AECOM

Thank you, operator. I'd like to direct your attention to the safe harbor statement on page one of today's presentation. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. We use certain non-GAAP financial measures in our presentation. The appropriate GAAP reconciliations are incorporated into our materials, which are posted to our website. Any references to segment margins or segment adjusted operating margins will reflect the performance for the Americas and international segments. When discussing revenue and revenue growth, we will refer to Net Service Revenue, or NSR, which is defined as revenue excluding pass-through revenue. NSR and backlog growth rates are presented on a constant currency basis unless otherwise noted. Today's remarks will focus on continuing operations. On today's call, Troy Rudd, our Chief Executive Officer, will review our key accomplishments, our strategy, and our outlook for the business. Laura Polonyi, our President, will discuss key operational successes and priorities. And Gaurav Kapoor, our Chief Financial Officer, will review our financial performance and outlook in greater detail. We will conclude with a question and answer session. With that, I will turn the call over to Troy.

Thank you, Will, and thank you all for joining us today. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the continued commitment of our approximately 50,000 professionals to fulfilling our shared purpose of delivering a better world. We have the best teams in the industry, and our widening competitive advantage stems from their passion, technical expertise, and global collaboration. Our continued high win rate, record design backlog, continued margin expansion, and strong cash flow are a testament to the strength of our team and the benefits of our strategy. Nearly all of our end markets are growing and we are aggressively adding to our workforce to deliver on our commitments. Strong end market conditions and the continued growth of our professional workforce differentiates us from many businesses that are seeing macro conditions continue to soften. I also want to highlight that for the third year in a row, we have been recognized as the most admired company in our industry by Fortune. This is a great accomplishment and I couldn't be more proud of our people. Turning to our financial performance, organic NSR growth accelerated to 8%, which included strong growth across both segments and was led by 9% growth in design, which matches our highest for the past decade. Notably, our growth in America's design business continued to accelerate. State and local activity remained strong, and when combined with the unprecedented infrastructure funding in the U.S. and the increases in the recently enacted 2023 U.S. federal budget, we are confident in a multi-year growth cycle. Our segment-adjusted operating margin increased by nearly 40 basis points to 14%, which is a new high for our first quarter. Our profitability leads our industry and reflects strong execution, the benefits of our strategy, and our lower-risk, higher-value backlog composition. We are well-advanced in our path to deliver on our 15% fiscal 2024 margin target, and we are increasingly confident in our continued margin expansion over time. Adjusted EBITDA of $224 million and adjusted EPS of 86 cents were consistent with our expectations and included strong underlying operational growth. Consistent with our track record of delivering on our commitments, strong operational performance contributed to 19% growth through year-over-year earnings, which allowed us to deliver on our targets despite macro-related factors. Pre-cash flow is also strong, which enabled the execution of our returns-focused capital allocation policy. Our primary use of capital include investments in organic growth opportunities, share repurchases, and our quarterly dividend program. I should highlight that our recent January dividend marked a 20% increase over our prior payment, which is consistent with our intent to grow our per share dividend by a double-digit percentage annually. Importantly, we are prioritizing our investments to pursue transformational growth opportunities where we have a competitive advantage. This resulted in another near-record high win rate, strong backlog momentum, and an unprecedented level of visibility. The design backlog increased by 9% to a record high, which is an acceleration from the prior quarter and was driven by a 1.3 book-to-burn ratio. In addition, our pipeline of opportunities is also at an all-time high. This includes a nearly 30% increase in proposals and bids submitted, which is up from 20% growth in the prior quarter. As a result, we are confident that our design backlog will continue to increase as the year progresses. Across our business, the benefits of our Think and Act Globally strategy are apparent in the changing composition of our backlog. Let me share a few examples. During the quarter, we were selected for the sizeable water program management contract in Southern California. This win resulted from collaboration between our world-class water and program management practices, which led to an unrivaled technical solution for our clients. In addition, this win fortifies our leadership position in this rapidly growing region, where last quarter we won the Science Bowl Padre Dam Advanced Water Purification Program in San Diego. As a result, we are well positioned to benefit as the billions of planned investments to address persistent drought and water supply challenges increase. We were also successful in our selection for the Navy's Pacific Clean Program, which builds on our success with this client, including last year's award of the Atlantic Clean Program. Both programs will run for at least five more years. We are experiencing a similar trajectory in our number one ranked global transportation business. In Canada, we were selected to serve as the technical advisor on a transformative light rail project, creating visibility over the next decade on a marquee project in the region. In addition, While not reflecting on our first quarter backlog, we've been notified that we were selected on another nine-figure win in the global rail market. We are very deliberate in how we allocate time and capital, with a focus on the best return and highest value opportunities. As a result, an increasing share of our wins are generated from scope increases and additional phases on existing programs. In fact, our largest first quarter design win was an additional phase to an existing project we already held Several of our first quarter wins have the potential to increase in value. We've identified more than $500 million of potential incremental opportunity from the first quarter wins that we expect to add to backlog over time. This demonstrates the more valuable composition of our wins and backlog and with it contributes to our visibility and confidence. Also contributing to our confidence is the funding growth across our largest end markets. In the U.S., the initial wave of IAJ funding is beginning to materialize in our pipeline, and we continue to expect the benefits from IAJ funds to accelerate through the coming years. An increasing share of our activity today is helping clients position for this funding, and clients are increasingly turning to us to utilize our digital AI-powered tool, Fund Navigator. In Canada, provincial investment in rail infrastructure and market where we lead is supporting NSR, backlog, and pipeline growth. The same is true in the UK, where we have an established position on key frameworks and are converting large pursuits to wins. In Australia, our momentum continued, including another win in the first quarter, which has further extended our backlog visibility. And finally, in the Middle East, our backlog and NSR have increased at a double-digit pace due to our positioning on the substantial infrastructure investments transforming Saudi Arabia. As we look ahead, we remain committed to executing our strategy, which is focused on expanding our addressable market to organic growth in our advisory, digital, and program management practices, driving collaboration to fully capture the strength of our global platform, prioritizing our time and capital on the highest returning growth opportunities, investing in digital AECOM at an unprecedented rate to lead our industry through digital transformation, And finally, creating an industry-leading employee value proposition to attract and retain the best professionals in their fields. Taken together, we are better positioned than ever to capitalize on the growing set of opportunities in front of us. Our competitive advantages are expanding the long-term earnings power of the company. As a result, we are reaffirming our 2023 financial guidance and remain confident in delivering on our long-term 2024 financial targets and aspirations. With that, let me turn the call over to Lara.

Thanks, Troy. Please turn to the next slide. I'd also like to acknowledge our teams across the globe for another strong quarter. We've built a culture around collaboration and expanding our competitive advantages, and our strong performance represents the realization of our strategy. In nearly every conversation with our clients, we receive consistent feedback. Our teams are delivering unrivaled technical solutions. Our technical proposal is the most often cited factor in our wins. These technical capabilities are an essential element of our competitive advantage, which is apparent in our consistently strong win rate. And we are winning half of every dollar we bid. The great work we do is a reflection of our professionals, and we are energized by the opportunities ahead. Across our markets, we are ideally positioned to capitalize on the three secular megatrends, including growing global infrastructure investments, investments in sustainability and resilience, and post-COVID supply chain and asset investments. These drivers were prevalent in several of our recent wins. In the US, our leadership in sustainability and resilience continues to be a differentiator. For instance, investments to modernize and strengthen the US electric grid are expanding. This was highlighted by our selection to support a key renewable energy client in the US on a large interstate transmission line that will leverage both our technical capabilities and our innovative digital plan engaged tool for the NEPA environmental impact statement. In addition, PFAS activity is accelerating ahead of expected regulatory milestones in 2023. We are the leaders in this market and our backlog for PFAS related programs increased by 40% in the quarter. Finally, we were selected to advise the city of New York on its cloud burst program which creates clustered stormwater management projects in flood-prone and underserved communities across the city. This win positions us to deliver similar services in other metros globally, which plays to our strengths. In Australia, the government is investing at record levels in transportation infrastructure. We won the design contract for a substantial highway tunnelling project in the first quarter, building on a series of large transportation wins over the past year. The ingenuity of our global tunnelling expertise was critical in developing a technical solution for the client that reduced the environment and biodiversity impacts of this project. This was a key differentiator in our successful bid. Finally, in the UK, where the government has reaffirmed its commitment to expand its rail network and reconnect communities as part of its levelling up strategy, we are winning marquee projects that support this vision. To fully capitalize on the accelerating set of opportunities ahead, we are continuing to make investments in our teams. This includes our increased investment in U.S. healthcare benefits, which we rolled out earlier this year, and ongoing investments in technical academies to bring professionals together and foster collaboration. I am pleased to report that we are experiencing a strong return on these investments. Our workforce is growing, employee engagement is high, and employee retention across the globe is ahead of our internal targets. The return on these investments is essential to retaining and attracting the best professionals, which is key to expanding our competitive advantage. Across our business, our technical excellence, empowered by a culture of collaboration and focus on pursuing the best growth opportunities, have contributed to substantial momentum in our business and energize us as we pursue a record pipeline of opportunities today. With that, I will turn the call over to Gail.