Willdan Group, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the World End Group first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions and comments following the presentation. If you should require assistance throughout the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad to reach a live operator. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Al Kachok. Sir, the floor is yours.

Welcome to Wildan Group's first quarter 2023 earnings call. Joining our call today are Tom Brisbane, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Kim Early, Chief Financial Officer, and Mike Beaver, President. The call today builds on our earnings release we issued after the market closed today. You may find the earnings release and the Wildan investor report that accompanies today's call in the press release and stock information section of our investor relations website, found at ir.wildan.com. Management will review prepared remarks, and then we'll 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. The 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 in 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 filed for the year ended December 30, 2022. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements made during the course of this conference call. Wildan disclaims any obligation and does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements made today. In addition to GAAP results, Wildan 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. I will now turn the call over to Tom Brisbane, Will Dan's chairman and CEO.

Thanks, Al, and good afternoon, everyone. Two months ago, we communicated that we had overcome the significant headwinds that were impacting our business and began our trend back to a growth company. Our first quarter performance continues that trend. enabling us to deliver our best first quarter ever. The continuing improvement in our financial performance and our strong backlog gives us confidence we can deliver the full year 2023 outlook. Let me share with you some additional details. Cities are an important customer for us, and we have a 50-year-long relationship in California. Our city services model provides us a unique opportunity to bring our energy and infrastructure capabilities to the municipality We expect the strength and demand for our engineering and financial services for cities to continue. We do not see a slowdown due to inflation or a potential recession in this area. We expect the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help cities fund important new projects over the next several years. In addition, we see our cities struggling with their difficulties in hiring qualified engineers. This helps our outsourcing. Our software business enrolled two new contracts for our distribution planning software during the quarter. The larger contract was for one of the nation's largest energy investor-owned utilities. We also signed a software contract with one of the largest municipal-owned electric service companies. There are approximately 170 investor-owned utilities and 3,000 municipals. The software business pipeline looks good. and strategically we see opportunities in both markets to support distribution grid planning and forecasting in both the near and mid-term. This market is being driven by electric vehicles and electrification. The load is growing on the grid. Our software solution helps them plan and optimize the solution. Our New York energy business is executing on their blackboard. Work with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, The New York City Housing Authority, New York Power Authority, positions this group for 50% organic growth in 2023. They are electrifying NYCHA housing as a way to decarbonize the grid and provide better living for their residents. Our performance engineering group is entering their strongest two quarters as it starts work on five new California-based performance engineering contracts. These wins were based on collaboration with our city's engineering group. Our new professional service contract with San Diego Gas and Electric is performing well. This one-year customer service program supports small businesses statewide that are recovering from COVID. The California IOU contracts are performing well and we're a positive contributor in the quarter. We expect their performance and contribution to continue throughout the year. E3 continues to grow at 20% plus. They provide high-end energy consulting to the entire country, helping develop the framework for the clean energy transition. They have been and will continue to be WILDAN's light into the future on where we move for the continued growth of WILDAN. Last month, we released our 2022 sustainability report. At the forefront of WILDAN's sustainability efforts is our commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by next year. In closing, 2023 is off to a solid start with a strong first quarter performance and the strength of our backlog, we are on track to deliver the full year 2023 outlook we provided two months ago. I want to thank our employees, customers, and stockholders for their support. I will now turn the call over to Kim, who will provide additional details on our financial results.