Ashland Inc.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Ashland's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You would then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to Sandy Klugman, Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Ashland's first quarter fiscal year 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Sandy Klugman, and I'm Ashland's Director of Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Guillermo Novo, Chair and CEO, William Whitaker, CFO, as well as our business unit leaders, Alessandra Fasin, Life Sciences and Intermediates, Jim Minicucci, Personal Care, and Dago Caceres, Specialty Additives. Please note that we will be referencing slides during today's call. We encourage you to follow along with the webcast materials available at Ashland.com under Investor Relations. As a reminder, Today's presentation aims at forward-looking statements regarding our fiscal 2026 outlook and other matters, as detailed on slide 2 and in our Form 10Q. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results to differ materially from today's projections. We believe any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, but there is no assurance these expectations will be achieved. We will also reference certain adjusted financial metrics, both actual and projected, which are non-GAAP measures. We present these adjusted figures to provide additional insight into our ongoing business performance. GAAP reconciliations are available on our website and in the appendix of these slides. I'll now hand the call over to Guillermo for his opening remarks.

Thanks, Sandy, and welcome to everyone joining us. For today, I'm happy to join this call from Shanghai, China. I begin with our first quarter highlights and how we were advancing our strategic priorities. Later in the call, I'll return to share some of the latest innovation developments where we continue to see tremendous momentum and opportunities for differentiation. William will review our financial results, operational execution, and outlook. And our business unit leaders will provide additional insight into performance across their segments and markets. Please turn to slide five. Let's begin with a review of the key business drivers for the first quarter. We delivered solid results while navigating ongoing demand softness in coatings and constructions, supported by strong execution and disciplined cost actions. LifeScience delivered healthy growth, supported by resilient pharma demand and momentum across our innovate and globalized pillars. Injectables, tablet coatings, and high-value cellulosic excipients all contributed to year-over-year growth. Innovation continued to strengthen performance with contribution from low nitride cellulosics, high purity excipients, and several new product introductions. Personal care delivered stable performance with underlying demand broadly steady. Biofunctional actives grew double digits, and microbial protection continued to gain share as our globalized initiatives supported high-value applications. Softer volumes in core hair and skin care primarily reflected unplanned and isolated customer plant outages. Specialty additives continued to face muted demand, with coatings and construction driving most of the year-over-year decline. Coatings weakness was most pronounced in China and select export markets. while construction softness reflected broader market conditions. Despite lower volumes, cost actions and HEC network benefits drove meaningful margin expansion. Intermediate market conditions were modestly softer, reflecting trough-like dynamics across BDO and its derivatives, which pressured captive BDO transfer pricing. The merchant business was stable with steady volume and modest pricing pressure resulting in flat sales. Operationally, the team continued to manage through the equipment replacement in Calvert City while delivering solid free cash flow. Although this issue impacted costs and pressured margins across the BPMD chain, customer supply remained uninterrupted. The impact we expected to be contained within the first quarter will now extend into the second quarter. As commissioning of the new unit revealed additional equipment issues that are delaying the startup. We anticipate completing the necessary fixes and bringing the unit online later in the quarter. Although outside Q1, recent weather-related events also have impacted our operations in the Mid-Atlantics. Customer supply, we may not interrupt it, but we expect incremental costs, which William will address later in the call, as part of our outlook for the year. What we saw, month-to-month variability. We're excited to quarter. We're excited to quarter on a stronger footing, with December improving versus November, and the momentum continuing in January. Taken together, these results reflect steady execution and continued progress across our strategic priorities. Now I'll turn the call over to William to walk through the first quarter financial performance in more detail. William?