Zovio Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Zovio Q1 2021 earnings 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 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Alana Vitechi. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Zobio's first quarter 2021 earnings release was issued earlier today and is posted on the company's website at www.zobio.com. Joining me on the call today are George Pernsteiner, Interim CEO, Office of the CEO and Board Chair, Chris Bond, Executive Vice President of Operations and Office of the CEO, and Kevin Royal, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. We would like to remind you that some of the statements we make today may be considered forward-looking, including statements regarding university partners and other programs and services, our ability to grow through acquisition, our ability to successfully integrate and leverage acquired companies, future revenue growth, EBITDA, financial and related guidance, and commentary regarding fiscal year 2021 and later. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Please note that these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this presentation and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws. On the call today, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our earnings release, you will find additional disclosures regarding these measures, including reconciliations of these measures with US GAAP. Note that these non-GAAP financial measures are intended to supplement GAAP financial information and should not be considered a substitute for our GAAP results. Please refer to our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2020, as well as our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31st, 2021, which we filed with the SEC earlier today, for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. You may obtain copies from the SEC or by visiting the investor relations section of our website. At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce our interim CEO, George Pernsteiner.

Thank you, Alana, and welcome to our first quarter 2021 earnings call. As you likely saw in late March, we announced a leadership transition at Zovio. The company is entering a new era and the board felt this presented an opportunity to make a shift at the CEO level. Andrew Clark had founded Zovio and been with the company for almost 18 years. During his tenure, he developed a solid foundation for Zovio to transform from operating a single university into an education technology services company serving many clients and all of their students. We are excited for what the future holds for Zovio and our ability to play an important role in enabling learners to advance their educational goals. To that end, the Board of Directors has established a search committee to find our next CEO. The committee is comprised of three directors, led by John Kiley, our Audit Committee Chair and a former partner at PwC. We have retained the search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to facilitate the process and have launched a comprehensive national search that will consider both internal and external candidates. We are confident the search will yield a leader with the right blend of vision and operational expertise to advance Zovio's strategy and deliver shareholder value for many years to come. In the interim, we have established the office of the CEO, which I lead. and includes Chris Spahn, who will be speaking with you in a few minutes, and Diane Thompson, our general counsel. As interim CEO, my primary focus will be on strategy, finance, and university partnerships, including the very important one with the University of Arizona Global Campus, or UAGC. Chris will be responsible for overseeing operations and client-facing services, While Diane will continue to lead the legal and compliance department, as well as overseeing other corporate functions. We believe this structure will enable a seamless leadership and operational transition, allowing us to continue to execute on our strategic priorities. In addition to our CEO transition in late March, we announced the appointment of two new directors, which will enhance our board leadership and expertise. as well as increasing the overall diversity of our directors. It is my pleasure to welcome Dr. John Wilson, the former Morehouse College president who serves as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School, and Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of Benchmark Analytics and who formerly was the leader of Chicago's public schools. Both John and Ron bring significant higher education, government policy, business, and human capital management experience to the Zovio board. And this all in addition to their long-standing commitments to diversity, equity, and access to education. For those of you whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, let me extend and give you a quick overview of my background. I have served as a director on Zovio's board since August 2017 and currently serve as chair of that board. Higher education is where I've spent most of my career. I served as Chancellor of the Oregon University System from 2004 through 2013, and more recently as the President of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, which represents chancellors and commissioners of higher education institutions from every state. As a result, I have considerable knowledge of the opportunities and challenges we face as the education landscape rapidly evolves something that matters as we further expand our university partnerships and enhance our relationship with UAGC. When I had the opportunity to join Zovio's board, I was excited. I was excited to become a part of an organization that was well positioned to become a leader in the future of higher education, bringing technology and innovative services to help learners succeed. Zovio has a great future. We are in the process of developing, a strong partnership with UAGC, which will provide a solid footing to launch additional services to more universities. In fact, we have already signed an agreement with a new partner, something Chris will discuss in more detail shortly, and we are in discussions with several other institutions. Furthermore, our Zovio growth segment has been a significant contributor to growth. Through Fullstack and TutorMe, we are delivering high-quality services that are in great demand in the marketplace. That being said, we have experienced lower enrollment for UAGC in the first quarter of 2021 than we had anticipated. Chris and Kevin will discuss this in much more detail momentarily. However, given this lower enrollment, as well as our desire to better position the company, both internally and externally, as an education technology services company, rather than an owner of one institution. Since March, we have taken decisive actions to realign our operations. This included working to break down silos internally and to increase collaboration across the team. In addition, this morning, we communicated broad-based cost reductions that will deliver annualized savings of about $40 million. The cost reductions were largely focused on administrative and non-students facing functions in order to enhance efficiencies, while at the same time, maintaining the resources necessary to drive and serve enrollment for our university partners. We also remain focused on realizing the full benefit of our robust offering, including Fullstack, TutorMe, and our university partner group, services to ensure our team is aligned around a common goal to be a world-class education technology services company. As I said before, I look forward to listening to and speaking with many of you throughout this transition period. With that, let me turn the call over to Chris to run through the highlights of the quarter.