Willdan Group, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Wilden Group first quarter fiscal year 2021 conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I turn the conference over to Al Keschalk. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Keith. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Wilden Group's first quarter 2021 earnings call. Joining our call today are Tom Brisbane, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Kim Early, Chief Financial Officer, and Mike Bieber, President. The call today builds on our earnings release we issued after market closed today. You may find the earnings release and the Will Dan investor report that accompanies today's call in the investor section of our website, willdan.com. Management will review prepared remarks, and we will then open the call up to your questions. Statements made in the course of today's conference call, including answers to your questions which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, and it's important to note that the company's future results could differ materially from those of any such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially and other risk factors are listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including but not limited to the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 1st, 2021. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements made during the course of this conference call. WLDAN disclaims any obligation and does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements made today. In addition to GAAP results, WLDAN also provides non-GAAP financial measures that we believe enhance investors' ability to analyze the business trends and performance. Our non-GAAP measures include net revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS. After Tom's prepared remarks, Kim will provide a financial review. We will then take your questions. Tom, over to you.

Thanks, Al, and good afternoon, everyone. During our call this afternoon, we will highlight our Q1 results and give an update on the current operating environment. Before we begin, I want to thank Stacey McLaughlin for her 10 years of service at Wilden, including the last five years as our Chief Financial Officer. We wish Stacey the best with her future career. We'd also like to welcome Kim Early as Wildan's new Chief Financial Officer. Kim has been working closely with the executive management team at Wildan since 2015. Kim has been implementing Wildan's financial planning, forecasting, operations review, and reporting processes. Kim previously served as Chief Financial Officer of various Wildan subsidiaries. We are excited to have Kim as our Chief Financial Officer. During this call one year ago, we were all addressing a global pandemic. I noted that extraordinary times create the opportunity for change. We have had many changes to the way we work and live. We've learned to be more agile and respond to changing market conditions. For example, we can live with less real estate costs. We have become better cash flow managers. Communications have improved due to virtual meetings. No planes, no trains, no automobiles, thus reducing travel costs. Facing a threat together made us stronger. We took action on changes because of necessity that will benefit Woldan long term. And during this pandemic, we won more work than ever. We certainly demonstrated this in the first quarter. delivering strong operational improvement by leveraging our recent cost reductions, unique software technologies, and continued cost containment. Some new news since March, when we last talked to you, just not too long ago, include during the first quarter, Interval Analytics signed another software license and continues to have a robust pipeline of software opportunities. Well then, policy experts, E3 and our engineering groups, just finished a decarbonization plan for New York City. We worked closely with the New York City Budget Office, providing a pathway for all of New York City buildings to comply with Local Law 97. Local Law 97 is a very aggressive decarbonization plan. All cities will follow. Electrification of New York City buildings nearly 4,000 of them, which include hospitals, schools, courthouses, museums, etc., they all must meet very aggressive goals over the next 15 years. E3 just finished another plan for the city of Philadelphia to address the city's gas systems. They are just beginning a study with the state of Massachusetts on their natural gas systems. This is all evidence that decarbonization is moving, and WLDAN is working on these very important assignments. COVID restrictions impacted the first quarter, but temporary suspensions are being lifted and reopenings are expected to continue into the early part of the third quarter. In late March, our Duke direct install program had fully resumed, and the Los Angeles Unified School District program restarted at the end of April. The small business program with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power remains delayed. We are optimistic that the small business program in Los Angeles County resumes by June 2021. Then all our programs will be fully operational. In terms of California energy efficiency contracts awarded to WLDAN, the Public Utility Commission recently approved the $100 million PG&E statewide new construction program. We have also been awarded a $12 million Southern California gas contract. We expect the California Public Utility Commission to provide their rulings on the four remaining contracts announced by the California IOUs over the next few months. California IOU programs are expected to ramp in the second half of 2021. As a reminder, the energy efficiency contracts awarded in December of 2020 only represents about 30% of the outsourcing that the California IOUs have done. They must outsource 100% of their energy efficiency services by 2025 as mandated by the CPUC. We have also been awarded new utility work in the Northeast pending final approvals. Customers are actively conducting procurements in 2021 as climate change goals and pathways for decarbonization continues. By the mid-term of this year, we are positioned to produce double-digit organic growth. On behalf of our board of directors, management, and shareholders, we would like to thank our employees, again, and customers for their continued dedication and hard work during this pandemic. I also want to thank our teams for their commitment to developing and implementing effective protocols to keep our employees safe and projects running. The health and safety of our employees is a high priority, and your continued resiliency and dedication are greatly appreciated. I will now turn the call over to Kim to discuss our financial results in more detail. Kim?