Lazard LTD.

Good morning and welcome to Lazard's third quarter and first nine months of 2023 earnings conference call. This call is being recorded. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the call, please press the star key followed by the zero key on your telephone keypad. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Alexandra Degnan, Lazard's Head of Investor Relations, Treasury, and Corporate Sustainability. Please go ahead.

Thank you, David. Good morning, and welcome to Lazard's earnings call for the third quarter and first nine months of 2023. I'm Alexandra Degnan, Head of Investor Relations, Treasury, and Corporate Sustainability. In addition to today's audio comments, we've posted our earnings release on our website. A replay of this call will also be available on our website later today. Before we begin, let me remind you that we may make forward-looking statements about our business and performance. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance, achievements, or other events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statement, including but not limited to those factors discussed in the company's SEC filings, which you can access on our website. Lazard assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these forward-looking statements and assumes no duty to update these forward-looking statements. Today's discussion also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are meaningful when evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures is provided in our earnings release and investor presentation. Hosting our call today are Peter Orszag, Lizard's Chief Executive Officer, and Marianne Betts, Lizard's Chief Financial Officer. Peter will begin with some brief remarks before turning the call over to Marianne, who will provide an overview of our financial results. Peter will then provide his perspective on current market conditions and the outlook for our business. After our prepared remarks, Peter and Marianne will be joined by Evan Russo, Chief Executive Officer of Asset Management, as they open the call for questions. I'll now turn the call over to Peter.

Thanks, Allie, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin my first earnings call as CEO of Lazard by expressing my thanks to my predecessor, Ken Jacobs. We are thrilled that Ken, one of the world's premier bankers, is now our executive chairman and has shifted his focus to advising clients. I also want to thank our board of directors for entrusting me with this role. It is a privilege to work with such exceptionally talented colleagues across the firm, and I look forward to serving and supporting them, our clients, and our shareholders. Lazard is one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms with one of the most powerful brands in the financial services industry, and I am excited about our prospects to further elevate our relevance, revenue, and returns. I'll provide more on our outlook and plans for Lazard later, but now let's turn the call over to Mary Ann to discuss our third quarter and nine-month results.