The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc.

being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Mr. Jerry Lushney, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. This morning, we are joined by our CEO, Philippe Krakowski, and by Ellen Johnson, our CFO. Hello. We have posted our earnings release and our slide presentation on our website, interpublic.com. We will begin with prepared remarks to be followed by Q&A. We plan to conclude before market open at 9.30 Eastern Time. During this call, we will refer to forward-looking statements about our company. These are subject to the uncertainties and the cautionary statement that are included in our earnings release and the slide presentation. These are further detailed in our 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. We will also refer to certain non-GAAP measures. We believe that these measures provide useful supplemental data that, while not a substitute for GAAP measures, allow for greater transparency in the review of our financial and operational performance. At this point, it is my pleasure to turn things over to Philippe Krakowski.

Thanks, Jerry, and thank you all for joining us. This morning, I'll begin with a high-level view of the quarter and progress on our transformation program, after which Ellen will add detail on our performance. I'll then conclude with an update on the tone of the business as well as on the status of our acquisition by Omnicom. Turning to Q1 results and starting with revenue, our organic revenue decrease was 3.6%. which is consistent with the outlook and phasing we shared with you earlier this year. Our revenue change was largely due to the impact of certain account activity over the previous 12-month period, which we've discussed with you on prior calls. As expected, those headwinds intensified sequentially from last year's fourth quarter due to the timing of trailing wins and losses. Our three largest losses weighed on growth by 4.5% to 5%, impacting results across a number of geographic regions and disciplines, notably the US, Europe, and Asia Pac, and our IAC and MD&E segments. Trailing account losses were partially offset by sound underlying performance, with notably strong growth once again by IPG Media Brands, Deutsch, and Golan, and regionally by growth in LATAM and our other markets group. By client sector, we had very strong growth with our tech and telecom clients as well as solid increases in food and beverage and financial services. Turning to expenses and profitability in the quarter, our adjusted EBITDA was $186.5 million with a margin of 9.3%. That result reflects continued operating discipline by our teams and a strong start to the strategic restructuring program that we described in our February call. Adjusted EBITDA excludes charges for restructuring the quarter, which as you've seen were $203 million, of which slightly more than half is non-cash. We also adjust for deal expenses related to the combination with Omnicom which were $4.8 million in the first quarter and which appear in our SG&A expense. The quarter marked meaningful progress towards the objectives of the transformational restructuring of our business by both enhancing our offerings and driving significant structural expense savings. Operating expenses in the quarter compared to a year ago clearly tracked to the strategic evolution of our model. with operating leverage in some areas alongside continued investments in technology to enable key platform services and solutions. As we outlined earlier this year, we're moving at pace to greater functional centralization, increasing offshoring and nearshoring of centers of excellence, and an enterprise-wide focus on tech-driven platform benefits and key client-facing areas such as production and analytics, as well as corporate functions including finance and HR management. With the implementation of these changes well underway, we've identified further opportunities for transformation and structural redesign. With that increased scope, we currently expect the charges for restructuring this calendar year will be in the range of $300 to $350 million, a significant portion of which will remain non-cash. that will in turn yield run rate annualized expense savings of a similar magnitude as the eventual charge. Very important to note that we continue to see almost no overlap between these actions as standalone IPG and the $750 million of identified cost synergies that will result from the merger of our company into Omnicom. So the benefit of these increased structural cost savings should accrue to the newly merged entity in 2026 and beyond. Our diluted EPS in the quarter was a loss of 23 cents as reported due to the restructuring investment, while our adjusted diluted EPS was 33 cents. Another important development during the quarter was that we were able to reinitiate share repurchases. following the pause that had been required in connection with the early stages of the acquisition. Subsequent to our special meeting of shareholders on March 18th, at which we received support for the transaction from over 99% of shares voted, we were able to re-enter the market for 3.4 million shares over the balance of the quarter, returning $90 million to shareholders. Turning to our outlook, We know that macro developments and their potential ramifications have moved front and center for all of us. The impact of this uncertainty is not yet clear and the implications vary widely for our clients across industries and geographies. Our posture as always has been to stay close to our clients, especially in periods of heightened uncertainty. As of now, marketers appear to be in a phase of scenario planning assessing the implications of possible changes to the flows of global commerce. And as they sort these developments, we know that, you know, we're all addressing these things and these changes that are taking place at speed. As we engage with clients in considering the decisions they may need to make when it comes to channel choices, investment levels, and the best mix of marketing disciplines required to deliver business outcomes, we'll begin to get greater clarity on the impact of the macro on our sector. And we will, of course, update you on that evolving landscape. Today, we can report that performance in Q1 has been fully consistent with what we'd expected, that we've not seen a marked change in client activity, and that we therefore remain on track with the full-year performance targets for revenue and margin that we shared with you a few months ago. an organic decrease of 1 to 2 percent in net revenue due to trailing account headwinds, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.6 percent. Should there be a slowdown, we've shown that we're capable of navigating challenging circumstances. We continue to provide services that marketers require in order to deliver sales and business outcomes, regardless of where we are in the economic cycle. We also know that, if the macro ultimately weighs on broader consumer sentiment and economic activity with a resulting impact to our revenue, we've consistently proven the benefits of our flexible cost model. We've also demonstrated our resilience in that we rebounded strongly as we emerged from such cycles. We're entering this dynamic period with our program of strategic transformation and cost reduction well underway. with strong underlying financial resources, and both should further solidify our position at a time of growing uncertainty. I'll come back with an update on the status of the acquisition by Amnicom, the compelling growth benefits of the new company, and the resulting value creation we see in the combination. But at this point, I'll turn things over to Ellen for a more in-depth view of our results.