International Paper Company

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's International Papers fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the speaker's remarks, you will have an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, press 1 then 0 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw a question, press 1 then 0. As a reminder, to ask a question, press 1 then 0. To withdraw a question, press 1 then 0. Again, that is press 1 and 0 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw a question, press 1 and 0. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mark Nelson, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, and thank you for joining International Paper's fourth quarter earnings call. Our speakers this morning are Mark Sutton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Nichols, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. There is important information at the beginning of our presentation on slide two, including certain legal disclaimers. For example, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. We will also present certain non-U.S. GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of those figures to U.S. GAAP financial measures is available on our website. Our website also contains copies of the fourth quarter earnings press release and today's presentation slides. With that, I'll now turn it over to Mark Sutton.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. We will begin our discussion on slide three, where I will touch on our full year 2023 results. As I reflect on this past year, I'm very appreciative of all the hard work our employees have performed and for our strong customer relationships as we've managed through a challenging market environment. Our teams across International Paper executed well both commercially and operationally. They worked closely with our customers to create value and serve their needs while navigating an uncertain and changing demand environment. Our teams were also focused on driving out cost in all categories of spend across our large network of mills, box plants, and supply chain operations. In addition, we took strategic actions to structurally reduce fixed costs in our mill system, in our industrial packaging business, and our global cellulose fibers business. We also made significant progress in building a better IP by delivering $260 million of earnings benefits in 2023, driven by commercial and process improvement initiatives. I'm pleased to say that we've exceeded our target each year since we began this initiative, which demonstrates how building a better IP is now a mindset embedded in our culture, with intense focus on maximizing value through commercial and operational excellence. We also advanced our strategies to improve profitability across our portfolio. In our box business, our go-to-market strategy is focused on improving margins and mix by investing in capabilities to enhance our value proposition to align with customer needs. In global cellulose fibers, our strategy is focused on optimizing the business by reducing exposure to commodity pulp and aligning our mill footprint. We will be sharing more about these strategies later in the presentation. And in addition to reinvesting in our businesses, we also preserved our solid balance sheet and returned approximately $840 million to our shareholders. As we go through the rest of the presentation, we'll share our perspective on the market and the trends across our portfolio. We thought this would be helpful as you reflect on industry dynamics entering the new year. I will now turn it over to Tim, who will provide more details. Tim?