broadly favorable market conditions, as 60% of our writings in the quarter were in excess and surplus and non-admitted lines, and 58% were short-tail lines of business. Our combined ratio of 92% for the quarter included only 3.5 points of CAT losses despite industry-incurred record convective storm losses. Our pure rate increased to double digits this quarter and continues to be materially above our lost cost inflation estimates. New business pricing remains in line with our enforce book. Our ongoing investments in talent acquisition and development has been instrumental in driving our success. We continue to add A-plus talent across the organization, including new teams and products in our surety, professional lines, and captives divisions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark to discuss our financial results in greater detail. Mark?