Illinois Tool Works Inc.

background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. For those participating in the Q&A, you will have the opportunity to ask one question and if needed, one follow-up question. Thank you. Karen Fletcher, Vice President of Investor Relations, you may begin.

Okay, thank you, Krista. Good morning, and welcome to ITW's third quarter 2023 conference call. I'm joined by our Chairman and CEO, Scott Santee, Vice Chairman, Chris O'Herlihy, and Senior Vice President and CFO, Michael Larson. During today's call, we will discuss ITW's third quarter financial results and provide an update on our full year 2023 outlook. Slide two is a reminder that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's 2022 Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the SEC for more detail about important risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. This presentation uses certain non-GAAP measures, and a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in the press release. Please turn to slide three, and it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to our chairman and CEO, Scott Santee.

Thank you, Karen, and good morning, everyone. As you are all aware, on September 7th, we announced our CEO succession plan wherein I will be turning over the CEO role to my colleague Chris O'Herlihy at year end. Chris is an exceptional leader with deep expertise in ITW's highly differentiated business model, our focus strategy to leverage it to full potential, and the company's unique one-of-a-kind culture. He has been an invaluable partner and collaborator with me over the past 11 years. We have worked closely together to prepare for this transition. more than ready, and he will do an exceptional job as ITW's next CEO. If you allow me a brief bit of reflection on the last 11 years, I will simply say that everything we did was driven by our fundamental belief in the performance power of the differentiated set of strategic and operational capabilities and practices that we refer to as the ITW business model. In this past phase, we focused on getting the company properly positioned to be able to leverage them to their full potential over the long term. With this as our foundation, ITW enters our next phase in a position of great strength and resilience with these unique skills and capabilities sharply honed. I wholeheartedly believe that they will be an even bigger source of competitive advantage and differentiated performance in the company's next phase than they were in the last one, especially if you believe, as I do, that the level of volatility and unpredictability of the world will only increase from here forward. I have absolutely no doubt that Chris and the incredibly talented ITW leadership team behind him will utilize all of the differentiated tools at ITW's disposal to read and react to whatever comes our way and lead the company to even greater heights in our next phase. Let me close by saying that it has been both a privilege and an honor to lead this great company for the last 11 years. And I offer my deepest gratitude to all of my ITW colleagues past and present for all of their support and for their unwavering commitment to working every day to be the best ITW that we can be. With that, it is now my pleasure to turn the call and in a few months the company over to Chris O'Hurley. Chris, over to you.