Ashland Inc.

Hello.

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Ashland, Inc. Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll 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 now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Seth Morozek, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Josh. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ashland's second quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call and webcast. My name is Seth Morozek, Director, Ashland Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Guillermo Novo, Ashland Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Willis, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We released preliminary results for the quarter ended March 31st, 2022, at approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Time yesterday, April 26th. The news release issued last night was furnished to the SEC in a Form 8-K. During today's call, we will reference slides that are currently being webcast on our website, Ashland.com, under the Investor Relations section. We encourage you to follow along with the webcast during the call. Please turn to slide two. As a reminder during today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements on several matters, including our outlook for fiscal year 2022. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from today's projections. We believe any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions but cannot assure that such expectations will be achieved. Please refer to slide two of the presentation for a more complete explanation of those risks and uncertainties and the limits applicable to forward-looking statements. You can also review our most recent form 10K under item 1A for a comprehensive discussion of the risk factors impacting our business. Please also note that we will be referring to certain actual and projected financial metrics of Ashland on an adjusted basis, which are non-GAAP financial measures. We will refer to these measures as adjusted and present them to supplement your understanding and assessment of the financial performance of our ongoing business. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered a substitute for or superior to financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. The most directly comparable gap measures as well as reconciliation of the non-gap measures to those gap measures are available on our website and in the appendix of today's slide presentation. Please turn to slide three. Guillermo will begin the call this morning with an overview of Ashland's results in the second fiscal quarter. Next, Kevin will provide a more detailed review of the financial results for the quarter. Finally, Guillermo will close with key priorities and steps to advance our strategy, as discussed during our Investor Day in November of last year. As you saw at the beginning of the webcast, Ashland recently launched a new award-winning innovative thickener for skin and sun care. It is nature-derived and biodegradable. For consumers, it provides a desirable skin feel that offers an alternative to poorly perceived carbamere. NatureFix BioCellulose enables our customers to create more natural skincare creams, lotions, and gels, including organic and inorganic sunscreen formulations with the texture, skin feel, and sustainability that our consumers desire. Guillermo will provide additional commentary related to Ashland innovation and our product development progress, sustainability goals, and environmental and social and governance commitments. Guillermo will also provide his thoughts on important next steps and our financial outlook for fiscal year 22. We will then open the line for questions. Please turn to slide five and I will turn the call over to Guillermo for his opening comments. Guillermo.