Lazard LTD.

Good morning and welcome to Lazar's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. This call is being recorded. Currently, all participants are in 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 zero on your telephone keypad. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alexandra Degnan, Lazard's Head of Investor Relations, Treasury, and Corporate Sustainability. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Todd. Good morning, and welcome to Lazard's earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year 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 statements, 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. The 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 Vetsch, Lizard's Chief Financial Officer. Peter will begin with some brief remarks before turning the call over to Mary Ann, 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 Mary Ann 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.

Thank you, Ali, and good morning, everyone. Our fourth quarter results represent a solid first step as we execute our long-term growth plan. Activity during the fourth quarter also reinforces our confidence that the M&A cycle has turned a corner, as we indicated on last quarter's call. We remain focused on providing sophisticated and differentiated advice and investment solutions for our clients, and we are well positioned for a stronger year ahead. In addition to existing mandates, the quantity and quality of our dialogues suggest a productive 2024. At the same time, there is a high degree of geopolitical uncertainty that could affect business activity. I'll share more on our outlook shortly. But before I turn to Mary Ann to discuss our fourth quarter and full year results, I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to the new members of our board of directors announced earlier this week. Dan Schulman, who most recently served as CEO of PayPal, and Steve Howe, former U.S. Chairman and Managing Partner of the Americas for Ernst & Young. Dan and Steve bring broad experience as executives and directors of numerous public companies. We are excited for their leadership as we refresh and reinforce the strength of our board and pursue our ambitions for Lazard. Now let me turn the call over to Marianne.