Randstad Nv Unsp/Adr

Hello and welcome to the Randstad Third Quarter Results 2024. My name is Saskia and I will be your coordinator for today's events. Please note, this call is being recorded. For the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Sander van Noordende, CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Saskia, for that introduction. And good morning, everybody. I'm here with George and our investor relations team to share our Q3 update. Before we talk you through our results, I'd like to spend a few moments to reflect on the passing of our founder, Fritz Goldsmating, at the end of July. Because with Fritz's passing, we lose a great visionary and a wonderful inspirational personality. What started as an ID 64 years ago in his dorm room has developed into the world's leading partner for talent for the best companies and organizations across the globe. And at the heart of all this success was Fritz's unwavering focus on long-term and sustainable value creation reflected in Ransat's core values. To know, to serve, to trust. And today, these values are still the foundation of our strong people-focused culture. Fritz held the CEO position for 38 years, not only growing the company, but shaping our industry by enhancing the role of flexible work and the rights of talent in the labor market. Later, he served on our supervisory board, and over the past three years, I got to know him as a very, very committed shareholder. You all miss him. He was an iconic entrepreneur. And we at Randstad will do everything we can to continue to grow and innovate the company in a way that Fritz would be proud of.

Turning to our Q3 results.