Okay, great. Good afternoon, everyone. Tom Stephan with Stifel. Really excited to introduce STAAR Surgical and have them participate in our ophthalmology forum this year. Warren, Deborah, really excited to have you and appreciate you taking the time. You bet. Thanks, Tom. Great to be with you and thanks to Stifel for the opportunity. Perfect. Have about 25, 30 minutes. I'm going to jump right into Q&A. A lot I kind of want to try to cover. I'll kick things off with sort of China and a little bit backward-looking. I'll start with 2025 in China. Warren, for you to start off, maybe if you can level set us on what you believe last year end market volume growth and overall refractive was in China in 2025, and then what your best estimate for in-market ICL volumes was relative to that market growth. Yeah, it's a good question, Tom. Listen, the data around China, what happens in the market in actual procedures is still going to be a cloudy number. I don't think we've said exactly what we believe there, but I think if you just look at some publicly available comments, look at Aier's revenue around + 10% or so for 2025. Huaxia, similar, Bright Eye, maybe half of that. That's on the revenue side. On the procedure side, it's hard to say. We know that they have made points around taking advantage of the premium opportunity with SMILE pro and with EVO ICLs. We know that price is a component of that. If you look at what ZEISS has said, they describe the refractive market for last year as essentially stable. I think we think that around that same level. We don't think it's declined in the way that we've seen the pressure of the last couple of years. I think it's probably a stable market, is the best way to describe it from a procedure standpoint. Obviously, we benefited because the higher price, and particularly as we exited 2025 and started with very small quantities of EVO+, we see advancements in ASP there. That gives you a flavor for how we think the market is behaving in China. Got it. 2025, it sounds like market on a volume standpoint may be relatively stable. When you look at kind of the Aier's and some of the publicly traded companies there, on a revenue side, they reported higher numbers, higher percent growth rates, possibly indicative of higher ASP procedures gaining share. Does that give you some confidence that last year in market ICL volumes possibly grew above that stable sort of end market volume growth rate? Is that fair directionally? Yeah, look, what we love, the market in China was in hypergrowth for a period of time, and that started declining in that end of 2023, 2024 timeframe. We saw more stability in 2025. We felt good about that as we go into 2026. Of course, just had a positive quarter. We think that that momentum, some of it's price, some of it's volume, we feel like we're capturing share. We think as the market returns, all that's going to pay dividends for us. Got it. Okay, perfect. You kind of alluded to the first quarter. China 1Q refractive market volume growth, do you think that accelerated a bit relative to full year 2025? For ICL volume growth as well, it's an interesting comp year ago. Do you think you grew above market from a volume standpoint in the first quarter in particular? Yeah, comp the year ago become challenging, of course, because of some of the noise. What we've talked about and we love is Q1 is the first real clean quarter that we've seen because we got a lot of the noise around inventory out of the system. I think it's important to remember that when we're talking about end market, and remember, we talk about end market procedures, we're not actually talking about implants. What we're talking about is our visibility to what happens at the importer level, downstream to the hospitals, and downstream to the sub distributors. We have really good, and we've established really good visibility to that over the course of the last even couple of quarters. Now that we feel good about that, what you're seeing is the end of 2024, really the whole year in 2024, was a pretty substantial decline. 2025 stabilized. We see maybe even slight mid-range growth, mid-single digits. Nothing has changed about that in our view from the Q1 standpoint. We're sort of pleased as we went into Q1 relative to how 2025 had stabilized. Obviously, we believe we took some share, and we think that ASP improvements also contributed to the strong first quarter that we had in China and more broadly. Got it. Okay, perfect. Last sort of backwards-looking question, if you will, on China before sort of moving more forward-looking. In 1Q 2026, you were very clear that China sales were reflective of in-market demand and that stocking or inventory dynamics were not at play. A clean quarter, as you characterized it, Warren. Can you sort of help us reconcile that and the strong, I think it was $47 million in 1Q China sales with 3Q 2025 sales in China normalized that were around $30 million, and 4Q at, I think it was $18 million. How do we sort of reconcile the $47 million versus what occurred in the back half of 2025 in China? Yeah. It seems like a long time ago, I guess. The reality is that a lot of things were happening in the organization, and you described it as sort of a reconciled or a run rate amount for Q3. Obviously, Q3 had the benefit of the revenue that we recognized for the 2024 timeframe. How much of that we can exactly say happened in the quarter versus didn't happen in the quarter, it's hard to say. Meanwhile, we're in the middle of a transaction with Alcon, which no doubt drove some concern and some challenges with importers in China in this discussion, but with our other importers and distributors around the world. It's hard to make a lot of sense of that. What we know is that the in-market procedures in Q3 of the 2025 timeframe, that was softer than we expected it to be. If you go back and you think about the 2025 that we talked about mid-single digit growth from an in-market procedure standpoint, some of that was front-loaded in the Q1, even late or early Q2 timeframe because of the military conscription. The laser companies described this as well. Now, how much of that borrowed from Q3? Don't know. Hard to say, but that could be a factor. Clearly, as we exit in 2025, very soft as the distributors manage their inventory, very soft as our customers downstream may have managed their inventory. Clearly, the new baseline that was established from an inventory standpoint allowed us to bounce off of that platform as we went into 2026. Okay. Got it. Go ahead. That was it. Oh, sorry. Perfect. No, that's super clear. Appreciate that, Warren. Maybe to shift more sort of forward-looking, I'll start on the second quarter in China. Deborah, you talked about 2Q showing normal historical trends. I think that was sort of roughly your wording on the earnings call. It might've been a worldwide comment, but I'd imagine China is included in that. Deborah or Warren, for either of you, in China, maybe if you can talk about the trends you're seeing quarter to date, and if they continue to track kind of towards that normal seasonality that you talked about, or if maybe something has reversed since the earnings call. Yeah. I want to kind of make a little bit of a correction. Our historical pattern of seasonality in China does appear to be changing with the pull forward of military orders from Q2 a little bit and Q3 most certainly. This began in Q1 2025, and Q1 2026 appears to follow exactly the same pattern. As a result, now what I want to correct is that while we're seeing strong Q2, we don't expect to see the kind of step-up that we saw historically between Q1 and Q2. We may see similar results to what we've seen in Q1, maybe a little stronger, to be determined. Okay. In Q3, it could be the volume's down a little bit because the seasonality factor. Q4 both in China and globally has been our weakest quarter of the year, and I expect that trend to continue in 2026. Okay. Got it. Super helpful. In the second quarter, when you say similar results because of maybe some changes in seasonality relative to history, was that a worldwide comment or just specific to China? Just China. Just China. Got it. Yeah. Okay. Super helpful. With the military pull forward dynamic, is that something ICL is also susceptible to? I was previously under the impression that that was really a laser vision correction only dynamic. Is ICL also kind of exposed to those pull-forward effects? That appears to be the case. I was very skeptical when people were giving me that comment last year. I thought, "Okay, well, yeah, a little bit of pull forward maybe, but come on." When we saw the super result in Q1, we were expecting a good result, obviously, but not to that extent. Right. I'd have to believe that's probably true. That's why giving guidance is kind of tough. I really need to kind of see the trend. If we see the same trends as we saw last year in the market, then I will say for sure that I think the seasonality trends have completely changed from what they've been ever since I can remember in China. Tom, to your point, ICLs aren't used for military patients, but imagine what's happening. If you're sitting in China historically in the Q3 timeframe, now more so in the Q1 timeframe, when military candidates are going through conscription, and they have to have an eye test, and all of the different public hospitals and private hospitals, because there's a lot of noise in the market around this influx of potential patients that are coming in, they're vying for these people. Right. They're advertising. They're reaching out to them. Some percentage of them come in, they have thin corneas, they have endothelial cell counts that don't allow it, they have keratoconus, they have other non-quals like dry eye that EVO ICL doesn't induce further symptoms of dry eye. They end up with EVO ICLs, even if they end up not in the military. In that circumstance. One year is one year, but there's a halo effect that we've seen. We'll see if it plays out as we go forward from a seasonality standpoint. Okay. Makes sense. Really helpful. Last question, kind of trends wise. Understand that seasonality may be evolving a little bit, but the summer high season is still sort of upon us. Your distributors, I think around this time, I believe they do start to give signals on their expectations for the summer high season. Based on those discussions, what is sort of the early outlook on demand expectations for, call it like June and July, when volumes usually start to ramp up pretty significantly, but maybe less so now? Talk about kind of what the distributors are potentially signaling for summer high season expectations in China. Look, we're ready for the high season. We have the added opportunity and complexity of having EVO+ in the market this year for the high season. You can predict that the distributors are wanting to get outfitted with V5, with EVO+, to be ready for that high season. As you know, at the end of last year, we were scaling up the Nidau, Switzerland plant. We're doing everything we can to meet demand for V5. First quarter, we were pleased. We saw more demand than even we expected. Let's see how that plays out in Q2. We're certainly ready for the high season. We're hopeful that it comes through. We haven't really given any insight yet to what we're seeing, because we want to make sure that we see those procedures come through as actual procedures rather than shipments downstream. Nothing to be concerned about at this point. Got it. Okay. Makes sense. Very helpful, Warren. Looking a little bit more long term and taking a look more globally, to shift sort of ex-China, a lot of China talk so far. For revenue ex-China in 2026, is the mid-single digit percent growth rate that we saw in 1Q the right way to think about the full year? I'm just asking as we kind of weigh, I think, a lot of puts and takes ex-China, between Middle East pressures, U.S. performing well, EMEA direct, I think, doing well. Talk about how we should think about sort of that full year 2026 ex-China growth rate relative to 1Q's kind of +6% or mid-single digit percent growth. Yeah. We were really happy with the performance outside of China. Every single one of our markets, with the exception, as you said, of Middle East and India, grew. Several of them grew by double digits. That's very exciting for us to see. We're optimistic that this will continue, but we continue to have geopolitical and macroeconomic issues that are real. We remain cautious about the outlook. Okay. Makes sense. It's probably a good segue into sort of one of my last questions here on revs, but discussed on the call why you're not guiding, and Deborah, you just mentioned the geopolitical and macro dynamics at play. As the Street thinks about their models, 1Q, normal by all accounts, 2Q, maybe a little bit of atypical seasonality, then, Deborah, you kind of elaborated on the back half, potentially a little bit more of a step down. From a seasonality standpoint and as we're trying to model out the full year, is that the right framework for, we know what 1Q revs are. It was a clean quarter by all accounts. Then should we be modeling out kind of our quarterly numbers based on that cadence to get us to a full year? Hopefully, that question makes sense. Yeah. It's just important that you model out China versus outside of China, because the dynamics are very different. Actually, you have procedures decline, for example, in the U.S. and in Europe in the summer months. Right. They increase in China, but they decline in the U.S. and Europe. Those can have an offsetting effect, or will have an offsetting effect to a certain degree when you talk about total sales. Right. Got it. Okay. Think about that sort of 3Q, even more pronounced seasonality in Europe and the U.S. when thinking about the full year. Okay, perfect. Want to shift gears a little bit. You guys have laid out kind of your three key pillars really nicely, and you're delivering on them. Innovation is one of them. Warren, maybe for you, it'd be great if you can elaborate on sort of more specifically what innovation looks like from STAAR, and I'll call it the near to intermediate term. Is it enhancements to the existing portfolio? Is it product portfolio expansion? Is it leveraging Collamer for different avenues? How do we think about innovation, call it over the next couple of years for STAAR? What should we be on the lookout for? Sure. Great question. Look, one of the things that we want to do is make sure we're recognizing innovation in all the forms that it comes. It's no small feat to bring EVO+ to China, our largest market, and to take the opportunity to have both price opportunity, but a differentiated offering for patients in China. We're excited about that. That is the near-term focus from an innovation standpoint, to make sure that we deliver on that promise. That's important. There are other things that are of interest to us in the near term, like delivering on the new ERP system, which is infrastructure, future-proofing this business into many years. Think about coming off of a 25 or maybe even 30-year-old ERP system that now we're going to modernize, and that's going to unlock all sorts of opportunities for us. Efficiency opportunities, cost-saving opportunities, but also just to harden the organization to make it stronger for the long term. That's important. I know that's not as exciting as talking about product innovation in the next 12 months. It's critical that we think like this as we build out this organization for the future. When you think about what are the innovations for the future, we've said we have high interest. Obviously, in many ways, we're a material science company. The differentiation that Collamer has offered us is unmatched for 32 or so years in eyes around the world and being safe and effective, by far the most studied device in the eye. We want to continue to build off of that. We're focused on things like extended depth of focus and presbyopia. We have an early play in that with EVO Viva outside the U.S. We're looking at how we can make that better. We're looking at materials in potentially other parts of the body. You said that. I do believe that the Collamer has been so effective in the eye. There's many other things in the eye that we should be able to take advantage of. Looking at next-generation product as you think about it for myopia is important. Looking at next-generation product as you think about emerging presbyopes, I think is important. Then looking at things like just the delivery systems that we use. Sizes, diopters, all of these represent innovation opportunities. Maybe in the near term, it's the more iterative, and maybe in the mid to long term, it's going to be things like our next generation. We haven't talked about them yet, but we hope to, by the end of the year, be able to start laying out a little bit of how we see the innovation roadmap specific to product. We'll look forward to doing that later in the year. Fantastic. No, looking forward to that. That's super helpful. Then going back to revenue and want to think a little bit more long term. 2026, a little bit of a weird year, again, with comps being a little wonky, at least in the first half. At the 2023 Investor Day, the company did highlight a 15%-20% revenue CAGR. Obviously, a lot has happened since then from an end market standpoint, and sort of everything in between. In 2027 and beyond, as we think about innovation, does STAAR still view itself as a 15%-20% top-line grower, or is maybe 10%-15% the right range to think about, at least for the time being? Not asking to provide a new LRP, but I'm just curious internally how the company thinks about itself from a top-line growth standpoint. Look, as you said, Tom, a lot has changed and has gone on since 2023. We've clearly not given any guidance on growth rates, but I think it's important, a lot of the fundamentals have not changed, and that is what I talked about before with Collamer. The differentiation that Collamer offers this organization is, in our view, unmatched, and so that competitive advantage still exists. One of the things that's changed pretty dramatically is the macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds that we have faced into over the last couple of years, if not last several years. We're focused on controlling the things we can control, which is taking share in the markets that we play in, which is trying to bring forward and advance the new versions of our technology, EVO+ in China is a great example, and then driving execution as we build out the infrastructure of the company. Investing in ERP, investing in salesforce enablement, investing in talent, investing in R&D, so that when markets come back, when we face less uncertainty, that taking share is going to allow us to grow beyond what the market's growing, whatever the market rate is. Maybe that's high, maybe it's double digits, maybe it's high double digits. We feel like we'll have an advantage to grow beyond that when that time comes. Got it. That's great. Super helpful. Last minute or two that we have. Obviously, profit expansion, another key pillar. I wanted to ask sort of on adjusted EBITDA. Company has, as I'd say, nicely rationalized the cost base, posting some really strong EBITDA in the first quarter. I feel like that got overlooked a little bit relative to the top line. Deborah, maybe for you, strategically or operationally, what are the most significant or meaningful ways that STAAR can push EBITDA margin even higher from here? What are the drivers in the, I'll call it intermediate to long term, for continued profit expansion as we think sort of beyond the recent cost cuts that you made late last year? In my view, I think we have lots of opportunity to further expand our EBITDA margins. Of course, there may be areas where we'll want to make incremental new investments, like in R&D, most certainly. As we launch new products, there will be clinical trials that will push our operating expenses up. There's still lots of opportunities to improve that margin. Even in the short term, we're going to see gross profit margin improvement as our Swiss facility comes to full manufacturing volumes, and which the additional volume will improve our overhead absorption rates. We have expiring inventory coming through from a product that was manufactured in 2023, 2024, whenever it's going to be coming back returned and going through our cost of goods sold this year. That won't happen again next year. That'll improve in 2027. Then, look, we are looking at ways how we can further improve our gross margin through process improvements. Now that our ERP implementation is complete, we can look at AI and how AI can enhance and improve our operations. We're not really looking to make cost cuts as a result of AI, but how can we increase our efficiencies overall with the adoption of AI? Our targeted OPEX run rate this year anyway is $225 million. We're going to stick with that. We did much better in Q1 than that overall and on a run rate basis. We think we have lots of opportunities, and we'll continue to drive efficiencies in our EBITDA margins. Perfect. Great note to end on. Warren, Deborah, thanks so much for participating this year. It's always great to catch up and looking forward to speaking again soon. You got it. Thanks, Tom. Thanks very much, Tom. All right. Take care.