Korn Ferry

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Korn Ferry fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 30th, 2023 conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. We have also made available in the investor relations section of our website at KornFerry.com a copy of the financial presentation that we will be reviewing with you today. Before we turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in the call today, such as those relating to future performance, plans, and goals, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes the expectations reflect in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results and future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risk factors. and uncertainties, which are beyond the company's control. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation. In the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the companies soon to be filed and report for fiscal year 2023, Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA. Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release related to this call. both which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.cornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Gary Burnison. Please go ahead, Gary.

Okay. We've got Lois. Everybody's on the line. Number one, good afternoon and thanks for joining us. Our team is going to get into the numbers in a moment. But I first wanted to start by saying how incredibly proud I am of our firm, of our colleagues, of our purpose to enable people and organizations to be more than. And the results of our diversification strategy, which is clearly working as we had planned. And so, for example, while we've experienced a drop in the search business from post-pandemic highs, The rest of the portfolio performed as expected, with RPO less cyclical, digital and consulting growing, and our new interim business really blossoming. In fact, over the last 18 months or so, we've added this new interim capability, which has about $400 million of annual revenue on a run rate basis, bringing our total professional search and interim business growth to approximately $550 to $600 million on a run rate basis. And that's the direct result of our strategy, anticipating over three years ago a workplace mobility that we thought would emerge post-pandemic, and it has. You know, tectonic shifts are happening everywhere. How we produce and consume, where and how we work, how we're entertained. An ongoing war, shifting trade lanes, inflation, interest rate rises at a rate we haven't seen in a long, long time, and now generative AI. These megatrends can result in change that's fundamentally good for our clients and for Korn Ferry. And it's interesting to reflect that the foundation of our firm began with IP and science. With a world immersed in generative AI... We'll continue to invest not only in these technologies, but also in our proprietary data, assessment instruments, and knowledge. And these will be the ultimate differentiators. Amid this transformation and change, I believe we're still at the very beginning of what Korn Ferry will be, with therefore much more tangible opportunity ahead to help our clients be more of that. With that, I'll turn it over to Bob Rozak.

Great. Thanks, Gary. And good afternoon or good morning, depending where you're at. As I've said before, despite the substantial progress we've made evolving the business, you know, I really believe that we're still in the early innings of this transformative journey. You know, as Gary mentioned, strategy is working. It's producing the growth and results we set out for. which really are the proof points that the strategy is in fact working. With what has become an ongoing backdrop of macro uncertainty, the execution of our strategy has produced another successful year with organic and inorganic growth resulting in an all-time high of slightly more than $2.8 billion in fee revenue. You know, if I go back two short years to fiscal 21, which is the year of the pandemic, Our fee revenue has grown by more than $1 billion in that time, and 70% of that growth came organically, with the rest coming in organically. Our consulting business showed resilience throughout the year, bolstered by the relevance of our larger integrated solutions. Our digital business also showed resilience while continuing its transformation from selling analog point solutions to licensing our digital performance management tools. RPO remains extremely well positioned with its strong track record of large new business wins, and I expect that business to return to robust double-digit growth when a lot of the uncertainty that we're seeing today clears. Demand in exec search and in the perm placement portion of professional search moderated in the second half of last year, but in the same time, demand in interim remained steady, and that offset some of the transitory softness in the PERM placement businesses. Synergistic referrals between interim and PERM placement, plus referrals between our other lines of business and our marquee in regional accounts, were significant contributors to the achievement of our FY23 annual fee revenue. So again, it's clear to me our strategy is working, so we're going to continue driving our integrated solution-based go-to-market strategy, including our marquee and regional accounts, delivering unparalleled client excellence, extending our very strong Korn Ferry brand, advancing Korn Ferry as the premier career destination, and continuing to pursue transformational opportunities at the intersection of talent and strategy. With that, let me turn the call over to Greg, who will take you through some of the overall company financial highlights.