Welcome to the First Financial Bankshares 51st annual meeting since this company was organized in 1973 as a bank holding company. We are so happy to have all of you here with us today. It will be our honor to visit with you about First Financial Bankshares, as well as personally seeing you at the luncheon. We also welcome those of you viewing the live stream of this meeting. We are very sorry that you could not attend in person, but appreciate you listening in, and certainly appreciate your interest in our company. I'm Scott Dueser, and as Chairman of the Board of Directors, it's my pleasure to preside over today's meeting. Your interest and dedication to our company are very gratifying to us. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. All shareholders of record at the close of business on February 28th, 2024, entitled to vote at this meeting are entitled to vote at this meeting. The secretary has delivered an affidavit of mailing, establishing that notice of this meeting was duly given, which will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. As set out in the proxy statement, dated March 14th, 2024, our directors, Murray Edwards and David Copeland, are serving as our proxies and are authorized to vote in accordance with your proxy card, which was completed and returned by mail, phone, online, or in person. If you intend to vote at this meeting, please mark your ballot, raise your hand, and we will collect your ballot at this time to submit them to Mr. Copeland and Mr. Edwards to tabulate these votes with the proxies previously received. Does anybody have their proxy today with them? Great. Everybody. Listen, y'all are great. You know what to do. Okay. All proxies received prior to the meeting will be voted in accordance with instructions contained in those proxies or as provided in the proxy statement in absence of instructions. Our first item of business is to determine the existence of a quorum at this meeting. Mr. Copeland, will you please give us the number of shares that are represented by proxy in person? The total number of shares represented by proxy or in person, 124,531,000. The total shares outstanding, 142,750,000, which represents 87.2% of the shares being voted. I want to commend you because I don't think there's another publicly traded company that has that many people that vote. So many of their stockholders don't care. We have the complete opposite. We have so many stockholders that do care. That's why you're here today. That's why we have so many people here. But thank you for your interest. Thank you, Mr. Copeland. Appreciate that. The number of shares represented constitutes a quorum. Therefore, this meeting is properly and duly convened. I would like to introduce our senior management, who truly are the ones who lead this company. I would ask each one of them to stand and remain standing, to be recognized as a group. We are very fortunate to have this level of experience and expertise at our company. And please pay special attention to the amount of experience each one of them has, whether they are new to the company or have been here a long time. F. Scott Dueser, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Ron Butler, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, and also CEO of the Abilene region. Michelle Hickox, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. David Bailey, Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer. Luke Longhofer, Executive Vice President, Chief Credit Officer. Kirk Thaxton, Chairman, President, and CEO of First Financial Trust and Asset Management Company. Randy Rowe, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. John Ruzicka, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Kyle McVey, Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer. And then our senior leadership, Rhett Everett, Executive Vice President, Credit Administration in Dallas-Fort Worth. Keith Morton, Executive Vice President, Credit Administration, Southeast Texas. Michael Parker, Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. Javier Jurado, Executive Vice President, Chief Audit Executive. Eric Bunnell, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management. And then our line of business executives, Megan Dobbs, Executive Vice President, Advertising and Marketing. Troy Fore, President, First Financial Mortgage. Monica Houston, Executive Vice President, Training. Lori Hill, Executive Vice President, Retail Banking. Andrea Smiddy-Slagle, Executive Vice President, Treasury Management. Maggie Ciesinski, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer. Mike Wolverton, Executive Vice President, Consumer Lending. Frank Gioia, Senior Vice President, Customer Care Center. Brandon Harris, Senior Vice President, Appraisal Services. Josh Brown, Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Gary Milliron, Vice President, Property Management. And then our regional CEOs and presidents of our regional banks. Marilyn Shedd, President of our Abilene region. Candy Kennedy, President of our Eastland division. Joseph Crouch, President of our Sweetwater division. Chris Evetts, Chairman, President, and CEO of San Angelo. Austin Elsner, Chairman, President, and CEO, Cleburne. Trent Schwertner, Chairman, President, and CEO of Stephenville. Justin Hooper, Chairman, President, and CEO of Weatherford. Shelby Bruhn, Chairman, President, and CEO of Southlake. Blaine Caillier, President and CEO of Southeast Texas region. Chris Bowman, President and CEO of the Conroe region. Marcus Morris, President and CEO of our Fort Worth region. Shelley Dacus, President and CEO of our Kingwood region, and Nora Thompson, President and CEO of our Bryan-College Station region. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your management team who make up the bank, and who make this bank one of the top banks in the country. Thank you. Okay, occasionally I get the question of: How did you line that group up? They're not alphabetical. You know, everybody's scratching their head. That is how that bank came into the time period that that bank came into the company, and so they've always been in that order. Even our numbers, when we go through our red book with everybody's numbers, are in that order. Everything's in that order, and it's pretty interesting that, you know, who came when into the company. It's... I don't know, it's one of those things, it's always been that way. So anyway. Okay, each of our bank regions, as well as our trust and technology companies, are guided by very capable boards. Altogether, we have 119 business and professional leaders, other than bank presidents and company representatives, who serve our 12 regions and our trust and technology companies. As we say, our boards are made up of the movers and shakers of those communities that we serve. Their guidance and counsel are greatly appreciated, and their influence in the markets we serve is vital to the ongoing success of this organization. We thank them for their time, direction, and dedication. I will tell you, you know, when you think about this, people ask us: "How do you keep the credit quality that you do across the company?" Well, it's these regional directors that know the customers and know who to loan to and who not to loan to, that sit on those loan committees. That's what keeps us. You look at these big banks that have you know, banks all over that have no representation from those communities and have no idea who is who and who to loan to and who not to loan to. It makes a big difference, and that's the importance of having these regional boards, and that's the importance they play for us. Okay, for the past 19 fiscal years, the accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP has performed the audit of our company. We appreciate their professionalism, and we are pleased to have representatives from the firm join us today at today's meeting. We have Matt Whipp, Partner. Matt, you can stand. You guys can stand, because we're gonna have all the hard questions come to y'all. Lee Brandt, Senior Manager, and Emmy Parker, Manager. And we appreciate you guys so much. They're here—as I say, they're here to—representing the firm, and they're here to answer questions. So if you don't like our numbers, you better talk to them. Now that I have had the opportunity to introduce our management team and auditors, we can move along with today's official business. It is our standard procedure not to read the minutes of last year's meeting. Ms. Michelle Hickox has in hand the minutes of that meeting, which was held on April 25, 2023. That meeting had four official items of business, those being the election of directors, the ratification of the appointment of independent auditors, the advisory vote on the compensation of our named executives, and to conduct an advisory vote on the frequency, the advisory vote on executive compensation. The first three items were approved by the shareholders and our shareholders selected every year as our preference by a vote of 81% votes cast on the frequency of Say-on-Pay advisory vote, which is annually. In accordance with the annual meeting notice and the proxy materials, there are three items that require the official vote of shareholders. They were covered in detail in our proxy materials. However, as we present these items, if any of you have a question, please raise your hand and let us recognize you so that you may ask your question. Our first item is the election of directors to serve on the corporate board for the coming year. The Nominating Corporate Governance Committee and the Board of Directors have recommended that 11 directors be elected, all of whom are currently serving on the board of directors. The nominees and their primary businesses are as follows: April K. Anthony of Dallas, CEO of VitalCaring Group, Managing Partner, Anthony Family Investment Partners LTD, and Executive Chair of Home care Home base. Anthony, if y'all will go ahead and stand and remain standing, and we'll get all of you introduced. Vianai Lopez Braun of Fort Worth, Shareholder and Chief Development Officer, Decker Jones, PC. David Copeland of Abilene, President of SIPCO, Inc., and the Shelton Family Foundation. Mike Denny of Abilene, President of Batjer & Associates, Inc. F. Scott Dueser of Abilene, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of First Financial Bankshares. Murray H. Edwards of Clyde, Principal of the Edwards Group. Dr. Eli Jones of Bryan-College Station, Professor of Marketing, Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar, and former Dean of the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University. Tim Lancaster of Lubbock, former President and CEO at Hendrick Health System. K. Dale Matthews of Amarillo, Ranching and Investments. Robert C. Nichols, Jr. of Kingwood, Executive Chairman of The Legacy Group, LLC, and Johnny E. Trotter of Hereford, President and CEO of Livestock Investors Limited. This is the recommended slate of directors for the coming year. The second item of business is to ratify the audit committee of the board of directors' appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024. The board of directors has recommended the appointment of Ernst & Young be ratified. The third item of business is the advisory vote on compensation of our named executive officers. Pursuant to Securities and Exchange Commission rules, we are again conducting a shareholder advisory vote, referred to as Say-on-Pay, to give shareholders the opportunity to express their views on compensation of our named executive officers and executive compensation philosophy, policies, and programs described in the proxy statement. The board of directors recommends approval of the resolution approving the compensation of named executive officers. Mr. Copeland, have you tabulated the votes? We have. With respect to Proposal One, all nominees received in excess of 92.8% of the votes cast. With respect to Proposal Two, in excess of 98% of the votes cast ratified the appointment of independent auditors. And with respect to Proposal Three, in excess of 96% of the votes cast approved the compensation of named executive officers. Thank you, David, and thanks to all of you for those votes. I am pleased to report that the eleven directors are duly elected, the appointment of our independent auditors is ratified, and the advisory resolution is approved. This concludes the official business, and we appreciate the strong approval of the three proposals recommended by the board of directors this morning. This being, there being no further official business to come before the meeting, the 2024 annual meeting of First Financial Bankshares is now adjourned. Michelle Hickox will now present our financial results. David Bailey will visit about the strategic growth initiatives for our loans and deposits, and Kirk Thaxton will discuss highlights and activities for the trust company. Then it will be my pleasure to present the 2023 and current activities of the company. Michelle? Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone. It's great to see all of you here today. You know, this is only my second shareholder meeting. I joined the company last January, and it's been a great year to be part of the First Financial team. I'm honored to be with you here in Abilene and to everyone via the webcast. Before I begin my financial review, I want you to please notice the forward-looking statement. First Financial Bankshares finished 2023 with earnings of $199 million, compared to $234.5 million in 2022. This is the first time in 37 years the company has had a decrease in net income from the prior year. Earnings were impacted by the difficult interest rate environment over the past two years, which significantly increased our funding cost, hampered our mortgage loan income. Net interest income was down $18 million, and mortgage fees were down $7 million from 2022. We also continue to be impacted by the limitation on debit card income, which was down $8.5 million, and FDIC insurance premiums were increased for all banks and were up $4 million from the prior year. We did do some restructuring of our bond portfolio and recognized losses of $7.1 million to improve our balance sheet and earning assets. We reinvested the $411 million of proceeds into loans and higher rate investments. While 2023 was a challenging year, you will see in later slides that we continue to perform very well compared to our peers, and our outlook for 2024 is good. Our trust company has continued its growth, with total fees of $41 million, up $10 billion in fair value of assets managed, and Kirk will be up in a minute to discuss all the details of their outstanding year. Diluted earnings per share were $1.39 for 2023, compared to $1.64 in 2022. Return on average assets is a key measure of financial performance for the banking industry. It's calculated as net income as a percent of average assets, which is 1.55% in 2023. This compares extremely well to our peer group average of 0.89% and places us in the 89th percentile of our peer group of 139 bank holding companies with assets greater than $10 billion. Another important measure for shareholders is our return on average equity, which is our net income as a percentage of average shareholders' equity, and was 14.99% for 2023, compared to peers of 9.14%, and places us in the 85th percentile of our peer group. Our primary revenue comes from our net interest income, which is measured by the net interest earned on average earning assets. Our net interest margin was 3.33% for 2023, compared to 3.35% in 2022. As I mentioned earlier, managing the margin has continued to be a challenge with the significant increases in the Fed funds rate the past two years, but it has remained fairly stable over that time. Although the margin had a small decline year-over-year, we compared favorably to peer group average, which was 2.85% in 2023. In simple terms, the efficiency ratio reflects how much each dollar of revenue is spent on operating expenses. The lower this ratio, the better, and in 2023, our efficiency ratio of 47.26% is significantly lower than our peer of 62.76%. As you can see, our capital ratios have increased in 2023 and are significantly higher than required to be considered well capitalized for regulatory purposes and are well above the average of our peer group. This high level of capital provides for safety and soundness, as well as a base for our continued growth. Total assets grew during the year to $13.1 billion, which is slightly higher than assets of $13 billion at the end of 2022. Now, let me briefly highlight our first quarter 2024 results. These were announced in our earnings release last Thursday afternoon. Net earnings of $53.4 million for the first quarter of 2024, compared favorably to $52.6 million for the first quarter of 2023. Here are some highlights of the quarter. Net interest income increased $4 million, with our net interest margin stable at 3.34% in both years. The provision for loan loss decreased $2 million from 2023 due to improved economic forecast. Trust revenue was up $1.5 million from the first quarter of 2023. Increases in non-interest expense, primarily related to health insurance and incentives, partially offset these revenue gains. Diluted earnings per share was $0.37 per share for the first quarters of both 2024 and 2023, and we ended the first quarter with assets at $13.2 billion, which is up slightly from December 31, 2023. That concludes my review of the 2023 and first quarter 2024 financial results of the company. We thank you for your continued support of First Financial Bankshares. Appreciate your interest in the company as both customers and shareholders. David Bailey is going to come up to give you some color on our strategic initiatives and outlook. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It is truly is an honor to be here today to talk about the strategic initiatives that have driven our company's deposit and loan growth over the past few years, as well as outline our efforts to continue this expansion as we look to the remainder of 2024 and beyond. After the most recent acquisition of Bryan College Station, which closed January 1, 2020, First Financial Bank reported total deposits of $7.15 billion. By the end of 2021, thanks in large part to the bank's tremendous execution of the PPP loan program, and because we remained available to our customers, we saw our total deposit base increase to $10.57 billion, an increase of $3.42 billion, or 48%. Since then, while many banks have seen their deposits decrease, First Financial Bank continues to see increases in deposits, which have since grown to $11.4 billion as of December 31, 2023. This deposit growth was largely driven by gaining new customers, which is a metric we measure called net new accounts. This includes total new accounts minus closed accounts in a given period. Prior to 2020, an average year of net new accounts for First Financial Bank was around 5,000 accounts. As shown in this slide, we grew by nearly 12,000 net new accounts in 2020, followed by 16,000 in 2021. Now, although slightly down from the peak, the net new accounts of over 10,000 and 12,000 for 2022 and 2023 respectively, still outperforms any year prior to 2020 by almost double. This growth would not be possible if it were not for the dedication of our frontline retail staff, who exemplify our customer service-first model in every way and are dedicated to the mission of this organization. Another highlight over the past three years has been the robust loan growth that we have experienced. After slower growth leading up to 2020, First Financial Bank has posted consecutive years of strong loan growth of 13% in 2021, net of PPP loans, 20% in 2022, and 11% in 2023. This increased activity has come from the tremendous amount of work by our consumer and our commercial teams across the state, who have executed on the strategic plan we implemented coming out of the pandemic. Driving this growth over the past few years was the momentum built around five key strategic initiatives. First, creating an environment of urgency and accountability and excitement for all bankers to exceed their individual and regional goals in order to reach a higher level of expectation. Second, creating better partnerships between all lines of business, and particularly our commercial team, our commercial relationship managers, and our treasury management team. Third, diversification of our regional loan portfolios and deposit base through introduction of new lending and treasury products in the strategic markets that we serve. Fourth, recruitment of proven, high-performing bankers within our markets to enhance the existing strong commercial and consumer banking teams. Essential in these recruitment efforts was a focus on bringing talent that provided additional expertise in our growing middle market banking segment. Finally, delivering an exceptional customer experience through implementation of the Horst Schulze Excellence Wins model, which allowed us to leverage our community banking approach while delivering larger bank products and services. As equally important as growing deposits and loans is ensuring that we maintain the continued sound lending practices that we know our stockholders expect from us. Thanks in large part to our Chief Credit Officer, Luke Longhofer, and his team, our credit quality metrics continue to outperform our peer group. As shown here, First Financial Bank ended 2023 with 0.49% in non-performing assets, compared to 0.775% for the peer group. Now, with the current elevated interest rate climate and its effect on the overall economy, it is possible we could see heightened levels of classified loans and non-performing assets in the near term. However, thanks to our conservative underwriting culture, we expect to continue performing favorably relative to our peers. As we look forward to the remainder of 2024 and beyond, our team is committed to maintaining the momentum that has driven our success over these past few years. By continuing to enhance the partnerships between our relationship managers, our treasury team, and our trust department, our bankers are committed to bringing in full customer relationships that will build a sustainable and healthy balance sheet for our future. Additionally, we will continue to focus on growing our market share and our brand awareness in our newer markets, while strengthening our team with experienced bankers to ensure that safety and soundness remain the foundation of our bank. Thank you for allowing me to talk about these strategic growth initiatives for our bank. I will now turn the podium over to Kirk Thaxton, President and CEO of our trust company. Thank you. Good morning. First Financial Trust enjoyed another successful year in 2023, producing outstanding growth in both assets under management and earnings. Our total assets increased $623 million to finish the year with a book value of $7.55 billion, an increase of 9%. The market value of our assets under management were up $1.03 billion, to finish the year at $9.78 billion, an increase of 11.7%. The Trust company experienced positive earnings growth in 2023. Trust fee revenue increased $463,000, or 1.15%, from $40 million in 2022 to $40.5 million in 2023. Our earnings growth continues to be impacted by our oil and gas fee revenue. Although we experienced the second-best year in our history, our oil and gas revenue decreased $1.15 million, or 15.6%, from $7.4 million in 2022 to $6.2 million in 2023. The decrease was due primarily to decreased production and lower oil and gas prices. As you can see from the slide, our oil and gas revenue continues to vary from year to year based upon market conditions, and it remains an important line of business for us, representing approximately 15.4% of total revenue. Our after-tax net income contribution to First Financial Bankshares increased $767,000, or 3.68%, from $20.9 million in 2022 to $21.6 million in 2023. Our Bryan-College Station office is now profitable and had net income of $132,000, an increase of $242,000 over 2022. Our Beaumont office had net income growth of 64.5%, followed by our Houston office at 46.2%. 2023 was a great year for the equity, equity markets, with the S&P 500 increasing 26.3% for the year. Our best performing portfolio for the year was our strategic growth portfolio, which was up 51.53%, followed by our core portfolio, which was up 29.03% for the year. All of our portfolios have impressive long-term returns. Our core portfolio has a ten-year average return of 11.39%, while our equity income portfolio has a ten-year average return of 11.97%, which is 337 basis points per year higher than the Lipper Equity Income benchmark. Our portfolio managers, led by Chris Montoya, currently manage approximately $3.8 billion in equity assets, utilizing five different equity styles, allowing us to provide the appropriate equity strategy to meet each customer's needs and risk tolerance. 2023 was an extremely volatile year for fixed income markets. The fixed income markets were generally down most of the year, only to rally in the last two months of the year to finish with excellent returns. Our taxable bond portfolio had a total return for the year of 7.24%, while our tax-free bond portfolio had a total return of 5.29%. Bill Rowe continues to do an excellent job of managing our bond portfolios and currently manages approximately $2.9 billion in fixed income assets, in addition to the $5.2 billion managed for First Financial Bank. We continue to be excited about our newest markets. I've already mentioned the significant net income increase for our Bryan-College Station office, but their assets under management are now $255 million, an increase of $142 million over the previous year. The assets of our Beaumont office have now surpassed the $300 million milestone, which was an increase of $107 million over 2022. Our Houston office continues to grow, with assets increasing over $40 million to finish the year at $193 million. We are pleased to announce that the first quarter of 2024 has produced outstanding results. The book value of our assets under management has increased over $102 million to finish the year to reach $7.65 billion, while the market value of our assets under management surpassed the $10 billion dollar milestone and is currently at $10.15 billion. Our net income for the first quarter of $6.08 million was an increase of $775,000, or 14.6%, when compared to the first quarter of 2023. These first quarter results have us excited about the opportunities that lie before us in 2024. The foundation of our business has always been based upon relationships. We're fortunate to have worked with many families for generations. Whether it's our experience in investments, mineral management, property management, employee benefit management, or trust and estate administration, our highly talented and experienced team remains dedicated on providing unparalleled customer service to you and your families for generations to come. Thanks to each and every customer of First Financial Trust for allowing us to serve your trust and investment needs. For those of you who are not yet our customers, we look forward to the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for your attention this morning, and I return the podium to Scott. Thank you, Michelle, David, and Kirk. As you can see, the bank and the trust company performed well during a challenging year, and I'm proud that we have continued to outperform our peer group. After 36 years of increased earnings, we experienced the decline in our year-over-year net income of 2023. Let me give you a little insight on how and why this happened. These slides are being provided by Mr. Tom Michaud, President and Chief Executive Officer of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. Tom has been a longtime friend, and his firm has handled our stock for as long as I can remember. He has become the voice of the banking industry and has been on every news network station, giving the true facts about what is really going on in the banking industry. Tom was so gracious to come to Abilene and give a presentation to our board, management team, and presidents last fall. These are some of the updated slides from his presentation. As you can tell from this slide, deposits should grow about an average of 5% a year. However, during the pandemic, because of all the stimulus money, as well as the liquidity generated from PPP loans, deposits surged to all-time high. Okay, when liquidity comes into the system, you better get ready for inflation. That's the next slide. This is what happened when all that liquidity came in. As you can tell from this slide, the large amounts of liquidity, which were put into the economy, created inflation, which peaked as of June 2022. Unfortunately, as inflation took off, the Fed continued to say that it was transitory, thinking it would come down on its own, but it didn't. Inflation doesn't just come down. How many times have you walked into a restaurant that increased their prices and then decreased them later? Our salaries, how many times have you given somebody a salary increase and then decreased it when inflation went down? It doesn't happen. It sets a new level, and all you can do is slow inflation and try to marry the two, because it's not gonna come back. And so, you know, the Fed waited way too long, and then when they realized they'd made a mistake and didn't start doing something earlier, that this was not transitory, they did it extremely fast. If you look at the blue line right there, you see that in the second slide, the blue line reflects where the Fed started raising interest rates, and it did it 11 times to increase rates 525 basis points over a 16-month period, which is the fastest interest rate tightening cycle in four decades. Okay. Most of the banking industry was not prepared for interest rates to go up this high and fast. After 10 years of low interest rates, we were caught with bond portfolios that were fixed around 2.3% and fixed rate loans from 4%-5%. Unfortunately, depository rates went up faster than the bond portfolio or the loan portfolios could reprice, which cut our margin in interest and, interest income. Positively for our bank, we have about $50 million in bonds that mature monthly, which allowed us to fund the growth in loans that David was just showing you that we had last year. At the same time, we moved those dollars from making 2.3% up to 8%. So every month that we came through the year, things got better and will continue as we go forward. As the maturity securities will continue to fund our growth in the loan portfolio and will allow us to purchase some higher rate bonds, which should increase our net interest margin and net interest income as we go along. Of course, higher interest rates has also slowed the housing market, which lowered the volume of mortgage loans made and lowered our mortgage income by $7 million in 2023. It's very hard to predict what rates are however, we're much better structured to have an interest increase in earning, have an increase in earnings this year, as we saw in the first quarter. Although 2023 was a challenging year for the entire banking industry, it's also a year of opportunities, and I'm proud of the many accomplishments that we recorded during the year, which included growing deposits when most banks' deposits rolled off, building new relationships by growing 12,500 net new accounts, growing loans by $707 million, and increasing the market value of trust assets to $9.8 billion, and now, already this year, over $10 billion, which is a great milestone. Being named the seventh best bank in the country by S&P Global. We were able to limit our non-interest expense growth, considering that over $4 million in additional FDIC assessments. That's what we had to give up to pay for the banks that failed last year. Now, when people say, "Well, the government lost that money," the government did not lose that money. They have never paid for bank losses. We do that with our insurance policy and with additional money that we have to put in, and we put in first quarter an additional amount, again, to cover those losses. So it's not the federal government that takes those losses. It's the banking industry that pays for those banks that don't do a good job and get themselves into trouble, unfortunately. The largest increase-decrease in expenses was realized in officer incentives of $2.3 million and profit-sharing expense of $2.9 million. Because part of the formula on both of these compensation categories is growth in earnings, which aligns us with you, our stockholders.... Because if we don't increase earnings for you, we also realize a decline in compensation. When I realized in midyear that we were probably going to have a fairly large decline in earnings, I personally cut my compensation in half by not taking any bonuses, stock options, RSUs, and PSUs for the year. This decision was not the board's. It was my decision. Because, number one, the buck stops with me. I wanted to align myself with you, our stockholders, because if you're going to have lower earnings, I am certainly going to cut expenses. Two, I did not want my compensation to prevent any of our employees from getting as much profit sharing as they could. Three, this allowed me to go to our presidents and our department managers and ask them to cut their budgets and overhead costs, with them knowing that I was the first one to do it. Although I received some criticism from my fellow CEOs at other banks that thought, "Well, that's pretty dadgum stupid." If you do the right things for the right reasons, it always seems to work out the best, and it did. Here's our footprint. Our philosophy of continuing to be the community bank that doesn't focus on the big cities, but the smaller communities that is around the major metropolitan areas, where we are not fighting the big banks, but have the growth factor from the larger cities, has worked very, very well for us. This philosophy has worked well for us, and being spread across the state, has created diversity in the types of customers and economies that make up our bank. Our footprint spans from Hereford in the Panhandle to Orange and Southeast Texas, right down to the coast of Texas at Palacios. In our business, we're always updating and improving our locations to meet the needs of our fast-paced, technology-driven customers. In March 2023, we opened our new location in Huntsville to replace our two buildings we had across the street. The state-of-the-art, 8,850 sq ft building is home to our Huntsville employees and will better serve our customers with the latest in technology. Also, in March 2023, First Financial Bank's Bryan-College Station region opened its new location at 2445 Harvey Mitchell Parkway South, on the northwest corner of Harvey Mitchell Parkway and Earl Rudder Freeway. This new state-of-the-art, 16,000 sq ft branch, which features a large lobby, offices for the lending, mortgage, and trust officers. This new building is one of the best locations in Bryan-College Station and gives our customer easier access to our people and services. In August 2023, having a successful loan production office, First Financial Bank, Bryan-College Station region, was approved to open a new branch at 100 West Decker Street in Franklin, Texas. This banking team, made up of local Franklin bankers, is led by Justin Kliebert and Justin Salcedo. Last week, on April 15th, Bryan-College Station region moved into its new location at 1622 North Earl Rudder Freeway in Bryan. This state-of-the-art, 3,300 sq ft branch, with 3 motor bank lanes and an ATM lane, is the new location for a former location that we had in a convenience store, with only 1 drive-up lane. Unfortunately, it happened to be our busiest location, but we had the least asset to serve that location. So needless to say, our customers and employees are really excited about this new location, since it will serve our customers so much better than the former location. I will say, when we bought Bryan-College Station, it was number 4 in a very over-banked market. Our goal is to be number 1 in that over-banked market, and we have given them the assets to do that, and now we expect our team at Bryan-College Station to take it up the ladder. Okay, talk about management changes. When we grew $4 billion during the pandemic and ended 2021 with $13 billion in assets, and we didn't expect to grow to $13 billion. Let me tell you, that was something that happened, and there was no going back. We moved into a completely different regulatory environment with many more expectations. We needed to bring in higher-level people with more experience that could help us meet the regulatory requirements and, at the same time, prepare our bank to be a 20+ billion-dollar bank. Many of the following individuals were hired with that expertise so that we can continue to grow, meeting the current regulatory expectations. You have to put this in perspective. All of us, of us, including me, that have grown up at the bank, and I came when the bank was about $500 million, don't have the expertise of running a $20 billion bank. And so it's extremely important that we, that have the knowledge of where we've been and what we've done, bring in those people that can take us to the next level, okay? So watch this. And Michelle was one of our first ones. In January 2023, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., announced the election of Michelle Hickox as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Michelle formerly served as Chief Financial Officer of Independent Bank Group, Inc., which is called IBTX, and its subsidiary, Independent Bank, an $18 billion publicly traded bank holding company based in McKinney, Texas. At IBTX, she led the company through its initial public offering in 2013 and played a key role in 10 acquisitions during her tenure, and she was, and she is a certified public accountant and a graduate of Texas A&M University. Also, in January 2023, First Financial Bank's Board of Directors elected Mike Parker as Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. Mike brings more than 17 years in compliance experience to First Financial, including most recent post as a Director of Compliance Governance with USAA Federal Savings Bank. He has also held positions with Capital One and Aspire Financial Corporation in compliance and audit director roles. He is a native of Western New York and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University. In September 2023, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., announced the appointment of Javier Gerardo as Executive Vice President and Chief Audit Executive. He oversees the execution and executes internal audit planning and reporting, and reports directly to the audit committee. Javier brings more than 19 years of audit experience to First Financial, including his most recent post as audit management at large banks and public, and a public accounting firm. He worked with US Bank, starting in October 2019, also held positions with large organizations like BBVA USA, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he started his career. A native of Puerto Rico, Javier earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. In November 2023, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., announced the election of Megan Dobbs as Executive Vice President of Marketing. Megan joined First Financial after working as a Director of Marketing and Communications for Bally Sports in Dallas, where she oversaw creative services, partner marketing, and public relations for the Regional Sports Network. Previously, Megan held senior positions at the Community Foundation of Abilene and the Center for Contemporary Arts, and she was a news anchor and news director at KTAB/KRBC in Abilene. Megan is a graduate of Texas A&M University-Commerce. Also, in November 2022-2023, First Financial Bankshares, Inc., announced the appointment of Keith Morton as Executive Vice President, Southeast Texas Area Credit Administration. Keith oversees the credit functions of our Southeast Texas regions. Keith previously served as Senior Vice President of Special Assets at Capital One in Houston, where he has an extensive 20-year tenure. Keith earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from McNeese State University and a Master's of Business Administration degree in Finance from Louisiana State University. Keith replaced Marna Yergan, who retired from the company after a 12-year tenure, overseeing the credit in Fort Worth and then in Southeast Texas. We will miss Marna, and we certainly appreciate her years of service. In January 2024, First Financial Bankshares Board of Directors elected Eric Bunnell as the Director of Enterprise Risk Management. Eric oversees the enterprise risk management framework to provide more transparency into our structure for proactive risk management. Eric comes to First Financial from Atlantic Union Bank, a $21 billion bank in Richmond, Virginia, where he was instrumental in developing the bank's ERM framework. Eric earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree from Manhattan College and a Master's of Science degree from Iona College.... Also in January 2024, First Financial Bank announced the promotion of Lori Hill to Executive Vice President, Retail. Lori is an excellent selection for this position because of her 25 years of experience with the company. Lori began her career at First Financial while attending Abilene Christian University. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President, Retail Administrator of First Financial Bank, Weatherford. In her new role, Lori will lead all retail initiatives and will work with each of the regional presidents and chief operating officers to ensure that we have the best retail team in Texas. In January 2024, the board of directors of First Financial Bank, Southeast Region, announced the promotion of Blaine Callais to Regional President. Blaine started his career at First Financial Bank, Southeast Region, over 13 years ago, and most recently served as the Mid-County Market President beginning in 2016. Blaine is a graduate of Lamar University, Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU, Leadership Southeast Texas, Texas Bankers Association, Management Development Training Program, and FFIN University. He is the seventh president of one of our regional banks to have started with the company and have moved up through our training programs to become a president of one of our regions. You will continue to see our younger generation move up to higher level positions and take on more responsibility of the company as the natural evolution of retirements take place. The board has a good management succession plan, and I can assure you that our younger team, who already have or will be moving to higher positions, are well qualified and prepared to lead this company in the future. Our bank has always adhered to the philosophy that we are only as successful as the communities that we serve. To become a better bank, we strive to improve the quality of life in every one of our communities. Besides providing the latest in financial services, we participate in local, nonprofit, civic, and church boards, volunteering our time and helping raise money. The work our team does every day amazes me. We spotlight their efforts with our annual Day of Service, which last year took place on October ninth, the Columbus Day holiday. On that occasion, we had 990 employees who gave up their holiday to serve 81 agencies and organizations across Texas. We design our banking products and services to meet the needs of all neighborhoods, from the lowest to the highest income. I am especially proud of our ongoing contribution in low-income neighborhoods, where we teach classes in financial literacy, home buying, and fraud prevention. We also offer classes on how to utilize our products and services, such as our very competitive free checking, affordable home mortgage loan product, and our ITIN mortgage loan product. A great example of how the bank can make a big difference in low-income areas is the Landmark at Abilene, which is a redevelopment project. Here, the bank is partnering with the Overland Property Group, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and the Midwest Housing Equity Group. We have committed $5.5 million to support the historic renovation of the former Travis Elementary School into low-income housing units for senior citizens. We're eager to see the completion of this project, which has already created other redevelopment in this low-income area. First Financial Bankshares, Inc. embraces and promotes a culture of diversity and inclusion, which we seek to attract, recruit, and retain employees who bring to our company diverse backgrounds, orientations, beliefs, and cultures, and interests. We believe that having a diverse team strengthens our company by bringing together people with different ideas, skills, and experiences, and by enabling our customers, regardless of their race and other characteristics, to feel at home when they come visit our locations. We also continue to refresh and diversify our regional and subsidiary boards, which have 27 women and minorities as board members. These boards are made up of the top businessmen and women in each of our markets. We appreciate the participation of these fine men and women. Their expertise, experience, and guidance helps us to better serve our communities. We were very pleased to announce that First Financial Bank, N.A., and First Financial Trust, an asset management company, have successfully converted their charters as of yesterday to a Texas banking association and a Texas-chartered trust company, respectively. The bank has been a national bank since its inception in 1890. The trust company has been a national trust company since its inception in 2003. For you, as our customers and stockholders, it will be business as usual with our continued focus on you. We think that the charter conversions make the most sense for the company and its shareholders moving forward, as we are excited about being true Texas entities. We expect the conversion will lead to better communications with our regulators. The bank will continue to be a member of the Federal Reserve System and maintain FDIC insurance. Although 2023 was a challenging year for the banking industry, we used those challenges to bolster our strategy for overcoming the rapidly rising interest rates. We restructured our balance sheet, grew deposits, loans, and trust assets. We believe we are well-prepared to perform even better in the coming years, since we have continued to upgrade our staff with higher performers. I could not be more pleased with our younger people who have taken on new positions across our company over the past several years, and who have accepted more responsibilities to support our growth. Our priorities are to achieve organic growth in loans with a focus on credit quality, obviously, to grow our deposits and trust relationships, improve our non-interest income, and control expenses. With our economy slowing and with banks trying to adjust to the rapid rises in interest rates and losses in their bond portfolios, we do not see many banks choosing to sell at this time. There's just no way they can get what they think their bank's worth, and so they don't want to put it on the market. However, I expect that by the end of 2024, we will start seeing banks come to the market, and hopefully, we will able to find the right bank to bring into our company. I can assure you, we are extremely eager to get back to buying banks and growing the company through acquisitions. We have installed and are in the process of installing new systems for new accounts, lending, accounting, and trust services. Each of these systems is bringing us state-of-the-art technology and will enhance our efficiency. I'm very pleased to work with such dedicated and talented professional team of board members, officers, and employees. They've continued to go well beyond the call of duty in providing our customers and our communities with exceptional service, and I thank each one of them. As you can tell from the decrease in the profit sharing and compensation for 2023, we align ourselves with you, our shareholders, who are so loyal and supportive of our company. We are ready to move onward, never forgetting that we work for you. The 2024 annual meeting of First Financial Bankshares, Inc., is now adjourned, and we invite each of you to join us for the famous Perini Luncheon in the Exhibit Hall. Please turn right as you exit this conference room. I highly encourage you to attend the luncheon to hear Sally Pope Davis, retired investor with Goldman Sachs, speak. We have plenty of buffet lines to serve you quickly. However, for those of you who do not feel comfortable in going through the buffet lines, all you have to do is sit down, and our servers will bring lunch to you. Thank you for coming today, and we look forward to seeing you at the luncheon. We're adjourned.