KORN FERRY — Call Transcript 2026

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call 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 I 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 reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks 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 and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's soon-to-be-filed annual report for fiscal year 2026. 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 the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at kornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. Please go ahead, Mr. Burnison. Okay. Thank you, Sarah, and thank you, everybody, for joining us. I'm going to let our team walk through the numbers, our quarterly performance was outstanding. It marks our fifth consecutive quarter of top-line growth, underscoring the strength of our strategy. Let me first reflect on a moment. On these calls, I used to talk about opportunities measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Today, I think in terms of opportunities measured in the billions, far beyond where we are today. In leadership, we spend a lot of time talking about the what, the how, and the when. Too often, though, the why and the who get overlooked. Despite all of Korn Ferry's success and evolution, our why has never changed: enabling people and organizations to be more than. I was reminded of that a few months ago while I was traveling in the Midwest. Out of nowhere, I heard the sound of a train horn, which I hadn't heard in years. It wasn't the sound that struck me, it was that feeling. In an instant, I was taken back to where I was raised, where trains ran next to our house. That moment peeled back the years and made me reflect about the essence of who we are and what we do. As I think about the Korn Ferry of today, this image feels particularly relevant. We're at the intersection of a present that feels far different than our past, and a future that will even be brighter than today. That's why our foundational head mark is evolving from one Korn Ferry to We Are Korn Ferry. We Are Korn Ferry begins with deep client centricity and expanding the breadth of our solutions we deliver within every client relationship. There are just a few examples during the quarter of a Fortune 50 tech company that turned to us to accelerate their sales organization, or a global professional services firm to look to us as their sole source of interim technology talent. I could go on and on and on, including in the quarter, we won a number of substantial RPO engagements spanning multiple industries across all three regions. When we take a client-centric approach and we leverage our relationships across geographies and deliver impact with the totality of the firm, we build sustainable relationships of scale. Over the last several months, I've looked in the mirror and realized that what got us here by itself is not what will get us there. To reach our destination, we need to shift our mindset. That's when our whole becomes bigger than the sum of our parts. As such, I want our industries to be accelerators, our solutions to be innovators and enablers, and our geographies to be the integrators. Starting in this quarter, Q1, our external reporting segments are going to be reflected through a regional lens of the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Our solution-level detail will be provided in three categories: search, comprised of executive and professional search; talent and organizational solutions, comprised of digital and consulting; and finally, workforce solutions comprised of RPO and interim. These categories serve our clients across the entire talent continuum. Search is about identifying talent, workforce solutions is about scaling talent, and talent and organizational solutions is about unlocking potential. Grouping our solutions like this more accurately reflects how work gets done today and orients our services to the competitive landscape and the ways that clients buy these solutions. I'm confident that amid all the changes in the world today, it can also be the best environment where good companies become even greater, aligning to opportunities ahead. I'm also incredibly proud, enormously proud of our colleagues around the world. Their expertise and passion are the catalyst as we change people's lives, unlock the potential in people, and unleash transformation across organizations. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob. Bob, go ahead. Great. Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon and good morning, everybody. I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying thank you to all the colleagues Gary was just referring to as fiscal 2026 was another outstanding year for Korn Ferry. Despite uneven market conditions, uncertain macro environment, we achieved a new fee revenue high and delivered very strong earnings. We continue to skillfully execute our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy, integrating our intellectual property data along with our consulting capabilities to drive enterprise-wide results for our clients. We continue to demonstrate how we're different, and we are different, growing for the fifth consecutive quarter while others in the industry continue to contract or just perform less worse. Our results demonstrate the resilience and effectiveness of our strategy and the benefits of our diversified business model. We continue to evolve into a comprehensive organizational and talent solution partner for all of our clients. We perform differently because we're not simply a monoline transactional business. We're a diversified data and IP-driven talent advisory with multiple synergistic revenue streams and growing earnings power. Let me turn to our Q4 performance. This will be in addition to the detailed results in the earnings presentation that we posted. I'm going to provide you a couple of company-wide and solution-specific highlights for the quarter. For Q4, our ending estimated remaining fees under existing contracts grew 10% year over year to almost $1.9 billion, with growth in every solution. Our business referral rate increased to 29.1% of consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter. That's up by about 320 basis points. Our Marquee and Diamond account penetration remains strong at 40% of our consolidated fee revenue. Both these metrics really demonstrate the effectiveness of our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. Executive search grew 7% in the fourth quarter and has now grown for eight consecutive quarters. Professional search and interim fee revenue was up 14%, with 17% growth in professional search and 12% growth in interim. Our interim solution continues to perform better than other industry players, driven by both strong business referrals and expanding bill rates. Digital subscription and license fee revenue was up 10% year over year. Last, our consulting fee revenue grew 7%, driven by an increase in larger engagements and stronger bill rates. Let me turn to overall company results. For the full year, fee revenue was about $2.9 billion, up 7%. We delivered close to $500 million in adjusted EBITDA, also up 7%. Adjusted EPS of $5.28, which was also up 8%. Focusing on the fourth quarter, we grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, as Gary mentioned, with consolidated fee revenue up 7%, reaching $760 million. Earnings and profitability also remained strong. Adjusted EBITDA grew $8 million or 7% to $130 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin remained very strong at 17%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew $0.08 or 6% to $1.40. Total company new business grew 2% when you exclude RPO, 4% when you include it. The RPO business itself won $137 million of new business in the fourth quarter, and 74% of that came from new logos. As I previously mentioned, estimated remaining fees under existing contracts at the end of the fourth quarter were almost $1.9 billion. 57%, or about $1 billion of that is projected to be recognized within the next year, and the remaining 43%, or $800 million or so, is going to be recognized beyond the next four quarters. Looking at our regional results, fee rev in the Americas up 8%, with strength in Exec Search, Pro Search and interim, and RPO. EMEA fee revenue also grew 8%, with strong growth in consulting and Professional Search and interim. Our APAC fee revenue is kind of flat year-over-year. Finally, we continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. In the fourth quarter, we purchased 1.24 million shares using approximately $78 million. If you remember when we talked on our last earnings call, we said we're going to lean more heavily into buybacks, and that's exactly what we did. For all of FY 2026, we returned $221 million to shareholders through the combination of share repurchases and dividends, invested $85 million into CapEx for the development of Talent Suite and the delivery of other productivity tools for other solutions. Turning to our outlook for the first quarter of FY 2027, assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions, economic conditions, financial markets, foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue to range from $725 million-$745 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin to be right around 17%, and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.32-$1.38. Before I conclude, as Gary mentioned earlier, the company will continue to build on our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. We expect this initiative to continue to drive deeper client penetration and industry-leading growth. Through this initiative, we are orienting more towards regions or our integrators, as Gary said. This will also result in a change to the company's financial reporting segments. As Gary mentioned, beginning in the first quarter of FY 2027, our external reporting segments will transition from global solution-based presentation to three regional reporting segments, the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The region segment results will include fee revenue and profitability through adjusted EBITDA. Then we'll continue to provide solution-level results for new business, fee revenue, and estimated remaining fees under existing contracts through the three solution groupings. Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. We really believe this reporting structure better reflects how work is delivered across the firm, aligns much more closely with how our clients are actually buying our services, and better enables our We Are Korn Ferry operating model. To assist folks in understanding the impact of these changes, the company will be providing recast supplemental unaudited information containing historical financial information for the three reporting segments following the filing of our Q1 FY 2027 10-Q in September. Our Q1 FY 2027 press release will reflect the new reporting segments. The investor presentation that we will post to our website will reflect both the new reporting segments and the selected financial data previously mentioned for our three solution groupings. Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. In conclusion, we continue to be extremely encouraged by the strength of our business, the progress we've made executing our strategy, and the continued trust our clients place in Korn Ferry. Our diversified portfolio, global scale, and integrated solutions position us well to navigate through any business environment. We are going to continue to invest in our people, our platforms, and drive our long-term growth opportunities. We remain focused on driving performance, delivering value to our clients and shareholders, and we look forward to continuing with industry-leading differentiated success in the year ahead. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Our first question comes from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. Your line is open. Hi, thanks so much for taking the questions. I had a couple on the executive search business. I think, first of all, I think in the press release you mentioned kind of winning more work at the higher levels of the organization. I wanted to dig in there. When you talk about the higher levels of the organization, is that primarily Korn Ferry gaining market share in those areas or some kind of shift among the client base? Is that a sustainable trend that you would see continuing? Well, I'll tell you that over the long run here, the brand around the executive search solution has certainly gone up market, you can just look at the climb in our average fees. The average fees are up almost 10% just over the last couple of years. If I go further back than that, it would be very dramatic. I think that we've proven that we can take the access that's afforded us Surround it with a lot of adjacent solutions that not only diversifies the firm, but positions us. I can think of six or seven big Marquee consumer CEO changes this year in the U.S. that we were part of. Yeah, we've definitely moved up brand. Whether we're taking market share or not, I look at the market opportunity as $300 billion. I think the search market is probably $14 billion or $15 billion. We tend to look at the $300 billion and what we can do to drive share there. Having said that, it is incredibly important to us. That gives us unparalleled access, and I think we've proven that if we're careful about it with high quality, we can monetize that access. Thanks, Gary. That's helpful. Maybe follow up on the search business again, just in terms of the volume side, I think that's been a pretty good story the last few years with executive turnover being kind of elevated and the demographics and such. I think this quarter, the new engagements were more like flattish. From what you can see kind of in the pipeline, I guess, what would you say about kind of the volume trends that you see now and you'd expect going forward? Is that kind of moderating or what would you see there? Well, it's certainly been accelerated for sure over the last couple of years. I'll just tell you that trailing four months here, even so far this month, it's looking very good. Again, like on the last quarterly earnings call, our business essentially deals with the outliers of achievement, and whether that is in workforce solutions or talent and organizational solutions, it's dealing at the very high end. Out of the 170 million working Americans, it's certainly with the outliers of achievement, the $10 million or $15 million that would be, quote, "In the C-suite or upper management." I can only tell you that the demographic trends are real. The last four months have continued on pace. Okay. Thanks again. Maybe one more, if you don't mind. Kind of similar theme, but on the ProSearch and Interim side, I think a lot of the growth there seems to be driven by maybe mix shift to higher skills, higher salaries, like the interim bill rate being up $20 versus last year. I think the ProSearch kind of fee per placement is also growing nicely. Maybe you could just speak to kind of what you're seeing across the different verticals in that business and maybe in the context of the skill sets, where are you kind of seeing the candidates move up in the skill set curve and how that's kind of helping you outperform the peer set there? Well, I think the outperformance is, I would point to the ability to have a client-centric approach and drive deeper relationships with our clients. What we've found is that solution is very synergistic with the rest of the firm. That is number one. We just got into that solution five and a half years ago. Today, for example, in Interim, that's almost a $400 million annual solution where there's a market opportunity of $ billions and billions, and it's the same for RPO. Both of those are massive markets. Clearly over time here, I think we started, Bob, with the rate per hour in Interim was like 100 and- It was close to $100, yeah. Yeah. It's gone from 100 to 150. Right now, the principal areas that we are in are technology, finance and accounting, HR, and supply chain. You can imagine that we're just getting started here on this. We've definitely seen a pickup over the last three months or so, four months, around the Interim solution. Some of that, clearly, some of that's market, right? The temp penetration level was going down forever, 36, 37 months. You've seen that. That's stabilized. That's definitely helped. I think it's these other factors as well. Like I said, we're just getting started with this. Yeah, Trevor Romeo, this is Bob. The thing I would add to it is, it's just being part of our ecosystem. You heard Gary talk about the size of the Interim business. North of 10% of that comes from referrals across the organization, right? Those are engagements that never would have existed had they not been part of the Korn Ferry family. The other stat I mentioned in my remarks are business referrals. The referred work across the system is now up to a little bit north of 29%, right? If you go back prior to the beginning of this year, we were kind of stuck at 25 for a number of quarters. We put the We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy in place at the beginning of this year, and you've seen that ramp throughout the course of the year up to 29% now. I think some of what you're seeing in these businesses is just being part of our ecosystem and engagements and deeper client penetration result in more business referrals across. Yeah, it all makes sense. All right. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate it. Your next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. A little bit deeper into the new business trends. ex-RPO new business was up 2% year-over-year or relatively flat on a constant currency basis, and that moderated a bit from the prior quarter. Can you talk about what contributed to the deceleration in new business ex-RPO and what the implications are for revenue over the next year? Yeah. It's a little thing called a war. The Middle East. It definitely has had an impact, in a big way, on the levels of new business. It's a little bit of a flywheel impact. Trailing four months, we've seen strong new business in Americas, but it's definitely impacted APAC, no question about it. It's obviously impacted EMEA and the Middle East. That's what I would point to. Got it. With respect to margins, EBITDA margins in the quarter were flat year-over-year. Can you talk about some of the puts and takes on margin performance? Yeah. I'm glad you asked that, George, because I saw you mentioned that. There's really one reason why. If you look at the revenue overperformance in the quarter, you have to pay people for that. We ended up having to book more bonus expense in the quarter, which is something I'd happily do to drive that type of revenue growth, every quarter, to be honest with you. Got it. Very helpful. Thank you. Your next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. Your line is open. Hey, good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are. Really nice results. Gary, can you talk a little bit about, just from a leadership perspective internally to Korn Ferry, what you're gonna do in terms of reporting structures? Are you gonna have a head of search, a head of talent and organizational, a head of workforce solutions, or are you gonna have a head of Americas and EMEA and APAC? How's that gonna work? How's the reporting structure go? How's it gonna end up optimizing the performance on a go-forward basis for you? First of all, we started this a little bit over a year ago, Mark, the starting point is mindset. We've been very deliberate, starting with leadership 15, actually 15 months ago, around mindset and client centricity. Up to this point, we don't have five businesses. We have one business with, up to this point, five solutions. You are gonna be left with a matrixed organization for sure. The truth is that we have to pivot more towards geographies. We were, I think, a little bit over-indexed on solutions. We do have a head of APAC and the Americas and EMEA. If you want to get at client centricity, you've got to get at it both top-down through the enterprise accounts, but you also have to do it bottom-up. The bottom up is on a regional basis. We have carefully over time here, over the last year, shifted mindset. Ultimately, say in another year where that ends up, to directly answer your question, I think that's premature. For sure, we've shifted the focus of the organization, including the 1,800 partners and principals that we have at the firm that are responsible for originating business. Every single day now, the leadership team looks at every piece of new business that's opened over a certain level. Keep in mind, you're talking about 40 or 50 engagements a day where the team, and it's very programmatic with the regional leaders, with the solution leaders, with the industry leaders about who does what. We are looking at each of those engagements to making sure that we have a good team on it, what the opportunity is, and whether we can not only land something but expand it. Every single day that's been happening now for about 13 or 14 months. My starting point, rather than org structure, has been on mindset. Mindset of our leaders and mindset of the organization. The fact is, when you look at the data, we do business with almost 14,000 clients around the world. 5,000 of those clients represent 90% of our revenue. When you look at those 5,000, you're gonna find that 60%, 65% of those are only utilizing about one and a half of our solutions If you look at the logos there, the opportunity just comes screaming off the page. I think we have to continue to evolve this organization. I just looked in the mirror a year ago, Mark, and I said, "Wow, what you're doing, including how you're going to clients, how you're representing yourself to Wall Street, you're dividing before you are uniting." We have one firm. What I want in three years is that when colleagues go to clients, they say, "We are from Korn Ferry," not, "I'm from this," or, "I'm from that." That's really what we're striving for in a deeper penetration of that very rich client base. Totally makes sense. I hate to ask a segment question after that, but how should we think about the margins on digital and consulting? Was that also reflective of the strong performance and then the bonuses that were associated there? I think the reality is we had pretty broad-based growth across the firm, Mark. With the exception is George. The exception is the Middle East. I didn't finish my answer to George. Hopefully, what we've seen in every crisis is opportunity, we've also seen in every crisis there's pent-up demand. I do believe as the, hopefully, as the skies clear here, and oil starts to flow through the strait, I think you're probably going to see some pent-up demand. It may be six months out. There's no doubt that that's had an impact on the levels of new business, for sure. I would say, Mark, that it was pretty broad-based. Okay. That's great. I know it's really early, Gary, but are you seeing any signs of, at least in APAC and EMEA, in terms of some increased optimism and saying, "Okay, looks like things are finally getting back to normal," we should see a decent burst? We just had a bunch of colleagues together from all over, actually all over the world, about 700 of our partners and principals. There is definite hope. Can I say, so far this month, have we seen it? Not materially. I do think that calmer minds will prevail here. There's probably going to be some pent-up demand, for sure. That's great. Thanks, Gary. Your next question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist. Your line is open. Thank you. I wanted to ask about what initiatives or changes you have in place, maybe it dovetails into the new segment reporting, to drive that 29% of reference sales to a higher level. Is there an accompanying sort of change in incentive comps in addition to reporting structure? What levers are in place on the phone? Hey, Tobey. It's Bob. Yeah. One of the things I've noticed, again, if you go back and you look at the program that we've had in place to drive that way back in, I think it was 2018 or 2019, it was 14%, and we put the program in place. Every year, we continued to open it up for more people, make it a little bit richer, and we saw success up to a point, right? We kind of got stuck at 25%, and we were there for whatever it was, four or five quarters in a row. To use Gary's phrase from one of his earlier responses, it really is about changing mindset now. What we're doing, literally, we get together, we get those emails every day. We get together every other Monday. We go through the opportunities that arose over the prior two weeks. We go through all of our what we call must-wins. Those are engagements over a certain threshold. We go through all of our Marquee and Diamond accounts, and that's every two weeks. The collaboration that we're getting and the mindset change that we're getting from our folks, I think is actually what's influenced us to go from the 25 to 27 because I've made the program richer. Again, we broadened it out, and we were kind of stuck. I think this next level of achievement is really driven by the behaviors and practices that we're putting in place at the organization. In consulting, can you talk about the degree to which some of your services, because I know it's a broad array of things that you're doing, are priced on a value basis as opposed to time and materials and just average bill rates and hours billed to the client and- Yeah. Whether you see it transforming at all? Yeah, I do. I actually do. I think even there's a number of solutions that could actually transform, including search. It's kind of archaic how the industry does that. I think there's now an opportunity once you get to a scale that you can actually change the paradigm. Could search be sold as a service? Could you sign up as a retainer? I do believe that there is the opportunity, and we're pushing the team, particularly on the consulting side, to look at value. Because up to this point, it's been pretty much the old method. I mean, not totally, but that's probably truer than not. I'm pretty convinced of the value that we bring. You have to align strategy with an organization, with people, with compensation, how you develop people. I just know out of all my years as CEO, it's about people, it's about talent. Players win games, coaches lose games. We're challenging the team. I can't say that we have an answer today, but I would expect that to change quite a bit actually over the next three years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised by that. The bill rates in consulting that you report currently, are they an imputed bill rate, or is that literally the average rate that clients are seeing on invoices? Well, I'm not going to say what they see on invoices, but that's a real rate. I mean, that's a real economic rate per hour. For sure. Yeah, totally. You basically take our fee revenues and divide the hours worked into it to come up with what the average billing rate would be. Again, just to be clear, so that I answer the question correctly, we may not engage with a client in that way. We will say for a project, phase one is this, phase two is that. We don't sit there and charge like a law firm would by the hour. I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I do believe in terms of the spirit of your question around value, I think there's something there. If I sneak one last one in. With respect to the executive search business and AI, private companies say that they can do some of the intermediate steps and deliveries along a search process more efficiently, but customers just ask for more, want to see more candidates, et cetera. They're kind of neither experiencing margin expansion from efficiencies nor faster time to completion or price erosion. What's your experience in that realm? We have 17 work streams. Five are anchored around search. What we're concerned about there. Clearly, what the efforts are showing us is we can be way more efficient. No doubt about it. That's now been proven over the last year on these five work streams out of the 17. No doubt about it. What we're very mindful of where we operate, is that we have tremendous IP, and we use that IP when assessing candidates, when we do it in our consulting solution. We use the same IP throughout the entire firm. We use it in our RPO solution as well. What we are very protective of is we don't want that proprietary data to get outside. As we go down this path, for me, anybody can generate a name. It's not what they've done, it's who they are. When you're talking about the outliers of achievement here, I'm still going to put a very strong argument forward that it's around culture fit. We're not human doings, we're human beings. AI is not going to disintermediate humanity. Will technology make us more efficient? Yes. Will it solve the supply and demand imbalance of labor, absent immigration? Yes. Will it make our firm more efficient? For sure. That's what the 17 work streams are showing. At the same time, we want to make sure that we protect our IP, particularly that we're operating in 70 countries, 100 countries around the world with different privacy laws. We are very careful about letting that out. We're in the trust business. I'm not that focused on the efficiency gain for the search process that we're going to get from AI. Are we doing it? Yes, we're absolutely doing it. I'm focused on the customer experience. We have a lot of things in motion there, but I'm telling you, I'm going to be very conservative around who people are, what they tell us, what their assessments show. We've done 113 million assessments of executives. We have to guard that data. That is a big differentiator for us. Yes, we are definitely using it. We're using it in the learning and development solution in terms of coaching, using agents. We can all have different views on that, but clearly, we're headed in a direction where technology is going to have to fill the gap between supply and demand imbalance of labor. Your final question will come from the line of Joshua Chan with UBS. Your line is open. Hi, this is Karan Singhania for Josh. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask on the North America executive search business. It looks like margins in the business have been pretty strong. It was like 21% this quarter. Just wondering, how should we think about margins for the segments for this year? I would say that the margin profile, again, I wouldn't focus necessarily on search in North America, as it's a pretty big company, and we got a lot of levers to pull. I would just keep you focused on the range that we've talked about from an overall Korn Ferry perspective in the 16%-18%. We guided to Q1, right, smack in the middle at 17%, and that's how we're managing the business. To Gary's point earlier, when you think about the mindset change, we can't look at clients and go to market one way and then manage internally a different way. As Gary said, we're one firm, we got five offerings, but we're managing the firm as one firm. I'd suggest that you just focus on the 16%-18%. Okay, got it. As my follow-up, how should we think about the capital allocation priorities for this year? Would you continue to lean more heavily towards buybacks and also on CapEx? Do you expect it to come back to a more normalized levels this year? We've typically, over time, we've deployed a pretty balanced approach, systematic approach to capital deployment. Clearly in this last quarter, as we said we were going to do on the last call, and as Bob mentioned earlier, we did what we said. Clearly when you look at the firm over the last 10, 15 years, 20 years, 60% of our growth has been organic and 40% has been inorganic. The last investment that we made was in the Interim solution, which was an organization in the U.K. and Ireland, and it's been an absolute home run for us. That was almost two years ago. There's been periods of time where we've leaned more into stock buybacks. We've been consistently raising our dividend for, I don't know, six or seven years, and there's times when we lean more into inorganic growth. Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. There are no further questions, Mr. Burnison. Okay, Sarah, thank you for hosting. Thank you, everybody, for joining us, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks.

Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call 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 I 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. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 conference call. ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by and welcome to the korn ferry fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 conference call At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. at this time all participants are in a listen-only mode Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. following the prepared remarks we will conduct a question and answer session As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. as a reminder this conference call 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. 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 I turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. before i 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. 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 reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks 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 and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's soon-to-be-filed annual report for fiscal year 2026. Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. Although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. although the company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties which are beyond the company's control. actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks 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 and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's soon-to-be-filed annual report for fiscal year 2026. additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the sec including the company's soon-to-be-filed annual report for fiscal year 2026 Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. 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 the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at kornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. Please go ahead, Mr. Burnison. Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at kornferry.com. additional information concerning these measures including reconciliations to the most directly comparable gaap financial measure is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at kornferry.com With that, I'll turn the call over to Mr. Burnison. with that i'll turn the call over to mr burnison Please go ahead, Mr. Burnison. please go ahead mr burnison

Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you, Sarah, and thank you, everybody, for joining us. I'm going to let our team walk through the numbers, our quarterly performance was outstanding. It marks our fifth consecutive quarter of top-line growth, underscoring the strength of our strategy. Let me first reflect on a moment. On these calls, I used to talk about opportunities measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Today, I think in terms of opportunities measured in the billions, far beyond where we are today. In leadership, we spend a lot of time talking about the what, the how, and the when. Too often, though, the why and the who get overlooked. Despite all of Korn Ferry's success and evolution, our why has never changed: enabling people and organizations to be more than. Okay. okay Thank you, Sarah, and thank you, everybody, for joining us. thank you sarah and thank you everybody for joining us I'm going to let our team walk through the numbers, our quarterly performance was outstanding. i'm going to let our team walk through the numbers our quarterly performance was outstanding It marks our fifth consecutive quarter of top-line growth, underscoring the strength of our strategy. it marks our fifth consecutive quarter of top-line growth underscoring the strength of our strategy Let me first reflect on a moment. let me first reflect on a moment On these calls, I used to talk about opportunities measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. on these calls i used to talk about opportunities measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars Today, I think in terms of opportunities measured in the billions, far beyond where we are today. today i think in terms of opportunities measured in the billions far beyond where we are today In leadership, we spend a lot of time talking about the what, the how, and the when. in leadership we spend a lot of time talking about the what the how and the when Too often, though, the why and the who get overlooked. too often though the why and the who get overlooked Despite all of Korn Ferry's success and evolution, our why has never changed: enabling people and organizations to be more than. despite all of korn ferry's success and evolution our why has never changed enabling people and organizations to be more than I was reminded of that a few months ago while I was traveling in the Midwest. Out of nowhere, I heard the sound of a train horn, which I hadn't heard in years. It wasn't the sound that struck me, it was that feeling. In an instant, I was taken back to where I was raised, where trains ran next to our house. That moment peeled back the years and made me reflect about the essence of who we are and what we do. As I think about the Korn Ferry of today, this image feels particularly relevant. We're at the intersection of a present that feels far different than our past, and a future that will even be brighter than today. That's why our foundational head mark is evolving from one Korn Ferry to We Are Korn Ferry. I was reminded of that a few months ago while I was traveling in the Midwest. i was reminded of that a few months ago while i was traveling in the midwest Out of nowhere, I heard the sound of a train horn, which I hadn't heard in years. out of nowhere i heard the sound of a train horn which i hadn't heard in years It wasn't the sound that struck me, it was that feeling. it wasn't the sound that struck me it was that feeling In an instant, I was taken back to where I was raised, where trains ran next to our house. in an instant i was taken back to where i was raised where trains ran next to our house That moment peeled back the years and made me reflect about the essence of who we are and what we do. that moment peeled back the years and made me reflect about the essence of who we are and what we do As I think about the Korn Ferry of today, this image feels particularly relevant. as i think about the korn ferry of today this image feels particularly relevant We're at the intersection of a present that feels far different than our past, and a future that will even be brighter than today. we're at the intersection of a present that feels far different than our past and a future that will even be brighter than today That's why our foundational head mark is evolving from one Korn Ferry to We Are Korn Ferry. that's why our foundational head mark is evolving from one korn ferry to we are korn ferry We Are Korn Ferry begins with deep client centricity and expanding the breadth of our solutions we deliver within every client relationship. There are just a few examples during the quarter of a Fortune 50 tech company that turned to us to accelerate their sales organization, or a global professional services firm to look to us as their sole source of interim technology talent. I could go on and on and on, including in the quarter, we won a number of substantial RPO engagements spanning multiple industries across all three regions. When we take a client-centric approach and we leverage our relationships across geographies and deliver impact with the totality of the firm, we build sustainable relationships of scale. Over the last several months, I've looked in the mirror and realized that what got us here by itself is not what will get us there. We Are Korn Ferry begins with deep client centricity and expanding the breadth of our solutions we deliver within every client relationship. we are korn ferry begins with deep client centricity and expanding the breadth of our solutions we deliver within every client relationship There are just a few examples during the quarter of a Fortune 50 tech company that turned to us to accelerate their sales organization, or a global professional services firm to look to us as their sole source of interim technology talent. there are just a few examples during the quarter of a fortune 50 tech company that turned to us to accelerate their sales organization or a global professional services firm to look to us as their sole source of interim technology talent I could go on and on and on, including in the quarter, we won a number of substantial RPO engagements spanning multiple industries across all three regions. i could go on and on and on including in the quarter we won a number of substantial rpo engagements spanning multiple industries across all three regions When we take a client-centric approach and we leverage our relationships across geographies and deliver impact with the totality of the firm, we build sustainable relationships of scale. when we take a client-centric approach and we leverage our relationships across geographies and deliver impact with the totality of the firm we build sustainable relationships of scale Over the last several months, I've looked in the mirror and realized that what got us here by itself is not what will get us there. over the last several months i've looked in the mirror and realized that what got us here by itself is not what will get us there To reach our destination, we need to shift our mindset. That's when our whole becomes bigger than the sum of our parts. As such, I want our industries to be accelerators, our solutions to be innovators and enablers, and our geographies to be the integrators. Starting in this quarter, Q1, our external reporting segments are going to be reflected through a regional lens of the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Our solution-level detail will be provided in three categories: search, comprised of executive and professional search; talent and organizational solutions, comprised of digital and consulting; and finally, workforce solutions comprised of RPO and interim. These categories serve our clients across the entire talent continuum. Search is about identifying talent, workforce solutions is about scaling talent, and talent and organizational solutions is about unlocking potential. To reach our destination, we need to shift our mindset. to reach our destination we need to shift our mindset That's when our whole becomes bigger than the sum of our parts. that's when our whole becomes bigger than the sum of our parts As such, I want our industries to be accelerators, our solutions to be innovators and enablers, and our geographies to be the integrators. as such i want our industries to be accelerators our solutions to be innovators and enablers and our geographies to be the integrators Starting in this quarter, Q1, our external reporting segments are going to be reflected through a regional lens of the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. starting in this quarter q1 our external reporting segments are going to be reflected through a regional lens of the americas emea and apac Our solution-level detail will be provided in three categories: search, comprised of executive and professional search; talent and organizational solutions, comprised of digital and consulting; and finally, workforce solutions comprised of RPO and interim. our solution-level detail will be provided in three categories search comprised of executive and professional search talent and organizational solutions comprised of digital and consulting and finally workforce solutions comprised of rpo and interim These categories serve our clients across the entire talent continuum. these categories serve our clients across the entire talent continuum Search is about identifying talent, workforce solutions is about scaling talent, and talent and organizational solutions is about unlocking potential. search is about identifying talent workforce solutions is about scaling talent and talent and organizational solutions is about unlocking potential Grouping our solutions like this more accurately reflects how work gets done today and orients our services to the competitive landscape and the ways that clients buy these solutions. I'm confident that amid all the changes in the world today, it can also be the best environment where good companies become even greater, aligning to opportunities ahead. I'm also incredibly proud, enormously proud of our colleagues around the world. Their expertise and passion are the catalyst as we change people's lives, unlock the potential in people, and unleash transformation across organizations. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob. Bob, go ahead. Grouping our solutions like this more accurately reflects how work gets done today and orients our services to the competitive landscape and the ways that clients buy these solutions. grouping our solutions like this more accurately reflects how work gets done today and orients our services to the competitive landscape and the ways that clients buy these solutions I'm confident that amid all the changes in the world today, it can also be the best environment where good companies become even greater, aligning to opportunities ahead. i'm confident that amid all the changes in the world today it can also be the best environment where good companies become even greater aligning to opportunities ahead I'm also incredibly proud, enormously proud of our colleagues around the world. i'm also incredibly proud enormously proud of our colleagues around the world Their expertise and passion are the catalyst as we change people's lives, unlock the potential in people, and unleash transformation across organizations. their expertise and passion are the catalyst as we change people's lives unlock the potential in people and unleash transformation across organizations With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob. with that i'll turn the call over to bob Bob, go ahead. bob go ahead

Speaker 6: Great. Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon and good morning, everybody. I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying thank you to all the colleagues Gary was just referring to as fiscal 2026 was another outstanding year for Korn Ferry. Despite uneven market conditions, uncertain macro environment, we achieved a new fee revenue high and delivered very strong earnings. We continue to skillfully execute our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy, integrating our intellectual property data along with our consulting capabilities to drive enterprise-wide results for our clients. We continue to demonstrate how we're different, and we are different, growing for the fifth consecutive quarter while others in the industry continue to contract or just perform less worse. Our results demonstrate the resilience and effectiveness of our strategy and the benefits of our diversified business model. Great. great Thanks, Gary, and good afternoon and good morning, everybody. thanks gary and good afternoon and good morning everybody I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying thank you to all the colleagues Gary was just referring to as fiscal 2026 was another outstanding year for Korn Ferry. i would be remiss if i didn't start by saying thank you to all the colleagues gary was just referring to as fiscal 2026 was another outstanding year for korn ferry Despite uneven market conditions, uncertain macro environment, we achieved a new fee revenue high and delivered very strong earnings. despite uneven market conditions uncertain macro environment we achieved a new fee revenue high and delivered very strong earnings We continue to skillfully execute our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy, integrating our intellectual property data along with our consulting capabilities to drive enterprise-wide results for our clients. we continue to skillfully execute our we are korn ferry go-to-market strategy integrating our intellectual property data along with our consulting capabilities to drive enterprise-wide results for our clients We continue to demonstrate how we're different, and we are different, growing for the fifth consecutive quarter while others in the industry continue to contract or just perform less worse. we continue to demonstrate how we're different and we are different growing for the fifth consecutive quarter while others in the industry continue to contract or just perform less worse Our results demonstrate the resilience and effectiveness of our strategy and the benefits of our diversified business model. our results demonstrate the resilience and effectiveness of our strategy and the benefits of our diversified business model We continue to evolve into a comprehensive organizational and talent solution partner for all of our clients. We perform differently because we're not simply a monoline transactional business. We're a diversified data and IP-driven talent advisory with multiple synergistic revenue streams and growing earnings power. Let me turn to our Q4 performance. This will be in addition to the detailed results in the earnings presentation that we posted. I'm going to provide you a couple of company-wide and solution-specific highlights for the quarter. For Q4, our ending estimated remaining fees under existing contracts grew 10% year over year to almost $1.9 billion, with growth in every solution. Our business referral rate increased to 29.1% of consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter. That's up by about 320 basis points. Our Marquee and Diamond account penetration remains strong at 40% of our consolidated fee revenue. We continue to evolve into a comprehensive organizational and talent solution partner for all of our clients. we continue to evolve into a comprehensive organizational and talent solution partner for all of our clients We perform differently because we're not simply a monoline transactional business. we perform differently because we're not simply a monoline transactional business We're a diversified data and IP-driven talent advisory with multiple synergistic revenue streams and growing earnings power. we're a diversified data and ip-driven talent advisory with multiple synergistic revenue streams and growing earnings power Let me turn to our Q4 performance. let me turn to our q4 performance This will be in addition to the detailed results in the earnings presentation that we posted. this will be in addition to the detailed results in the earnings presentation that we posted I'm going to provide you a couple of company-wide and solution-specific highlights for the quarter. i'm going to provide you a couple of company-wide and solution-specific highlights for the quarter For Q4, our ending estimated remaining fees under existing contracts grew 10% year over year to almost $1.9 billion, with growth in every solution. for q4 our ending estimated remaining fees under existing contracts grew 10% year over year to almost $1.9 billion with growth in every solution Our business referral rate increased to 29.1% of consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter. our business referral rate increased to 29.1% of consolidated fee revenue in the fourth quarter That's up by about 320 basis points. that's up by about 320 basis points Our Marquee and Diamond account penetration remains strong at 40% of our consolidated fee revenue. our marquee and diamond account penetration remains strong at 40% of our consolidated fee revenue Both these metrics really demonstrate the effectiveness of our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. Executive search grew 7% in the fourth quarter and has now grown for eight consecutive quarters. Professional search and interim fee revenue was up 14%, with 17% growth in professional search and 12% growth in interim. Our interim solution continues to perform better than other industry players, driven by both strong business referrals and expanding bill rates. Digital subscription and license fee revenue was up 10% year over year. Last, our consulting fee revenue grew 7%, driven by an increase in larger engagements and stronger bill rates. Let me turn to overall company results. For the full year, fee revenue was about $2.9 billion, up 7%. We delivered close to $500 million in adjusted EBITDA, also up 7%. Adjusted EPS of $5.28, which was also up 8%. Both these metrics really demonstrate the effectiveness of our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. both these metrics really demonstrate the effectiveness of our we are korn ferry go-to-market strategy Executive search grew 7% in the fourth quarter and has now grown for eight consecutive quarters. executive search grew 7% in the fourth quarter and has now grown for eight consecutive quarters Professional search and interim fee revenue was up 14%, with 17% growth in professional search and 12% growth in interim. professional search and interim fee revenue was up 14% with 17% growth in professional search and 12% growth in interim Our interim solution continues to perform better than other industry players, driven by both strong business referrals and expanding bill rates. our interim solution continues to perform better than other industry players driven by both strong business referrals and expanding bill rates Digital subscription and license fee revenue was up 10% year over year. digital subscription and license fee revenue was up 10% year over year Last, our consulting fee revenue grew 7%, driven by an increase in larger engagements and stronger bill rates. last our consulting fee revenue grew 7% driven by an increase in larger engagements and stronger bill rates Let me turn to overall company results. let me turn to overall company results For the full year, fee revenue was about $2.9 billion, up 7%. for the full year fee revenue was about $2.9 billion up 7% We delivered close to $500 million in adjusted EBITDA, also up 7%. we delivered close to $500 million in adjusted ebitda also up 7% Adjusted EPS of $5.28, which was also up 8%. adjusted eps of $5.28 which was also up 8% Focusing on the fourth quarter, we grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, as Gary mentioned, with consolidated fee revenue up 7%, reaching $760 million. Earnings and profitability also remained strong. Adjusted EBITDA grew $8 million or 7% to $130 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin remained very strong at 17%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew $0.08 or 6% to $1.40. Total company new business grew 2% when you exclude RPO, 4% when you include it. The RPO business itself won $137 million of new business in the fourth quarter, and 74% of that came from new logos. As I previously mentioned, estimated remaining fees under existing contracts at the end of the fourth quarter were almost $1.9 billion. Focusing on the fourth quarter, we grew for the fifth consecutive quarter, as Gary mentioned, with consolidated fee revenue up 7%, reaching $760 million. focusing on the fourth quarter we grew for the fifth consecutive quarter as gary mentioned with consolidated fee revenue up 7% reaching $760 million Earnings and profitability also remained strong. earnings and profitability also remained strong Adjusted EBITDA grew $8 million or 7% to $130 million. adjusted ebitda grew $8 million or 7% to $130 million Adjusted EBITDA margin remained very strong at 17%. adjusted ebitda margin remained very strong at 17% Adjusted diluted earnings per share grew $0.08 or 6% to $1.40. adjusted diluted earnings per share grew $0.08 or 6% to $1.40 Total company new business grew 2% when you exclude RPO, 4% when you include it. total company new business grew 2% when you exclude rpo 4% when you include it The RPO business itself won $137 million of new business in the fourth quarter, and 74% of that came from new logos. the rpo business itself won $137 million of new business in the fourth quarter and 74% of that came from new logos As I previously mentioned, estimated remaining fees under existing contracts at the end of the fourth quarter were almost $1.9 billion. as i previously mentioned estimated remaining fees under existing contracts at the end of the fourth quarter were almost $1.9 billion 57%, or about $1 billion of that is projected to be recognized within the next year, and the remaining 43%, or $800 million or so, is going to be recognized beyond the next four quarters. Looking at our regional results, fee rev in the Americas up 8%, with strength in Exec Search, Pro Search and interim, and RPO. EMEA fee revenue also grew 8%, with strong growth in consulting and Professional Search and interim. Our APAC fee revenue is kind of flat year-over-year. Finally, we continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. In the fourth quarter, we purchased 1.24 million shares using approximately $78 million. If you remember when we talked on our last earnings call, we said we're going to lean more heavily into buybacks, and that's exactly what we did. 57%, or about $1 billion of that is projected to be recognized within the next year, and the remaining 43%, or $800 million or so, is going to be recognized beyond the next four quarters. 57% or about $1 billion of that is projected to be recognized within the next year and the remaining 43% or $800 million or so is going to be recognized beyond the next four quarters Looking at our regional results, fee rev in the Americas up 8%, with strength in Exec Search, Pro Search and interim, and RPO. looking at our regional results fee rev in the americas up 8% with strength in exec search pro search and interim and rpo EMEA fee revenue also grew 8%, with strong growth in consulting and Professional Search and interim. emea fee revenue also grew 8% with strong growth in consulting and professional search and interim Our APAC fee revenue is kind of flat year-over-year. our apac fee revenue is kind of flat year-over-year Finally, we continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation. finally we continue to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation In the fourth quarter, we purchased 1.24 million shares using approximately $78 million. in the fourth quarter we purchased 1.24 million shares using approximately $78 million If you remember when we talked on our last earnings call, we said we're going to lean more heavily into buybacks, and that's exactly what we did. if you remember when we talked on our last earnings call we said we're going to lean more heavily into buybacks and that's exactly what we did For all of FY 2026, we returned $221 million to shareholders through the combination of share repurchases and dividends, invested $85 million into CapEx for the development of Talent Suite and the delivery of other productivity tools for other solutions. Turning to our outlook for the first quarter of FY 2027, assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions, economic conditions, financial markets, foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue to range from $725 million-$745 million. Our adjusted EBITDA margin to be right around 17%, and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.32-$1.38. Before I conclude, as Gary mentioned earlier, the company will continue to build on our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. We expect this initiative to continue to drive deeper client penetration and industry-leading growth. For all of FY 2026, we returned $221 million to shareholders through the combination of share repurchases and dividends, invested $85 million into CapEx for the development of Talent Suite and the delivery of other productivity tools for other solutions. for all of fy 2026 we returned $221 million to shareholders through the combination of share repurchases and dividends invested $85 million into capex for the development of talent suite and the delivery of other productivity tools for other solutions Turning to our outlook for the first quarter of FY 2027, assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions, economic conditions, financial markets, foreign exchange rates, we expect fee revenue to range from $725 million-$745 million. turning to our outlook for the first quarter of fy 2027 assuming no further changes in worldwide geopolitical conditions economic conditions financial markets foreign exchange rates we expect fee revenue to range from $725 million-$745 million Our adjusted EBITDA margin to be right around 17%, and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.32-$1.38. our adjusted ebitda margin to be right around 17% and our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.32-$1.38 Before I conclude, as Gary mentioned earlier, the company will continue to build on our We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy. before i conclude as gary mentioned earlier the company will continue to build on our we are korn ferry go-to-market strategy We expect this initiative to continue to drive deeper client penetration and industry-leading growth. we expect this initiative to continue to drive deeper client penetration and industry-leading growth Through this initiative, we are orienting more towards regions or our integrators, as Gary said. This will also result in a change to the company's financial reporting segments. As Gary mentioned, beginning in the first quarter of FY 2027, our external reporting segments will transition from global solution-based presentation to three regional reporting segments, the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The region segment results will include fee revenue and profitability through adjusted EBITDA. Then we'll continue to provide solution-level results for new business, fee revenue, and estimated remaining fees under existing contracts through the three solution groupings. Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. Through this initiative, we are orienting more towards regions or our integrators, as Gary said. through this initiative we are orienting more towards regions or our integrators as gary said This will also result in a change to the company's financial reporting segments. this will also result in a change to the company's financial reporting segments As Gary mentioned, beginning in the first quarter of FY 2027, our external reporting segments will transition from global solution-based presentation to three regional reporting segments, the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. as gary mentioned beginning in the first quarter of fy 2027 our external reporting segments will transition from global solution-based presentation to three regional reporting segments the americas emea and apac The region segment results will include fee revenue and profitability through adjusted EBITDA. the region segment results will include fee revenue and profitability through adjusted ebitda Then we'll continue to provide solution-level results for new business, fee revenue, and estimated remaining fees under existing contracts through the three solution groupings. then we'll continue to provide solution-level results for new business fee revenue and estimated remaining fees under existing contracts through the three solution groupings Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. search executive search and professional search talent and organizational solutions comprised of consulting and digital and workforce solutions comprised of rpo and interim We really believe this reporting structure better reflects how work is delivered across the firm, aligns much more closely with how our clients are actually buying our services, and better enables our We Are Korn Ferry operating model. To assist folks in understanding the impact of these changes, the company will be providing recast supplemental unaudited information containing historical financial information for the three reporting segments following the filing of our Q1 FY 2027 10-Q in September. Our Q1 FY 2027 press release will reflect the new reporting segments. The investor presentation that we will post to our website will reflect both the new reporting segments and the selected financial data previously mentioned for our three solution groupings. Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. We really believe this reporting structure better reflects how work is delivered across the firm, aligns much more closely with how our clients are actually buying our services, and better enables our We Are Korn Ferry operating model. we really believe this reporting structure better reflects how work is delivered across the firm aligns much more closely with how our clients are actually buying our services and better enables our we are korn ferry operating model To assist folks in understanding the impact of these changes, the company will be providing recast supplemental unaudited information containing historical financial information for the three reporting segments following the filing of our Q1 FY 2027 10-Q in September. to assist folks in understanding the impact of these changes the company will be providing recast supplemental unaudited information containing historical financial information for the three reporting segments following the filing of our q1 fy 2027 10-q in september Our Q1 FY 2027 press release will reflect the new reporting segments. our q1 fy 2027 press release will reflect the new reporting segments The investor presentation that we will post to our website will reflect both the new reporting segments and the selected financial data previously mentioned for our three solution groupings. Search, Executive Search and Professional Search, Talent and Organizational Solutions comprised of consulting and Digital, and Workforce Solutions comprised of RPO and interim. the investor presentation that we will post to our website will reflect both the new reporting segments and the selected financial data previously mentioned for our three solution groupings. search, executive search and professional search, talent and organizational solutions comprised of consulting and digital, and workforce solutions comprised of rpo and interim In conclusion, we continue to be extremely encouraged by the strength of our business, the progress we've made executing our strategy, and the continued trust our clients place in Korn Ferry. Our diversified portfolio, global scale, and integrated solutions position us well to navigate through any business environment. We are going to continue to invest in our people, our platforms, and drive our long-term growth opportunities. We remain focused on driving performance, delivering value to our clients and shareholders, and we look forward to continuing with industry-leading differentiated success in the year ahead. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have. In conclusion, we continue to be extremely encouraged by the strength of our business, the progress we've made executing our strategy, and the continued trust our clients place in Korn Ferry. in conclusion we continue to be extremely encouraged by the strength of our business the progress we've made executing our strategy and the continued trust our clients place in korn ferry Our diversified portfolio, global scale, and integrated solutions position us well to navigate through any business environment. our diversified portfolio global scale and integrated solutions position us well to navigate through any business environment We are going to continue to invest in our people, our platforms, and drive our long-term growth opportunities. we are going to continue to invest in our people our platforms and drive our long-term growth opportunities We remain focused on driving performance, delivering value to our clients and shareholders, and we look forward to continuing with industry-leading differentiated success in the year ahead. we remain focused on driving performance delivering value to our clients and shareholders and we look forward to continuing with industry-leading differentiated success in the year ahead With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have. with that we would be glad to answer any questions you may have

Speaker 5: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Our first question comes from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. Your line is open. Thank you. thank you If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. if you would like to ask a question please press star one on your telephone keypad If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. if you would like to withdraw your question simply press star one again Our first question comes from Trevor Romeo with William Blair. our first question comes from trevor romeo with william blair Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 8: Hi, thanks so much for taking the questions. I had a couple on the executive search business. I think, first of all, I think in the press release you mentioned kind of winning more work at the higher levels of the organization. I wanted to dig in there. When you talk about the higher levels of the organization, is that primarily Korn Ferry gaining market share in those areas or some kind of shift among the client base? Is that a sustainable trend that you would see continuing? Hi, thanks so much for taking the questions. hi thanks so much for taking the questions I had a couple on the executive search business. i had a couple on the executive search business I think, first of all, I think in the press release you mentioned kind of winning more work at the higher levels of the organization. i think first of all i think in the press release you mentioned kind of winning more work at the higher levels of the organization I wanted to dig in there. i wanted to dig in there When you talk about the higher levels of the organization, is that primarily Korn Ferry gaining market share in those areas or some kind of shift among the client base? when you talk about the higher levels of the organization is that primarily korn ferry gaining market share in those areas or some kind of shift among the client base Is that a sustainable trend that you would see continuing? is that a sustainable trend that you would see continuing

Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you that over the long run here, the brand around the executive search solution has certainly gone up market, you can just look at the climb in our average fees. The average fees are up almost 10% just over the last couple of years. If I go further back than that, it would be very dramatic. I think that we've proven that we can take the access that's afforded us Well, I'll tell you that over the long run here, the brand around the executive search solution has certainly gone up market, you can just look at the climb in our average fees. well i'll tell you that over the long run here the brand around the executive search solution has certainly gone up market you can just look at the climb in our average fees The average fees are up almost 10% just over the last couple of years. the average fees are up almost 10% just over the last couple of years If I go further back than that, it would be very dramatic. if i go further back than that it would be very dramatic I think that we've proven that we can take the access that's afforded us i think that we've proven that we can take the access that's afforded us Surround it with a lot of adjacent solutions that not only diversifies the firm, but positions us. I can think of six or seven big Marquee consumer CEO changes this year in the U.S. that we were part of. Yeah, we've definitely moved up brand. Whether we're taking market share or not, I look at the market opportunity as $300 billion. I think the search market is probably $14 billion or $15 billion. We tend to look at the $300 billion and what we can do to drive share there. Having said that, it is incredibly important to us. That gives us unparalleled access, and I think we've proven that if we're careful about it with high quality, we can monetize that access. Surround it with a lot of adjacent solutions that not only diversifies the firm, but positions us. surround it with a lot of adjacent solutions that not only diversifies the firm but positions us I can think of six or seven big Marquee consumer CEO changes this year in the U.S. that we were part of. i can think of six or seven big marquee consumer ceo changes this year in the u.s that we were part of Yeah, we've definitely moved up brand. yeah we've definitely moved up brand Whether we're taking market share or not, I look at the market opportunity as $300 billion. whether we're taking market share or not i look at the market opportunity as $300 billion I think the search market is probably $14 billion or $15 billion. i think the search market is probably $14 billion or $15 billion We tend to look at the $300 billion and what we can do to drive share there. we tend to look at the $300 billion and what we can do to drive share there Having said that, it is incredibly important to us. having said that it is incredibly important to us That gives us unparalleled access, and I think we've proven that if we're careful about it with high quality, we can monetize that access. that gives us unparalleled access and i think we've proven that if we're careful about it with high quality we can monetize that access

Speaker 8: Thanks, Gary. That's helpful. Maybe follow up on the search business again, just in terms of the volume side, I think that's been a pretty good story the last few years with executive turnover being kind of elevated and the demographics and such. I think this quarter, the new engagements were more like flattish. From what you can see kind of in the pipeline, I guess, what would you say about kind of the volume trends that you see now and you'd expect going forward? Is that kind of moderating or what would you see there? Thanks, Gary. thanks gary That's helpful. that's helpful Maybe follow up on the search business again, just in terms of the volume side, I think that's been a pretty good story the last few years with executive turnover being kind of elevated and the demographics and such. maybe follow up on the search business again just in terms of the volume side i think that's been a pretty good story the last few years with executive turnover being kind of elevated and the demographics and such I think this quarter, the new engagements were more like flattish. i think this quarter the new engagements were more like flattish From what you can see kind of in the pipeline, I guess, what would you say about kind of the volume trends that you see now and you'd expect going forward? from what you can see kind of in the pipeline i guess what would you say about kind of the volume trends that you see now and you'd expect going forward Is that kind of moderating or what would you see there? is that kind of moderating or what would you see there

Speaker 1: Well, it's certainly been accelerated for sure over the last couple of years. I'll just tell you that trailing four months here, even so far this month, it's looking very good. Again, like on the last quarterly earnings call, our business essentially deals with the outliers of achievement, and whether that is in workforce solutions or talent and organizational solutions, it's dealing at the very high end. Out of the 170 million working Americans, it's certainly with the outliers of achievement, the $10 million or $15 million that would be, quote, "In the C-suite or upper management." I can only tell you that the demographic trends are real. The last four months have continued on pace. Well, it's certainly been accelerated for sure over the last couple of years. well it's certainly been accelerated for sure over the last couple of years I'll just tell you that trailing four months here, even so far this month, it's looking very good. i'll just tell you that trailing four months here even so far this month it's looking very good Again, like on the last quarterly earnings call, our business essentially deals with the outliers of achievement, and whether that is in workforce solutions or talent and organizational solutions, it's dealing at the very high end. again like on the last quarterly earnings call our business essentially deals with the outliers of achievement and whether that is in workforce solutions or talent and organizational solutions it's dealing at the very high end Out of the 170 million working Americans, it's certainly with the outliers of achievement, the $10 million or $15 million that would be, quote, "In the C-suite or upper management." I can only tell you that the demographic trends are real. out of the 170 million working americans it's certainly with the outliers of achievement the $10 million or $15 million that would be quote "in the c-suite or upper management." i can only tell you that the demographic trends are real The last four months have continued on pace. the last four months have continued on pace

Speaker 8: Okay. Thanks again. Maybe one more, if you don't mind. Kind of similar theme, but on the ProSearch and Interim side, I think a lot of the growth there seems to be driven by maybe mix shift to higher skills, higher salaries, like the interim bill rate being up $20 versus last year. I think the ProSearch kind of fee per placement is also growing nicely. Maybe you could just speak to kind of what you're seeing across the different verticals in that business and maybe in the context of the skill sets, where are you kind of seeing the candidates move up in the skill set curve and how that's kind of helping you outperform the peer set there? Okay. okay Thanks again. thanks again Maybe one more, if you don't mind. maybe one more if you don't mind Kind of similar theme, but on the ProSearch and Interim side, I think a lot of the growth there seems to be driven by maybe mix shift to higher skills, higher salaries, like the interim bill rate being up $20 versus last year. kind of similar theme but on the prosearch and interim side i think a lot of the growth there seems to be driven by maybe mix shift to higher skills higher salaries like the interim bill rate being up $20 versus last year I think the ProSearch kind of fee per placement is also growing nicely. i think the prosearch kind of fee per placement is also growing nicely Maybe you could just speak to kind of what you're seeing across the different verticals in that business and maybe in the context of the skill sets, where are you kind of seeing the candidates move up in the skill set curve and how that's kind of helping you outperform the peer set there? maybe you could just speak to kind of what you're seeing across the different verticals in that business and maybe in the context of the skill sets where are you kind of seeing the candidates move up in the skill set curve and how that's kind of helping you outperform the peer set there

Speaker 1: Well, I think the outperformance is, I would point to the ability to have a client-centric approach and drive deeper relationships with our clients. What we've found is that solution is very synergistic with the rest of the firm. That is number one. We just got into that solution five and a half years ago. Today, for example, in Interim, that's almost a $400 million annual solution where there's a market opportunity of $ billions and billions, and it's the same for RPO. Both of those are massive markets. Clearly over time here, I think we started, Bob, with the rate per hour in Interim was like 100 and- Well, I think the outperformance is, I would point to the ability to have a client-centric approach and drive deeper relationships with our clients. well i think the outperformance is i would point to the ability to have a client-centric approach and drive deeper relationships with our clients What we've found is that solution is very synergistic with the rest of the firm. what we've found is that solution is very synergistic with the rest of the firm That is number one. that is number one We just got into that solution five and a half years ago. we just got into that solution five and a half years ago Today, for example, in Interim, that's almost a $400 million annual solution where there's a market opportunity of $ billions and billions, and it's the same for RPO. today for example in interim that's almost a $400 million annual solution where there's a market opportunity of $ billions and billions and it's the same for rpo Both of those are massive markets. both of those are massive markets Clearly over time here, I think we started, Bob, with the rate per hour in Interim was like 100 and- clearly over time here i think we started bob with the rate per hour in interim was like 100 and-

Speaker 6: It was close to $100, yeah. It was close to $100, yeah. it was close to $100 yeah

Speaker 1: Yeah. It's gone from 100 to 150. Right now, the principal areas that we are in are technology, finance and accounting, HR, and supply chain. You can imagine that we're just getting started here on this. We've definitely seen a pickup over the last three months or so, four months, around the Interim solution. Some of that, clearly, some of that's market, right? The temp penetration level was going down forever, 36, 37 months. You've seen that. That's stabilized. That's definitely helped. I think it's these other factors as well. Like I said, we're just getting started with this. Yeah. yeah It's gone from 100 to 150. it's gone from 100 to 150 Right now, the principal areas that we are in are technology, finance and accounting, HR, and supply chain. right now the principal areas that we are in are technology finance and accounting hr and supply chain You can imagine that we're just getting started here on this. you can imagine that we're just getting started here on this We've definitely seen a pickup over the last three months or so, four months, around the Interim solution. we've definitely seen a pickup over the last three months or so four months around the interim solution Some of that, clearly, some of that's market, right? some of that clearly some of that's market right The temp penetration level was going down forever, 36, 37 months. the temp penetration level was going down forever 36 37 months You've seen that. you've seen that That's stabilized. that's stabilized That's definitely helped. that's definitely helped I think it's these other factors as well. i think it's these other factors as well Like I said, we're just getting started with this. like i said we're just getting started with this

Speaker 6: Yeah, Trevor Romeo, this is Bob. The thing I would add to it is, it's just being part of our ecosystem. You heard Gary talk about the size of the Interim business. North of 10% of that comes from referrals across the organization, right? Those are engagements that never would have existed had they not been part of the Korn Ferry family. The other stat I mentioned in my remarks are business referrals. The referred work across the system is now up to a little bit north of 29%, right? If you go back prior to the beginning of this year, we were kind of stuck at 25 for a number of quarters. We put the We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy in place at the beginning of this year, and you've seen that ramp throughout the course of the year up to 29% now. Yeah, Trevor Romeo, this is Bob. yeah trevor romeo this is bob The thing I would add to it is, it's just being part of our ecosystem. the thing i would add to it is it's just being part of our ecosystem You heard Gary talk about the size of the Interim business. you heard gary talk about the size of the interim business North of 10% of that comes from referrals across the organization, right? north of 10% of that comes from referrals across the organization right Those are engagements that never would have existed had they not been part of the Korn Ferry family. those are engagements that never would have existed had they not been part of the korn ferry family The other stat I mentioned in my remarks are business referrals. the other stat i mentioned in my remarks are business referrals The referred work across the system is now up to a little bit north of 29%, right? the referred work across the system is now up to a little bit north of 29% right If you go back prior to the beginning of this year, we were kind of stuck at 25 for a number of quarters. if you go back prior to the beginning of this year we were kind of stuck at 25 for a number of quarters We put the We Are Korn Ferry go-to-market strategy in place at the beginning of this year, and you've seen that ramp throughout the course of the year up to 29% now. we put the we are korn ferry go-to-market strategy in place at the beginning of this year and you've seen that ramp throughout the course of the year up to 29% now I think some of what you're seeing in these businesses is just being part of our ecosystem and engagements and deeper client penetration result in more business referrals across. I think some of what you're seeing in these businesses is just being part of our ecosystem and engagements and deeper client penetration result in more business referrals across. i think some of what you're seeing in these businesses is just being part of our ecosystem and engagements and deeper client penetration result in more business referrals across

Speaker 8: Yeah, it all makes sense. All right. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate it. Yeah, it all makes sense. yeah it all makes sense All right. all right Thank you guys very much. thank you guys very much Appreciate it. appreciate it

Speaker 5: Your next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Your next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs. your next question comes from george tong with goldman sachs Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 2: A little bit deeper into the new business trends. ex-RPO new business was up 2% year-over-year or relatively flat on a constant currency basis, and that moderated a bit from the prior quarter. Can you talk about what contributed to the deceleration in new business ex-RPO and what the implications are for revenue over the next year? A little bit deeper into the new business trends. ex-RPO new business was up 2% year-over-year or relatively flat on a constant currency basis, and that moderated a bit from the prior quarter. a little bit deeper into the new business trends ex-rpo new business was up 2% year-over-year or relatively flat on a constant currency basis and that moderated a bit from the prior quarter Can you talk about what contributed to the deceleration in new business ex-RPO and what the implications are for revenue over the next year? can you talk about what contributed to the deceleration in new business ex-rpo and what the implications are for revenue over the next year

Speaker 1: Yeah. It's a little thing called a war. The Middle East. It definitely has had an impact, in a big way, on the levels of new business. It's a little bit of a flywheel impact. Trailing four months, we've seen strong new business in Americas, but it's definitely impacted APAC, no question about it. It's obviously impacted EMEA and the Middle East. That's what I would point to. Yeah. yeah It's a little thing called a war. it's a little thing called a war The Middle East. the middle east It definitely has had an impact, in a big way, on the levels of new business. it definitely has had an impact in a big way on the levels of new business It's a little bit of a flywheel impact. it's a little bit of a flywheel impact Trailing four months, we've seen strong new business in Americas, but it's definitely impacted APAC, no question about it. trailing four months we've seen strong new business in americas but it's definitely impacted apac no question about it It's obviously impacted EMEA and the Middle East. it's obviously impacted emea and the middle east That's what I would point to. that's what i would point to

Speaker 2: Got it. With respect to margins, EBITDA margins in the quarter were flat year-over-year. Can you talk about some of the puts and takes on margin performance? Got it. got it With respect to margins, EBITDA margins in the quarter were flat year-over-year. with respect to margins ebitda margins in the quarter were flat year-over-year Can you talk about some of the puts and takes on margin performance? can you talk about some of the puts and takes on margin performance

Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm glad you asked that, George, because I saw you mentioned that. There's really one reason why. If you look at the revenue overperformance in the quarter, you have to pay people for that. We ended up having to book more bonus expense in the quarter, which is something I'd happily do to drive that type of revenue growth, every quarter, to be honest with you. Yeah. yeah I'm glad you asked that, George, because I saw you mentioned that. i'm glad you asked that george because i saw you mentioned that There's really one reason why. there's really one reason why If you look at the revenue overperformance in the quarter, you have to pay people for that. if you look at the revenue overperformance in the quarter you have to pay people for that We ended up having to book more bonus expense in the quarter, which is something I'd happily do to drive that type of revenue growth, every quarter, to be honest with you. we ended up having to book more bonus expense in the quarter which is something i'd happily do to drive that type of revenue growth every quarter to be honest with you

Speaker 2: Got it. Very helpful. Thank you. Got it. got it Very helpful. very helpful Thank you. thank you

Speaker 5: Your next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. Your line is open. Your next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. your next question comes from mark marcon with baird Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 4: Hey, good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are. Really nice results. Gary, can you talk a little bit about, just from a leadership perspective internally to Korn Ferry, what you're gonna do in terms of reporting structures? Are you gonna have a head of search, a head of talent and organizational, a head of workforce solutions, or are you gonna have a head of Americas and EMEA and APAC? How's that gonna work? How's the reporting structure go? How's it gonna end up optimizing the performance on a go-forward basis for you? Hey, good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you are. hey good morning or good afternoon depending on where you are Really nice results. really nice results Gary, can you talk a little bit about, just from a leadership perspective internally to Korn Ferry, what you're gonna do in terms of reporting structures? gary can you talk a little bit about just from a leadership perspective internally to korn ferry what you're gonna do in terms of reporting structures Are you gonna have a head of search, a head of talent and organizational, a head of workforce solutions, or are you gonna have a head of Americas and EMEA and APAC? are you gonna have a head of search a head of talent and organizational a head of workforce solutions or are you gonna have a head of americas and emea and apac How's that gonna work? how's that gonna work How's the reporting structure go? how's the reporting structure go How's it gonna end up optimizing the performance on a go-forward basis for you? how's it gonna end up optimizing the performance on a go-forward basis for you

Speaker 1: First of all, we started this a little bit over a year ago, Mark, the starting point is mindset. We've been very deliberate, starting with leadership 15, actually 15 months ago, around mindset and client centricity. Up to this point, we don't have five businesses. We have one business with, up to this point, five solutions. You are gonna be left with a matrixed organization for sure. The truth is that we have to pivot more towards geographies. We were, I think, a little bit over-indexed on solutions. We do have a head of APAC and the Americas and EMEA. If you want to get at client centricity, you've got to get at it both top-down through the enterprise accounts, but you also have to do it bottom-up. The bottom up is on a regional basis. First of all, we started this a little bit over a year ago, Mark, the starting point is mindset. first of all we started this a little bit over a year ago mark the starting point is mindset We've been very deliberate, starting with leadership 15, actually 15 months ago, around mindset and client centricity. we've been very deliberate starting with leadership 15 actually 15 months ago around mindset and client centricity Up to this point, we don't have five businesses. up to this point we don't have five businesses We have one business with, up to this point, five solutions. we have one business with up to this point five solutions You are gonna be left with a matrixed organization for sure. you are gonna be left with a matrixed organization for sure The truth is that we have to pivot more towards geographies. the truth is that we have to pivot more towards geographies We were, I think, a little bit over-indexed on solutions. we were i think a little bit over-indexed on solutions We do have a head of APAC and the Americas and EMEA. we do have a head of apac and the americas and emea If you want to get at client centricity, you've got to get at it both top-down through the enterprise accounts, but you also have to do it bottom-up. if you want to get at client centricity you've got to get at it both top-down through the enterprise accounts but you also have to do it bottom-up The bottom up is on a regional basis. the bottom up is on a regional basis We have carefully over time here, over the last year, shifted mindset. Ultimately, say in another year where that ends up, to directly answer your question, I think that's premature. For sure, we've shifted the focus of the organization, including the 1,800 partners and principals that we have at the firm that are responsible for originating business. Every single day now, the leadership team looks at every piece of new business that's opened over a certain level. Keep in mind, you're talking about 40 or 50 engagements a day where the team, and it's very programmatic with the regional leaders, with the solution leaders, with the industry leaders about who does what. We have carefully over time here, over the last year, shifted mindset. we have carefully over time here over the last year shifted mindset Ultimately, say in another year where that ends up, to directly answer your question, I think that's premature. ultimately say in another year where that ends up to directly answer your question i think that's premature For sure, we've shifted the focus of the organization, including the 1,800 partners and principals that we have at the firm that are responsible for originating business. for sure we've shifted the focus of the organization including the 1,800 partners and principals that we have at the firm that are responsible for originating business Every single day now, the leadership team looks at every piece of new business that's opened over a certain level. every single day now the leadership team looks at every piece of new business that's opened over a certain level Keep in mind, you're talking about 40 or 50 engagements a day where the team, and it's very programmatic with the regional leaders, with the solution leaders, with the industry leaders about who does what. keep in mind you're talking about 40 or 50 engagements a day where the team and it's very programmatic with the regional leaders with the solution leaders with the industry leaders about who does what We are looking at each of those engagements to making sure that we have a good team on it, what the opportunity is, and whether we can not only land something but expand it. Every single day that's been happening now for about 13 or 14 months. My starting point, rather than org structure, has been on mindset. Mindset of our leaders and mindset of the organization. The fact is, when you look at the data, we do business with almost 14,000 clients around the world. 5,000 of those clients represent 90% of our revenue. When you look at those 5,000, you're gonna find that 60%, 65% of those are only utilizing about one and a half of our solutions If you look at the logos there, the opportunity just comes screaming off the page. We are looking at each of those engagements to making sure that we have a good team on it, what the opportunity is, and whether we can not only land something but expand it. we are looking at each of those engagements to making sure that we have a good team on it what the opportunity is and whether we can not only land something but expand it Every single day that's been happening now for about 13 or 14 months. every single day that's been happening now for about 13 or 14 months My starting point, rather than org structure, has been on mindset. my starting point rather than org structure has been on mindset Mindset of our leaders and mindset of the organization. mindset of our leaders and mindset of the organization The fact is, when you look at the data, we do business with almost 14,000 clients around the world. 5,000 of those clients represent 90% of our revenue. the fact is when you look at the data we do business with almost 14,000 clients around the world 5,000 of those clients represent 90% of our revenue When you look at those 5,000, you're gonna find that 60%, 65% of those are only utilizing about one and a half of our solutions If you look at the logos there, the opportunity just comes screaming off the page. when you look at those 5,000 you're gonna find that 60% 65% of those are only utilizing about one and a half of our solutions if you look at the logos there the opportunity just comes screaming off the page I think we have to continue to evolve this organization. I just looked in the mirror a year ago, Mark, and I said, "Wow, what you're doing, including how you're going to clients, how you're representing yourself to Wall Street, you're dividing before you are uniting." We have one firm. What I want in three years is that when colleagues go to clients, they say, "We are from Korn Ferry," not, "I'm from this," or, "I'm from that." That's really what we're striving for in a deeper penetration of that very rich client base. I think we have to continue to evolve this organization. i think we have to continue to evolve this organization I just looked in the mirror a year ago, Mark, and I said, "Wow, what you're doing, including how you're going to clients, how you're representing yourself to Wall Street, you're dividing before you are uniting." We have one firm. i just looked in the mirror a year ago mark and i said "wow what you're doing including how you're going to clients how you're representing yourself to wall street you're dividing before you are uniting." we have one firm What I want in three years is that when colleagues go to clients, they say, "We are from Korn Ferry," not, "I'm from this," or, "I'm from that." That's really what we're striving for in a deeper penetration of that very rich client base. what i want in three years is that when colleagues go to clients they say "we are from korn ferry," not "i'm from this," or "i'm from that." that's really what we're striving for in a deeper penetration of that very rich client base

Speaker 4: Totally makes sense. I hate to ask a segment question after that, but how should we think about the margins on digital and consulting? Was that also reflective of the strong performance and then the bonuses that were associated there? Totally makes sense. totally makes sense I hate to ask a segment question after that, but how should we think about the margins on digital and consulting? i hate to ask a segment question after that but how should we think about the margins on digital and consulting Was that also reflective of the strong performance and then the bonuses that were associated there? was that also reflective of the strong performance and then the bonuses that were associated there

Speaker 1: I think the reality is we had pretty broad-based growth across the firm, Mark. With the exception is George. The exception is the Middle East. I didn't finish my answer to George. Hopefully, what we've seen in every crisis is opportunity, we've also seen in every crisis there's pent-up demand. I do believe as the, hopefully, as the skies clear here, and oil starts to flow through the strait, I think you're probably going to see some pent-up demand. It may be six months out. There's no doubt that that's had an impact on the levels of new business, for sure. I would say, Mark, that it was pretty broad-based. I think the reality is we had pretty broad-based growth across the firm, Mark. i think the reality is we had pretty broad-based growth across the firm mark With the exception is George. with the exception is george The exception is the Middle East. the exception is the middle east I didn't finish my answer to George. i didn't finish my answer to george Hopefully, what we've seen in every crisis is opportunity, we've also seen in every crisis there's pent-up demand. hopefully what we've seen in every crisis is opportunity we've also seen in every crisis there's pent-up demand I do believe as the, hopefully, as the skies clear here, and oil starts to flow through the strait, I think you're probably going to see some pent-up demand. i do believe as the hopefully as the skies clear here and oil starts to flow through the strait i think you're probably going to see some pent-up demand It may be six months out. it may be six months out There's no doubt that that's had an impact on the levels of new business, for sure. there's no doubt that that's had an impact on the levels of new business for sure I would say, Mark, that it was pretty broad-based. i would say mark that it was pretty broad-based

Speaker 4: Okay. That's great. I know it's really early, Gary, but are you seeing any signs of, at least in APAC and EMEA, in terms of some increased optimism and saying, "Okay, looks like things are finally getting back to normal," we should see a decent burst? Okay. okay That's great. that's great I know it's really early, Gary, but are you seeing any signs of, at least in APAC and EMEA, in terms of some increased optimism and saying, "Okay, looks like things are finally getting back to normal," we should see a decent burst? i know it's really early gary but are you seeing any signs of at least in apac and emea in terms of some increased optimism and saying "okay looks like things are finally getting back to normal," we should see a decent burst

Speaker 1: We just had a bunch of colleagues together from all over, actually all over the world, about 700 of our partners and principals. There is definite hope. Can I say, so far this month, have we seen it? Not materially. I do think that calmer minds will prevail here. There's probably going to be some pent-up demand, for sure. We just had a bunch of colleagues together from all over, actually all over the world, about 700 of our partners and principals. we just had a bunch of colleagues together from all over actually all over the world about 700 of our partners and principals There is definite hope. there is definite hope Can I say, so far this month, have we seen it? can i say so far this month have we seen it Not materially. not materially I do think that calmer minds will prevail here. i do think that calmer minds will prevail here There's probably going to be some pent-up demand, for sure. there's probably going to be some pent-up demand for sure

Speaker 4: That's great. Thanks, Gary. That's great. that's great Thanks, Gary. thanks gary

Speaker 5: Your next question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist. Your line is open. Your next question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist. your next question comes from tobey sommer with truist Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 7: Thank you. I wanted to ask about what initiatives or changes you have in place, maybe it dovetails into the new segment reporting, to drive that 29% of reference sales to a higher level. Is there an accompanying sort of change in incentive comps in addition to reporting structure? What levers are in place on the phone? Thank you. thank you I wanted to ask about what initiatives or changes you have in place, maybe it dovetails into the new segment reporting, to drive that 29% of reference sales to a higher level. i wanted to ask about what initiatives or changes you have in place maybe it dovetails into the new segment reporting to drive that 29% of reference sales to a higher level Is there an accompanying sort of change in incentive comps in addition to reporting structure? is there an accompanying sort of change in incentive comps in addition to reporting structure What levers are in place on the phone? what levers are in place on the phone

Speaker 6: Hey, Tobey. It's Bob. Yeah. One of the things I've noticed, again, if you go back and you look at the program that we've had in place to drive that way back in, I think it was 2018 or 2019, it was 14%, and we put the program in place. Every year, we continued to open it up for more people, make it a little bit richer, and we saw success up to a point, right? We kind of got stuck at 25%, and we were there for whatever it was, four or five quarters in a row. To use Gary's phrase from one of his earlier responses, it really is about changing mindset now. What we're doing, literally, we get together, we get those emails every day. We get together every other Monday. Hey, Tobey. hey tobey It's Bob. it's bob Yeah. yeah One of the things I've noticed, again, if you go back and you look at the program that we've had in place to drive that way back in, I think it was 2018 or 2019, it was 14%, and we put the program in place. one of the things i've noticed again if you go back and you look at the program that we've had in place to drive that way back in i think it was 2018 or 2019 it was 14% and we put the program in place Every year, we continued to open it up for more people, make it a little bit richer, and we saw success up to a point, right? every year we continued to open it up for more people make it a little bit richer and we saw success up to a point right We kind of got stuck at 25%, and we were there for whatever it was, four or five quarters in a row. we kind of got stuck at 25% and we were there for whatever it was four or five quarters in a row To use Gary's phrase from one of his earlier responses, it really is about changing mindset now. to use gary's phrase from one of his earlier responses it really is about changing mindset now What we're doing, literally, we get together, we get those emails every day. what we're doing literally we get together we get those emails every day We get together every other Monday. we get together every other monday We go through the opportunities that arose over the prior two weeks. We go through all of our what we call must-wins. Those are engagements over a certain threshold. We go through all of our Marquee and Diamond accounts, and that's every two weeks. The collaboration that we're getting and the mindset change that we're getting from our folks, I think is actually what's influenced us to go from the 25 to 27 because I've made the program richer. Again, we broadened it out, and we were kind of stuck. I think this next level of achievement is really driven by the behaviors and practices that we're putting in place at the organization. We go through the opportunities that arose over the prior two weeks. we go through the opportunities that arose over the prior two weeks We go through all of our what we call must-wins. we go through all of our what we call must-wins Those are engagements over a certain threshold. those are engagements over a certain threshold We go through all of our Marquee and Diamond accounts, and that's every two weeks. we go through all of our marquee and diamond accounts and that's every two weeks The collaboration that we're getting and the mindset change that we're getting from our folks, I think is actually what's influenced us to go from the 25 to 27 because I've made the program richer. the collaboration that we're getting and the mindset change that we're getting from our folks i think is actually what's influenced us to go from the 25 to 27 because i've made the program richer Again, we broadened it out, and we were kind of stuck. again we broadened it out and we were kind of stuck I think this next level of achievement is really driven by the behaviors and practices that we're putting in place at the organization. i think this next level of achievement is really driven by the behaviors and practices that we're putting in place at the organization

Speaker 7: In consulting, can you talk about the degree to which some of your services, because I know it's a broad array of things that you're doing, are priced on a value basis as opposed to time and materials and just average bill rates and hours billed to the client and- In consulting, can you talk about the degree to which some of your services, because I know it's a broad array of things that you're doing, are priced on a value basis as opposed to time and materials and just average bill rates and hours billed to the client and- in consulting can you talk about the degree to which some of your services because i know it's a broad array of things that you're doing are priced on a value basis as opposed to time and materials and just average bill rates and hours billed to the client and-

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 7: Whether you see it transforming at all? Whether you see it transforming at all? whether you see it transforming at all

Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. I actually do. I think even there's a number of solutions that could actually transform, including search. It's kind of archaic how the industry does that. I think there's now an opportunity once you get to a scale that you can actually change the paradigm. Could search be sold as a service? Could you sign up as a retainer? I do believe that there is the opportunity, and we're pushing the team, particularly on the consulting side, to look at value. Because up to this point, it's been pretty much the old method. I mean, not totally, but that's probably truer than not. I'm pretty convinced of the value that we bring. You have to align strategy with an organization, with people, with compensation, how you develop people. I just know out of all my years as CEO, it's about people, it's about talent. Yeah, I do. yeah i do I actually do. i actually do I think even there's a number of solutions that could actually transform, including search. i think even there's a number of solutions that could actually transform including search It's kind of archaic how the industry does that. it's kind of archaic how the industry does that I think there's now an opportunity once you get to a scale that you can actually change the paradigm. i think there's now an opportunity once you get to a scale that you can actually change the paradigm Could search be sold as a service? could search be sold as a service Could you sign up as a retainer? could you sign up as a retainer I do believe that there is the opportunity, and we're pushing the team, particularly on the consulting side, to look at value. i do believe that there is the opportunity and we're pushing the team particularly on the consulting side to look at value Because up to this point, it's been pretty much the old method. because up to this point it's been pretty much the old method I mean, not totally, but that's probably truer than not. i mean not totally but that's probably truer than not I'm pretty convinced of the value that we bring. i'm pretty convinced of the value that we bring You have to align strategy with an organization, with people, with compensation, how you develop people. you have to align strategy with an organization with people with compensation how you develop people I just know out of all my years as CEO, it's about people, it's about talent. i just know out of all my years as ceo it's about people it's about talent Players win games, coaches lose games. We're challenging the team. I can't say that we have an answer today, but I would expect that to change quite a bit actually over the next three years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised by that. Players win games, coaches lose games. players win games coaches lose games We're challenging the team. we're challenging the team I can't say that we have an answer today, but I would expect that to change quite a bit actually over the next three years. i can't say that we have an answer today but i would expect that to change quite a bit actually over the next three years I wouldn't be a bit surprised by that. i wouldn't be a bit surprised by that

Speaker 7: The bill rates in consulting that you report currently, are they an imputed bill rate, or is that literally the average rate that clients are seeing on invoices? The bill rates in consulting that you report currently, are they an imputed bill rate, or is that literally the average rate that clients are seeing on invoices? the bill rates in consulting that you report currently are they an imputed bill rate or is that literally the average rate that clients are seeing on invoices

Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going to say what they see on invoices, but that's a real rate. I mean, that's a real economic rate per hour. For sure. Well, I'm not going to say what they see on invoices, but that's a real rate. well i'm not going to say what they see on invoices but that's a real rate I mean, that's a real economic rate per hour. i mean that's a real economic rate per hour For sure. for sure

Speaker 6: Yeah, totally. You basically take our fee revenues and divide the hours worked into it to come up with what the average billing rate would be. Yeah, totally. yeah totally You basically take our fee revenues and divide the hours worked into it to come up with what the average billing rate would be. you basically take our fee revenues and divide the hours worked into it to come up with what the average billing rate would be

Speaker 1: Again, just to be clear, so that I answer the question correctly, we may not engage with a client in that way. We will say for a project, phase one is this, phase two is that. We don't sit there and charge like a law firm would by the hour. I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I do believe in terms of the spirit of your question around value, I think there's something there. Again, just to be clear, so that I answer the question correctly, we may not engage with a client in that way. again just to be clear so that i answer the question correctly we may not engage with a client in that way We will say for a project, phase one is this, phase two is that. we will say for a project phase one is this phase two is that We don't sit there and charge like a law firm would by the hour. we don't sit there and charge like a law firm would by the hour I don't want to give you the wrong impression. i don't want to give you the wrong impression I do believe in terms of the spirit of your question around value, I think there's something there. i do believe in terms of the spirit of your question around value i think there's something there

Speaker 7: If I sneak one last one in. With respect to the executive search business and AI, private companies say that they can do some of the intermediate steps and deliveries along a search process more efficiently, but customers just ask for more, want to see more candidates, et cetera. They're kind of neither experiencing margin expansion from efficiencies nor faster time to completion or price erosion. What's your experience in that realm? If I sneak one last one in. if i sneak one last one in With respect to the executive search business and AI, private companies say that they can do some of the intermediate steps and deliveries along a search process more efficiently, but customers just ask for more, want to see more candidates, et cetera. with respect to the executive search business and ai private companies say that they can do some of the intermediate steps and deliveries along a search process more efficiently but customers just ask for more want to see more candidates et cetera They're kind of neither experiencing margin expansion from efficiencies nor faster time to completion or price erosion. they're kind of neither experiencing margin expansion from efficiencies nor faster time to completion or price erosion What's your experience in that realm? what's your experience in that realm

Speaker 1: We have 17 work streams. Five are anchored around search. What we're concerned about there. Clearly, what the efforts are showing us is we can be way more efficient. No doubt about it. That's now been proven over the last year on these five work streams out of the 17. No doubt about it. What we're very mindful of where we operate, is that we have tremendous IP, and we use that IP when assessing candidates, when we do it in our consulting solution. We use the same IP throughout the entire firm. We use it in our RPO solution as well. What we are very protective of is we don't want that proprietary data to get outside. As we go down this path, for me, anybody can generate a name. It's not what they've done, it's who they are. We have 17 work streams. we have 17 work streams Five are anchored around search. five are anchored around search What we're concerned about there. what we're concerned about there Clearly, what the efforts are showing us is we can be way more efficient. clearly what the efforts are showing us is we can be way more efficient No doubt about it. no doubt about it That's now been proven over the last year on these five work streams out of the 17. that's now been proven over the last year on these five work streams out of the 17 No doubt about it. no doubt about it What we're very mindful of where we operate, is that we have tremendous IP, and we use that IP when assessing candidates, when we do it in our consulting solution. what we're very mindful of where we operate is that we have tremendous ip and we use that ip when assessing candidates when we do it in our consulting solution We use the same IP throughout the entire firm. we use the same ip throughout the entire firm We use it in our RPO solution as well. we use it in our rpo solution as well What we are very protective of is we don't want that proprietary data to get outside. what we are very protective of is we don't want that proprietary data to get outside As we go down this path, for me, anybody can generate a name. as we go down this path for me anybody can generate a name It's not what they've done, it's who they are. it's not what they've done it's who they are When you're talking about the outliers of achievement here, I'm still going to put a very strong argument forward that it's around culture fit. We're not human doings, we're human beings. AI is not going to disintermediate humanity. Will technology make us more efficient? Yes. Will it solve the supply and demand imbalance of labor, absent immigration? Yes. Will it make our firm more efficient? For sure. That's what the 17 work streams are showing. At the same time, we want to make sure that we protect our IP, particularly that we're operating in 70 countries, 100 countries around the world with different privacy laws. We are very careful about letting that out. We're in the trust business. I'm not that focused on the efficiency gain for the search process that we're going to get from AI. Are we doing it? When you're talking about the outliers of achievement here, I'm still going to put a very strong argument forward that it's around culture fit. when you're talking about the outliers of achievement here i'm still going to put a very strong argument forward that it's around culture fit We're not human doings, we're human beings. we're not human doings we're human beings AI is not going to disintermediate humanity. ai is not going to disintermediate humanity Will technology make us more efficient? will technology make us more efficient Yes. yes Will it solve the supply and demand imbalance of labor, absent immigration? will it solve the supply and demand imbalance of labor absent immigration Yes. yes Will it make our firm more efficient? will it make our firm more efficient For sure. for sure That's what the 17 work streams are showing. that's what the 17 work streams are showing At the same time, we want to make sure that we protect our IP, particularly that we're operating in 70 countries, 100 countries around the world with different privacy laws. at the same time we want to make sure that we protect our ip particularly that we're operating in 70 countries 100 countries around the world with different privacy laws We are very careful about letting that out. we are very careful about letting that out We're in the trust business. we're in the trust business I'm not that focused on the efficiency gain for the search process that we're going to get from AI. i'm not that focused on the efficiency gain for the search process that we're going to get from ai Are we doing it? are we doing it Yes, we're absolutely doing it. I'm focused on the customer experience. We have a lot of things in motion there, but I'm telling you, I'm going to be very conservative around who people are, what they tell us, what their assessments show. We've done 113 million assessments of executives. We have to guard that data. That is a big differentiator for us. Yes, we are definitely using it. We're using it in the learning and development solution in terms of coaching, using agents. We can all have different views on that, but clearly, we're headed in a direction where technology is going to have to fill the gap between supply and demand imbalance of labor. Yes, we're absolutely doing it. yes we're absolutely doing it I'm focused on the customer experience. i'm focused on the customer experience We have a lot of things in motion there, but I'm telling you, I'm going to be very conservative around who people are, what they tell us, what their assessments show. we have a lot of things in motion there but i'm telling you i'm going to be very conservative around who people are what they tell us what their assessments show We've done 113 million assessments of executives. we've done 113 million assessments of executives We have to guard that data. we have to guard that data That is a big differentiator for us. that is a big differentiator for us Yes, we are definitely using it. yes we are definitely using it We're using it in the learning and development solution in terms of coaching, using agents. we're using it in the learning and development solution in terms of coaching using agents We can all have different views on that, but clearly, we're headed in a direction where technology is going to have to fill the gap between supply and demand imbalance of labor. we can all have different views on that but clearly we're headed in a direction where technology is going to have to fill the gap between supply and demand imbalance of labor

Speaker 5: Your final question will come from the line of Joshua Chan with UBS. Your line is open. Your final question will come from the line of Joshua Chan with UBS. your final question will come from the line of joshua chan with ubs Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 3: Hi, this is Karan Singhania for Josh. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask on the North America executive search business. It looks like margins in the business have been pretty strong. It was like 21% this quarter. Just wondering, how should we think about margins for the segments for this year? Hi, this is Karan Singhania for Josh. hi this is karan singhania for josh Thanks for taking my questions. thanks for taking my questions I wanted to ask on the North America executive search business. i wanted to ask on the north america executive search business It looks like margins in the business have been pretty strong. it looks like margins in the business have been pretty strong It was like 21% this quarter. it was like 21% this quarter Just wondering, how should we think about margins for the segments for this year? just wondering how should we think about margins for the segments for this year

Speaker 6: I would say that the margin profile, again, I wouldn't focus necessarily on search in North America, as it's a pretty big company, and we got a lot of levers to pull. I would just keep you focused on the range that we've talked about from an overall Korn Ferry perspective in the 16%-18%. We guided to Q1, right, smack in the middle at 17%, and that's how we're managing the business. To Gary's point earlier, when you think about the mindset change, we can't look at clients and go to market one way and then manage internally a different way. As Gary said, we're one firm, we got five offerings, but we're managing the firm as one firm. I'd suggest that you just focus on the 16%-18%. I would say that the margin profile, again, I wouldn't focus necessarily on search in North America, as it's a pretty big company, and we got a lot of levers to pull. i would say that the margin profile again i wouldn't focus necessarily on search in north america as it's a pretty big company and we got a lot of levers to pull I would just keep you focused on the range that we've talked about from an overall Korn Ferry perspective in the 16%-18%. i would just keep you focused on the range that we've talked about from an overall korn ferry perspective in the 16%-18% We guided to Q1, right, smack in the middle at 17%, and that's how we're managing the business. we guided to q1 right smack in the middle at 17% and that's how we're managing the business To Gary's point earlier, when you think about the mindset change, we can't look at clients and go to market one way and then manage internally a different way. to gary's point earlier when you think about the mindset change we can't look at clients and go to market one way and then manage internally a different way As Gary said, we're one firm, we got five offerings, but we're managing the firm as one firm. as gary said we're one firm we got five offerings but we're managing the firm as one firm I'd suggest that you just focus on the 16%-18%. i'd suggest that you just focus on the 16%-18%

Speaker 3: Okay, got it. As my follow-up, how should we think about the capital allocation priorities for this year? Would you continue to lean more heavily towards buybacks and also on CapEx? Do you expect it to come back to a more normalized levels this year? Okay, got it. okay got it As my follow-up, how should we think about the capital allocation priorities for this year? as my follow-up how should we think about the capital allocation priorities for this year Would you continue to lean more heavily towards buybacks and also on CapEx? would you continue to lean more heavily towards buybacks and also on capex Do you expect it to come back to a more normalized levels this year? do you expect it to come back to a more normalized levels this year

Speaker 1: We've typically, over time, we've deployed a pretty balanced approach, systematic approach to capital deployment. Clearly in this last quarter, as we said we were going to do on the last call, and as Bob mentioned earlier, we did what we said. Clearly when you look at the firm over the last 10, 15 years, 20 years, 60% of our growth has been organic and 40% has been inorganic. The last investment that we made was in the Interim solution, which was an organization in the U.K. and Ireland, and it's been an absolute home run for us. That was almost two years ago. There's been periods of time where we've leaned more into stock buybacks. We've been consistently raising our dividend for, I don't know, six or seven years, and there's times when we lean more into inorganic growth. We've typically, over time, we've deployed a pretty balanced approach, systematic approach to capital deployment. we've typically over time we've deployed a pretty balanced approach systematic approach to capital deployment Clearly in this last quarter, as we said we were going to do on the last call, and as Bob mentioned earlier, we did what we said. clearly in this last quarter as we said we were going to do on the last call and as bob mentioned earlier we did what we said Clearly when you look at the firm over the last 10, 15 years, 20 years, 60% of our growth has been organic and 40% has been inorganic. clearly when you look at the firm over the last 10 15 years 20 years 60% of our growth has been organic and 40% has been inorganic The last investment that we made was in the Interim solution, which was an organization in the U.K. and Ireland, and it's been an absolute home run for us. the last investment that we made was in the interim solution which was an organization in the u.k and ireland and it's been an absolute home run for us That was almost two years ago. that was almost two years ago There's been periods of time where we've leaned more into stock buybacks. there's been periods of time where we've leaned more into stock buybacks We've been consistently raising our dividend for, I don't know, six or seven years, and there's times when we lean more into inorganic growth. we've been consistently raising our dividend for i don't know six or seven years and there's times when we lean more into inorganic growth

Speaker 3: Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. Got it. got it That's helpful. that's helpful Thank you. thank you

Speaker 5: There are no further questions, Mr. Burnison. There are no further questions, Mr. Burnison. there are no further questions mr burnison

Speaker 1: Okay, Sarah, thank you for hosting. Thank you, everybody, for joining us, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks. Okay, Sarah, thank you for hosting. okay sarah thank you for hosting Thank you, everybody, for joining us, and we'll talk to you soon. thank you everybody for joining us and we'll talk to you soon Thanks. thanks