Jacobs Solutions Inc.

Good morning, my name is Chris and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Jacobs Solutions Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All ends have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We will take one initial question, and you may rejoin the queue for a follow-up question. Thank you. Jonathan Doros, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning to all. Our earnings announcement and thank you were filed this morning, and we have posted a copy of this slide presentation on our website, which we will reference during the call. I'd like to refer you to slide two of this presentation materials for information about our forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Turning to the agenda. Speaking on today's call will be Jacob's CEO, Bob Bergata, and Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Berryman. We're also joined today by our incoming CFO, Claudia Jamilio. Bob will begin by summarizing highlights from our first score results, discuss our commitment to sustainability, and then provide an update on our strategy. Kevin will provide a more in-depth discussion of our financial metrics, as well as a review of our balance sheet and cash flow. Finally, Bob will provide details on our updated outlook, along with closing remarks, and then we'll open up the call for your questions. In the appendix of the presentation, we provide additional ESG-related information, including examples of our leading ESG solutions. With that, I'll now pass it on to Bob Pergata, CEO.

Thank you, John. Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter fiscal year 2023 business performance. Starting on slide four, I'd like to welcome to the call Claudia Jaramillo, who is currently our Executive Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development. We recently announced her transition to CFO later this year. I am excited to now lead Jacobs as CEO. Over the last several years, we have repositioned the company through a purposeful strategy of transforming our portfolio to capture higher value opportunities in our core and adjacent sectors. At this junction or strategy, strong execution and focus is pivotal to our success. There are three key priorities. First, We will maintain our inclusive and inspirational culture that fosters the creativity needed to live by our mission. Challenge today, reinventing tomorrow. Second, we'll focus on driving a higher structural growth rate across our core sectors by executing against the three needle-moving growth accelerators of climate response, data solutions, and consulting and advisory across the entire organization and sectors we serve. While we are in a leading position to capitalize on the mega trends and structural tailwinds, our relentless focus on long-term client relationships is driving sustained growth. Third, we will deliver long-term returns for our shareholders by driving further operational discipline across the business to accelerate cash flow generation with disciplined capital allocation. From a financial standpoint, our underlying business remains strong. Our people and places solutions line of business delivered strong performance with net revenue up 8% year over year, 13% in constant currency, operating profit up 20% year over year, 28% in constant currency, and we continue to gain market share in both the global critical infrastructure and advanced facility sectors. In CMS, we continue to deliver a strong base of recurring revenue with a growing new business pipeline. We anticipate strong tailwinds and backlog growth with CMS moving forward. PA Consulting experienced lower-than-expected utilization, but we continue to experience double-digit top-line and backlog growth. We are seeing strong demand with robust opportunities in PA's sales pipeline. The number of recent wins underscores our strategy and demonstrates our move up the value chain with our clients to higher-margin consulting and advisory services. Across the company, we see exciting opportunities ahead of us, specifically in the areas of climate response and especially in energy transition. Our ability to deliver data-enabled solutions is enhancing our clients' resilience and sustainability. The establishment of divergent solutions enables Jacobs to scale and deploy our domain-centric data platforms across multiple sectors and geographies, further enabling us to deliver solutions to technically complex challenges. I will talk to these key themes further in the presentation. Turning to slide five, we remain steadfastly committed to our cultural transformation to create an inspirational journey for all. In 2015, we started our culture journey with the empowerment and accountability, incorporating inclusion, innovation, and inspiration into the very fabric of the company. I believe our emphasis on inclusion and diversity has been a critically important contributor to our success, and provides a key differentiator in attracting and retaining the world's best talent, as well as driving innovation for our clients. A key benefit of being a company with a broad range of capabilities is our ability to provide multiple career and development opportunities, what we refer to as agile careers. When we learn and grow together, we activate empowerment and accountability, inclusion and diversity, and innovation. We lead, embrace, and anticipate change. To further demonstrate our commitment to inclusion and diversity, we have included a KPI in the refinancing of our credit facilities linked to female leadership representation. Kevin will discuss further details in his remarks. Turning to slide six, our commitment to sustainability is core to our strategy and our significant performance is being recognized by many of the top ESG accredited institutions. Over the past five years, we have advanced to an industry-leading status. This culminated in our inclusion in the 2022 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, ranking Jacobs among the world's leading companies with outstanding sustainability performance. While the scores themselves are impressive, what's even more significant is the public recognition of Jacobs' positive impact on our clients, communities, and the world. As we turn to slide seven, we will focus on our four key growth sectors of critical infrastructure, energy and environment, advanced facilities, and national security. These growth sectors are driven by the following catalysts, federal government stimulus from the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act, supply chain and technology investments in advanced facilities, and the emergence of increased global threats. Let's examine the legislative drivers first and our positioning in the market. I am proud that Jacobs has helped our clients secure over $1 billion in IIJA competitive grants since its passing, and the bill is only in its early stages. We supported our clients in securing over $350 million in IIJA competitive grant funding just last quarter, the largest quarter since the passing of the Act. This includes the largest grant awarded nationwide for subway station accessibility in New York City, a major port infrastructure development grant to a long-term client in Alaska, the first phase award of one of the largest water treatment plants in the U.S., and the design of a sustainable battery recycling facility. With another four years of locked-in and robust funding, the U.S. infrastructure climate is strong. The coming months will also bring the first dollars of two other areas of focus for Jacobs, the Inflation Reduction Act, with $369 billion to fund the green economy transition, and the CHIPS Act for semiconductor investment, all in core Jacobs sectors. Before the end of the calendar year, we fully expect to have all three bills firing at full strength and funding critical projects sponsored by local governments, the federal government, and the semiconductor industry. This overlap of spending will continue for four or five consecutive fiscal quarters and drive growth across the infrastructure and energy markets. In advanced facilities, we continue to see sustained capital investment in the semiconductor manufacturing space, biotechnology capacity expansions, and the electric vehicle ecosystem, all being driven by reshaping of global supply chains, technology advancements, and decarbonization efforts. Turning to slide eight. As evidenced by double-digit pipeline growth in each of these sectors, our industry position continues to grow and we see this being a long-term secular trend. In addition to previously discussed infrastructure wins, we have been awarded major programs in the semiconductor space to include greenfield expansions in the U.S. and Europe for a global chip manufacturer. In the biotechnology sector, we have won multiple expansions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. we continue to see global growth in electric vehicle ecosystem driven by a favorable regulatory environment with project wins for battery and vehicle manufacturing and charging infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe. Within national security, we are seeing increased defense spending in the U.S., U.K., and Australia due to continued global threats. As highlighted as a future prospect last quarter, In the U.S., we were successful in winning a critical cyber intelligence award for $469 million, five-year contract for a classified defense customer to provide secure data and network solutions globally. In the U.K., PA is leading the consortium that has been selected by the MOD to deliver CRENIC, a future force protection electronic countermeasures program. It will provide the next generation of innovative solutions to counter the threats posed by radio-controlled improvised explosive devices, otherwise known as IEDs. And in Australia, we're supporting the acquisition and sustainment of military platforms for the Australian Defense Department, which has engaged Jacobs with increasing volumes of work. Now I'll turn the call over to Kevin to review our financial results in further detail.