Becton, Dickinson and Company

Hello, and welcome to BD's fourth fiscal quarter and full fiscal year 2019 earnings call. At the request of BD, today's call is being recorded. It will be available for replay through November 12, 2019 on the investor's webpage of the BD.com website or by phone at 800-585-8367 for domestic calls and area code 404. 537-3406 for international calls using confirmation number 599-4332. I would like to inform all parties that your lines have been placed on in a listen-only mode until the question and answer segment. Beginning today's call is Ms. Monique DeLecke, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. DeLecke, you may begin.

Thank you, Dorothy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review our fourth fiscal quarter results. As we referenced in our press release, we are presenting a set of slides to accompany our remarks on this call. The presentation is posted on the investor relations page of our website at bd.com. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements, and it is possible that actual results could differ from our expectations. Factors that could cause such differences appear in our fourth fiscal quarter press release, and in the MD&A sections of our recent SEC filings. We will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures with respect to our performance. Our fourth quarter results include a non-cash charge in the period related to product liability matters of $582 million pertaining to certain legacy barred surgical products. This item, along with the details of purchase accounting and other adjustments, can be found in the reconciliations to GAAP measures in the financial schedules in our press release, and in the appendix of the investor relations slides. A copy of the release, including the financial schedules, is posted on the BD.com website. As a reminder, to provide additional revenue visibility, we will speak to our fourth quarter and full year 2019 revenue results on a comparable currency neutral basis. The comparable basis includes BD and BARD in the current and prior year periods, and excludes intercompany revenues and revenues associated with divestitures, among other adjustments. Before I turn the call over to Vince, we would like to comment on the leadership change that was announced back in September. We are very pleased to have appointed Tom Poland as BD's next CEO effective January 28, 2020. Vince will remain chairman of the board upon his retirement as CEO. While the company is energized for our next phase, it is truly bittersweet for all of us who have worked closely with Vince over the years. He is a wonderful person who has showed us that the secret to success lies in simple things like hard work, perseverance, and having a little fun along the way. We are also excited to announce that our next Analyst Day will be held on May 28th of 2020. Tom and the management team will share our vision and strategy for BD's next era of value creation. so please save the date and look for more information in the coming weeks. Leading the call this morning is Vince Ferlenza, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Also joining us are Chris Reedy, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, Tom Poland, President and Chief Operating Officer, Alberto Mas, Executive Vice President and President of the Medical Segment, Simon Campion, Executive Vice President and President of the Interventional Segment, and Patrick Kaltenbach, Executive Vice President and President of the Life Sciences segment. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Vince.

Thank you, Monique, and good morning, everyone. Before we discuss the company's performance, I would like to spend a few moments reflecting on the previously announced CEO succession. As Monique just mentioned, I will retire as BD's CEO on January 28th of 2020 while continuing to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The board has unanimously elected Tom Poland, our current president and COO, to succeed me as BD's next CEO and president. Tom's appointment reflects the leadership role he's played developing and implementing BD's strategy and vision. We believe that it is the right time for a leadership transition, given where we are in BD's journey. As we begin the final year of the BD-BART integration, we're looking ahead to our next phase of value creation, including how we leverage the capabilities we've built to better serve our customers. You all know Tom well, and we are confident that Tom's vision, energy, and drive make him the right leader at the right time to deliver on BD's strategic and cultural evolution. With that, let me turn it over to Tom to say a few words.