U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the U.S. Silica third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Patricia Gill, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank you for joining us today for U.S. Silica's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Leading the call today are Brian Shin, our Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Howe, our Interim Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Accounting Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you of our standard cautionary remarks regarding the forward-looking nature of some of the statements that will be made today. Such forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events, are based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. For a complete discussion of these risks and uncertainties, we encourage you to read the company's press release and our documents filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Additionally, we have provided a supplemental third quarter earnings presentation on our website in the investor section to accompany today's discussion. On today's call, we may refer to non-GAAP measures such as adjusted EBITDA, segment contribution margin, net debt, and net leverage ratio. Please refer to today's press release, our public filings, or the accompanying earnings presentation for a full reconciliation and discussion of adjusted EBITDA, segment contribution margin, net debt, and the net leverage ratio. I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Brian Shen.

Thanks, Patricia, and good morning, everyone. During the third quarter, we continued to advance our growth strategy while strengthening our financial foundation. We generated healthy cash flow from operations and adjusted EBITDA driven by strong margins enabled by our lean cost structure. We also repurchased and extinguished an additional $25 million of debt, improving our balance sheet and net leverage ratios. At the same time, our growth investments continue to position us to capitalize on market opportunities with innovative and differentiated products for our markets and customers. As part of our overall corporate strategy, we continue to successfully execute the three key elements of our industrial growth plan during the quarter, specifically increasing the profitability of our base business at a GDP plus rate, substantially growing existing high margin differentiated ISP products, and expanding our addressable markets with new high-value advanced materials such as ever-white pigment. I will walk you through the recent progress in these areas a bit later in the call. In corporate news, we've recently announced a few changes and additions to our leadership team. In August, we appointed Jay Moreau as our Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Jay succeeds Mike Winkler as COO. Mike is retired but will remain in a consulting role with the company. I'm excited to welcome Jay to our executive leadership team as he brings extensive industrial markets experience, a reputation for operational excellence, and a strategic mindset. We look forward to the benefits of his efforts and leadership going forward. Additionally, we have appointed Kevin Howell as interim executive vice president, chief financial officer, and chief accounting officer. Kevin has served as the company's vice president and corporate controller since 2016, and joined the company back in 2011. Kevin plans to retire in 2024, so a search for a permanent chief financial officer is underway. I'm excited to welcome Kevin to his new role and firmly believe that his experience, financial skill set, and deep knowledge of the company make him ideally suited to serve as our interim CFO. I'll now turn the call over to Kevin, who will discuss our financial results in a bit more detail. Kevin?