CBIZ, Inc.

today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lori Novickis, Director of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss CBIS first quarter 2025 results. As a reminder, this call is being webcast and a link to the live webcast along with today's press release and investor presentation can be found on the investor relations page of our website, cbiz.com. A replay and transcript will also be made available after the call. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that during the call, management may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures can be found at the financial tables of today's press release and investor presentation. Today's call may also include forward-looking statements regarding our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, strategies, and prospects. Forward-looking statements represent only our expectations, estimates, and projections as of this date of this call and are not intended to give any assurance of future results. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause future results to differ materially, and CBIS assumes no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. A more detailed description of such factors can be found in today's press release and in our financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Joining us for today's call are Jerry Grisco, President and Chief Executive Officer, Brad LaChia, Chief Financial Officer, and Chris Burrio, President of our Financial Services Division. I will now turn the call over to Jerry Grisco for his opening remarks. Jerry?

Thank you, Lori, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to be able to provide an overview of our strong first quarter performance and results, along with an update on our progress with integration following our acquisition of Markham in November of last year. Overall, our integration efforts are on schedule, and we are encouraged by the outstanding collaboration we are experiencing among our teams as we build on the best of both legacy organizations and continue to position ourselves as the premier provider of professional services to the middle market. Now, before I turn to our results, I want to take this opportunity to highlight the key attributes of our business model and how these attributes enable us to perform relatively well even in more challenging economic environments such as the one we faced in the first quarter. First, approximately 77% of our services are essential and recurring, meaning that our clients need these services regardless of business climate. We also have strong and consistent cash flows, high client retention rates, a broad geographic footprint, serve businesses across a diverse set of industries, and are not overly concentrated in any one market or industry. Also inherent to our business model is a high degree of variable expenses that serve as leverage we can pull to manage our expenses in response to changing conditions, including a compensation structure tied to growth, profitability, and other key performance metrics. Those attributes have served us well throughout challenging economic environments in our history, whether it was through the great financial crisis or the pandemic. Our historic performance during those times demonstrates our ability to successfully position our business to deliver relatively strong earnings results and at the same time improve the strategic positioning of our company to emerge even stronger when conditions improve. When assessing our revenue results for the first quarter, it is important to recognize that we find ourselves in a rapidly evolving, ever-changing, and increasingly uncertain economic and geopolitical environment. While the essential nature of many of our services makes us more resilient, our overall business and our clients are not entirely immune to the challenging business climates, and our Q1 revenue results in full-year outlook should be viewed through that lens. With that said, I am very pleased to report that our business model enabled us to continue to deliver very strong results for the first quarter. Among the high notes, the essential compliance portion of our core accounting and tax business generally performed as expected through the traditional busy season. There are a number of areas of our business that we expected some revenue softness due to a special project work that we performed in the first quarter of 2024 that we knew would not recur to the same degree in 2025. Our revenue was also impacted by the anticipated loss of a number of clients due to conflicts that prohibited us from continuing that work related to the transaction. In addition, The current economic and geopolitical environment has had a significant impact on a number of industries that affect our clients, including the capital markets and not-for-profit industries, as well as on certain of our advisory services, which tend to be more project-based and discretionary. On a positive note, our government healthcare consulting business continues to build on a strong pipeline of new projects and posted very strong revenue growth in Q1. And our benefits and insurance business also performed very well, with growth coming from nearly every service line. In summary, we are very pleased with how the business performed for the first quarter, with strong earnings and consistent cash flows. As we look forward to the rest of the year, we recognize that we may continue to be operating in a more challenging economic environment, and we are taking all appropriate steps to continue to protect and grow our earnings in the event that the business climate does not improve. Based on the fundamental attributes of the business that allows us to protect profitability, we are pleased to be able to confirm and maintain our previously announced guidance for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. However, based on the business climate we experienced through the first quarter, continued uncertainty for the months ahead, and the proportion of our work that is more discretionary through much of the remainder of the year, we are widening our revenue guidance to be within a range of $2.8 billion to $2.95 billion. At this point, I would like to now introduce Brad Lakia, our new Chief Financial Officer who joined us in March following the retirement of Waregrove. We welcome Brad to our team at a time of incredible opportunity as we integrate Markham and position our company for accelerated long-term growth. Brad brings nearly 30 years of experience within larger, complex companies across a broad range of financial disciplines including capital markets, M&A, treasury, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations. I'm pleased to welcome Brad to the call today and look forward to connecting him with our shareholders and analysts following the call. I'll now turn it over to Brad.