The IR Magazine Awards – Canada 2024 will take place on Thursday, April 4 in Toronto. This very special event honors excellence in the investor relations profession across Canada and we were excited to welcome everyone for an evening of fine food and lots of celebrating!
Since the annual event first launched in 1996, tens of thousands of analysts and investors have voted in the surveys that fuels the awards. The result: vital benchmarking information on which companies do the best IR. In recent years, the awards program has expanded to recognize more aspects of an IRO’s role as we add new categories to the list and give IR teams the opportunity to nominate themselves.
By popular demand, we present two types of award categories – researched and nominated – both celebrating the success of those individuals and companies that are leading the way in IR across Canada.
For our researched categories, companies do not submit nominations. Instead, hundreds of analysts and investors cast their votes and give their opinions on which companies provide the best IR service. In our nominated categories, companies submit written entries to articulate their success and achievements from the past year, giving any publicly listed company the opportunity to be considered for an award.
For our awards-by-nomination categories, individuals and companies are given the opportunity to submit written entries, free of charge, to be put forward to a panel of expert judges made up of investment professionals and IR Magazine editorial team members.
We are now accepting entries for 2024! Please click here to access the entry form. The extended deadline for submissions is midnight (ET) on Friday, December 8.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 8004 4989.
The awards-by-nomination categories differ from our traditional researched awards, as individuals and companies are given the opportunity to submit written entries, free of charge, to be put forward to a panel of expert judges made up of investment professionals and IR Magazine editorial team members.
The judging process consists of three simple phases:
Phase one: Once the entry deadline has passed, the IR Magazine editorial team reviews all submissions and produces the short list
Phase two: The short-listed entries are shared with an independent judging panel made up of industry experts. The judges review each short-listed entry and select their top two picks per category
Phase three: The judges come together to discuss, debate and select the final list of winners who will go on to win an award
The judges’ votes are not made public, but their comments may be published in articles or reports after the event. Judges are not required to make comments against every submission.
We are delighted to announce our judging panel for the 2024 awards! Click on each photo below to find out more.
Our awards-by-research nominees are determined by the input of hundreds of analysts and portfolio managers, who give their opinions on which companies provide them with the best IR service in Canada. Every year we invite any publicly listed company to submit their list of buy and sell-side analysts and portfolio managers, so that they have the opportunity to vote via our survey.
View the full list of nominees and winners by clicking here.
If you have any questions on this process or wish to access our data sharing agreement, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page. For any further queries about the research process, please contact [email protected].
The first thing to explain is that our awards are different from most others: for our awards by research, companies do not submit nominations. The winners are identified by in-depth research and any publicly traded company is eligible to be considered. This survey is the only one of its kind to go directly to the investment community, via a combination of an electronic survey and one-to-one telephone interviews, canvassing the opinions of the people who matter to you most.
July 2023: Sample selection
IR Magazine has been building investment community databases for more than 30 years. As part of the updating process, listed companies are contacted every year for details of the professionals who currently cover their stock. These details are combined with IHS Markit’s list of US investment community contacts to produce a total of around 50,000 investors and analysts.
September – November 2023: Telephone survey
The telephone survey then gets under way. The researchers conduct in-depth interviews with an additional 250 portfolio managers and analysts across the US and Canada. Many of them participate in the study year after year, but there is always a healthy proportion of new respondents each year as well. As the research progresses, the sample is adjusted to ensure appropriate weightings are maintained.
October 2023: Electronic survey
IR Magazine then conducts an electronic survey of buy-side and sell-side analysts and portfolio managers. The electronic survey typically receives 200 individual responses from the investment community. These responses then go to Mary Maude Research for initial analysis. The research firm determines what will constitute a representative sample, weighted for industry sector.
Results analysis
Once the survey stage of the research is completed, the final analysis is undertaken. The companies with the highest scores make the short lists for the awards categories, and the points are further analyzed to identify the best exponents of IR by sector. The independence of our research is crucial to the integrity of the whole awards program, so IR Magazine sees the results only once the research is complete. This ensures a transparent, independent set of results that IROs can trust as a valuable bench-marking tool.
January 2024: Short list compiled
IR Magazine receives the results in January and contacts the short-listed companies to give them the good news. The short list is then published to the entire IR community the month before the event.
April 4, 2024: Winners announced
And finally… the winners are announced live at the black tie awards gala on Thursday, April 4, 2024!
April 2024: Report published
Shortly after the awards, the Investor Perception Study – Canada 2024 report is published and made available to IR Magazine subscribers. This report will profile the top ranked companies and reveal information on how they conduct their IR activities and why investors voted for them.
Attendees at this event are leading IR practitioners from across Canada. Each participant is someone with an established track record and a strategic IR role within his or her company.
Below is a sample of some of our past attendees:
Job title | Company | Job title | Company | |
AVP, IR | Canadian Tire | Director, visual communications | Air Canada | |
AVP, IR and capital markets | Sun Life | Head of IR and corporate sustainability | Air Canada | |
CEO | Calian | Head of IR | BMO Financial Group | |
CFO | Alamos Gold | MD, global head of corporate access | Scotiabank | |
CFO | Black Diamond Group | President and CEO | Alamos Gold | |
CFO | Calian | Senior advisor, IR | TransAlta | |
CFO | DIRTT Environmental Solutions | Senior advisor, IR | WSP Global | |
CFO | Tricon Residential | SVP, general counsel | DIRTT Environmental Solutions | |
Chairman and CEO | Karora Resources | SVP, general counsel | Cineplex | |
COO | Alamos Gold | VP, corporate affairs | Aecon Group | |
Director, corp development and IR | Aecon Group | VP, IR | Carbon Streaming | |
Director, IR | BMO Financial Group | VP, IR | Cenovus Energy | |
Director, IR | Karora Resources | VP, IR | Endeavour Silver | |
Director, IR | Canopy Growth Corporation | VP, IR | Fortis | |
Director, IR | Nutrien | VP, IR | Eldorado Gold Corporation | |
Director, IR and communications | Yamana Gold | VP, IR | Osisko Gold Royalties | |
Director, IR and corp development | Martinrea International | VP, IR | OpenText | |
Director, IR and strategy | Cronos Group | VP, strategy and IR | NFI Group |
Why partner with us?
Our awards provide a unique opportunity to get in front of some of the most influential people in the Canadian IR community. As a partner, you will gain an extensive amount of exposure through a wide range of print and digital marketing materials, both pre and post event, as well as on the day itself. Additionally, you can use the event to align yourself with IR excellence and network with key decision makers from across the region – the ones pushing the profession forward through innovation.
Partnering with the event will provide:
All our partnerships are created using a mix of branding, thought leadership, lead generation and meetings with your target audience. You tell us your objectives and we will work with you to create you a package that’s makes sense for your company and will help you achieve those objectives. To find out more get in touch with Ian Richman or call on +1 212 430 6865.
Awards Partners
Corporate Advisory, Reinvented
People
In a global community, relationships matter more now than ever before. Our team is comprised of world-renowned experts who laud the most effective strategic relationships, ensuring the best-case scenario for the future of your company.
Data
Business intelligence is more than information for information’s sake. The quality and timeliness of that data, reinforced by expert analysis of all pertinent information, differentiate business success from failure.
Process
As a public company, you need a partner who not only has the relationships, deep analysis, and access to real-time data to position your company for future growth, you need a visionary group that uses their unmatched experience to reinvent how things are done to achieve your goals faster and more effectively than anyone else.
We are Alliance Advisors.
For more information, please visit our website.
Broadridge, a global fintech leader with $4 billion in revenue, provides communications, technology, data and analytics. We help drive business transformation with solutions for enriching client engagement, navigating risk, optimizing efficiency and generating revenue growth. We power the entire investment lifecycle, from trading, portfolio management and financial advisory to omni-channel communications. Part of the Canadian financial services community for three decades, our footprint spans the big five banks, one-third of North American wealth management firms and 75 percent of the mailboxes in North America. We are uniquely positioned to help clients get ahead of today’s challenges and capitalize on what’s next.
Broadridge also delivers a single-source solution to help corporations simplify securityholder management, efficiently navigate regulatory and compliance communication requirements and gain insights to effectively serve and engage securityholders. Our smart, simple and strategic solutions for public companies and alternative investments, such as REITs help you build your brand and engage your securityholders. Our communication tools help gain efficiencies, cultivate goodwill toward your brand, educate and influence securityholders and increase participation. We simplify the annual meeting process by streamlining proxy communications that improve your annual meetings with solutions to efficiently, and effectively reach all of your securityholders and support your goals and priorities. We help you drive a successful proxy outcome with data-driven, predictive insights based on securityholder voting patterns. Our data and insights help you gain a greater understanding of securityholder behaviours and trends so you can make smart decisions that support good governance practices.
For more information please visit: www.broadridge.com.
CIBC (CM: TSX, NYSE) is a leading North American financial institution with a market capitalization of $44 billion and a Basel III Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 12.1%. Through our four strategic business units – Canadian Personal and Small Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, US Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets – CIBC provides a full range of financial products and services to 10 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients in Canada, the US and around the world. We have approximately 45,000 employees dedicated to providing our clients with banking for a modern world, delivering consistent and sustainable earnings growth for our shareholders, and giving back to our communities.
For more information please visit www.cibccm.com
Corbin was founded on the idea that insights-driven advice is a powerful catalyst for unlocking value. Leveraging proprietary research and analytics, a best-practice mindset, executional excellence, and a deep understanding of what influences sentiment, we deploy a proven model to realize value. We work with organizations globally, across all sectors and sizes, as our knowledge and insights drive breakthrough thinking and impact. We collaborate with our clients to execute sound, effective communication, and engagement strategies.
For more information, please visit corbinadvisors.com
Craib Design & Communications (Craib) is an industry-leading, full-service design and communications agency.
For 50 years we’ve put our clients first, inspiring their trust and helping to enhance their reputation. Clients trust us to deliver compelling communications – everything from engaging websites and ESG reports to innovative branding and intuitive digital experiences. It is this trust that brings our clients back each year.
Craib’s team consists of award-winning designers, IR & ESG specialists, editors, account managers, production specialists, developers and proofreaders. We are detail oriented, solution focused and dedicated to executing amazing results.
Our services draw upon a wide range of expertise across many industry sectors to help you deliver one-off projects or complete integrated solutions across all forms of print and digital media.
These include:
Established in 1998, Generation IACP Inc. is an IIROC Broker Dealer and member firm of TSX, TSXV, NEO and CSE.
Issuer Trading and Intelligence, a division of Generation IACP provides Issuers with 3 core services: Market Insight, Investor Analytics and Trading; Combined we are helping our Issuers understand and measure market engagement, in addition to providing trading insights whereby helping IR and C-suite have a more active relationship with capital markets. Our ability to communicate these activities immediately empower Issuers with the tactical information necessary to compete with their peers, understand their retail trading base, all while keeping a close eye on institutional activity. Our firm is headquartered in Toronto, and we work with clients across the globe.
For more information, please visit our website.
Harbor Access is a strategic investor relations advisory firm with offices in Stamford, Connecticut and Toronto, Ontario. With over 20 years of capital markets experience, Harbor specializes in working with small and mid-cap companies that are looking to build, support or expand their existing investor relations strategy and capabilities. Industry-agnostic, we work closely with a select group of clients that exhibit robust growth prospects, solid management teams, and a strong defensible market position. We believe that non-deal roadshows and effective communications are simply the most effective way for investors to understand a company’s equity story and maintain an optimal market valuation. For more information: www.harbor-access.com
Build, innovate, and grow your business with Irwin, the only investor relations platform designed with automation and reduced time-to-insight at its core. Irwin unlocks and enhances investor and shareholder relationships for your business—for various use cases, market caps, and industries—whether you have an established IR program or are just getting started.
At Irwin, we’re building a better way to manage investor relations. Legacy tools and companies in capital markets often grow stagnant, and the capacity to innovate wanes over time. This has left the majority of IR teams with two to five inefficient tools to manage their program and workflows—over time; we hope to reduce that to one. Our full-service tool suite includes powerful investor targeting, comprehensive shareholder monitoring, an intuitive CRM (with built-in email and engagement tools), timely research, estimates, and transcripts, and IR website intelligence.
To learn more, please visit www.getirwin.com.
Lumi is the leading digital platform facilitating in-room, hybrid and virtual AGMs for the world’s largest corporations, membership organisations, associations, legislative bodies, faith based organisations and partnerships.
It is the only platform that digitises the entire lifecycle of an AGM in a single solution that enables sophisticated meeting facilitation before, during and after the live meeting – including authenticated registration, live secure polling, Q&A management and relevant reporting.
Lumi is headquartered in Hampshire, UK where central functions including finance, product development and marketing are based, but has offices in 11 countries across EMEA, APAC and the Americas. Highly differentiated in the majority of markets where it is active, Lumi benefits from extremely strong, experienced and renowned MDs who head up each in-country team.
Its mobile solution enabled Lumi to facilitate the UK’s first electronic AGM held by a listed company, Jimmy Choo, in June 2016. The onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic rapidly accelerated the adoption of the Lumi virtual meeting platform, and Lumi has run over 2500 virtual and hybrid AGMs during 2020, in 35 different countries, including several hundred here in Canada.
For more information, visit www.lumiglobal.com.
Market One is a marketing agency serving North America’s top publicly-listed companies. The market place is saturated, and it is becoming even more difficult for a public company to stand out. With over 60 years of combined capital markets experience and a team of certified marketers, we specialize in making sure your story is heard. Developing Canada’s first ‘push’ model of marketing for public companies, we’ve helped hundreds of public companies expand their awareness on broadcast TV, sponsored editorial content and digital marketing.
For more information, please visit our website.
Morrow Sodali is the leading global consultancy specializing in shareholder services, corporate governance, proxy solicitation and capital markets transactions. The firm provides corporate boards and executives with strategic advice and services relating to a broad range of activities, including: mergers and acquisitions, annual general and extraordinary shareholder meetings, dissident and contested campaigns, shareholder activist initiatives and multinational cross-border equity and debt transactions.
From headquarters in New York and London and nine offices in major capital markets, Morrow Sodali serves more than 700 corporate clients in 40 countries, including many of the world’s largest multinational corporations. In addition to listed and private companies, its clients include mutual funds, stock exchanges, membership associations and activist investors.
For more information, visit morrowsodali.com
Issuers from all market caps, sectors, and regions partner with Nasdaq IR Intelligence to drive valuation, discover new capital, and elevate their global brand. Our team of consultative experts and award-winning IR software provide clients with strategic actionable intelligence and unparalleled visibility into the capital markets for the long term. Combining Nasdaq’s collective intelligence, expertise, and data with premium financial content to maximize the effectiveness of their IR and ESG initiatives and enhance shareholder value.
To learn more visit: www.nasdaq.com/solutions/ir-intelligence
National Bank Financial Markets (www.nbfm.ca) is the trade name of the Financial Markets division of National Bank Financial, a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. National Bank Financial is a fully-integrated investment dealer combining retail advisory and brokerage services with institutional brokerage, investment banking, corporate finance, and securities clearing for third parties. The Financial Markets division has a major presence in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal, as well as operations in New York, London, Dublin and Hong Kong. Our Corporate Access Program draws on the expertise of seasoned professionals to design customized outreach strategies that connect companies to the right institutional and retail investor prospects. With a full-suite of roadshow services, our team provides comprehensive, value-add resources to the marketing process.
For more information, please visit www.nbfm.ca
Established in 1997, Newsfile is your customer-first newswire and regulatory filing team that delivers service and support you won’t find anywhere else in the industry.
Our comprehensive circuits distribute news to a worldwide audience of investors, analysts and institutions while ensuring compliance with all Stock Exchanges by reaching major broker terminals, financial databases, aggregators, media and more.
Choose Newsfile for service excellence powered by experienced professionals who make the difference.
For more information please visit www.newsfilecorp.com.
NYSE Group is a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses, and a provider of data and listings services. NYSE Group’s equity exchanges — the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE American, NYSE Arca, NYSE Chicago and NYSE National — trade more U.S. equity volume than any other exchange group. The NYSE is the premier global venue for capital raising, leading worldwide in IPOs, including technology IPOs. NYSE Arca Options and NYSE Amex Options are leading equity options exchanges. To learn more, visit our website.
Notified is the world’s only communications cloud for events, public relations, and investor relations to drive meaningful insights and outcomes. Notified IR Cloud lets you manage stakeholder communications and regulatory requirements to maximize shareholder value. Tell your investment story with high-impact, multi-channel solutions – earnings announcements, press releases, webcasting, virtual events, and IR websites. Visit Notified.com to learn more.
OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates regulated markets for trading 12,000 U.S. and international securities. Our data-driven disclosure standards form the foundation of our three public markets: OTCQX® Best Market, OTCQB® Venture Market and Pink® Open Market.
Our OTC Link® Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) provide critical market infrastructure that broker-dealers rely on to facilitate trading. Our innovative model offers companies more efficient access to the U.S. financial markets.
OTC Link ATS, OTC Link ECN and OTC Link NQB are each an SEC regulated ATS, operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA and SEC registered broker-dealer, member SIPC.
To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.
Q4 is the fastest growing cloud-based investor relations and capital market solutions to the IR Industry with over 1,200 clients. Public companies the world over (many of which are Fortune 1000 brands) look to our leading web and intelligence solutions to power successful (and award winning) IR programs — and to better connect with their investors, make more effective decisions, and understand the capital markets.
Learn more at www.q4inc.com.
The most significant corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, private equity firms, and governments around the globe recognize RBC Capital Markets as an innovative, trusted partner with an in-depth expertise in capital markets, banking, and finance. We are well-established in the largest, most mature capital markets across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region, which collectively encompasses 84% of the global investment banking fee pool.
RBC Capital Markets is part of a leading provider of financial services, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Founded in 1864, RBC is one of the largest banks in the world and the fifth largest in North America, as measured by market capitalization. With a strong capital base and consistent financial performance, RBC is among a small group of highly rated global banks.
For more information, please visit out website here.
Stifel GMP –
With offices in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver we are a leading provider of investment banking services, including advisory and underwriting, institutional sales and trading, and equity research services to corporate clients and institutional investors. Stifel GMP and Stifel FirstEnergy (known collectively as Stifel Nicolaus Canada are recognized as leaders in Canadian capital markets, with a focus on Consumer & Retail, Diversified Industries, Energy, Financial Services & Financial Sponsors, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Metals & Mining and Technology. We consistently rank among the top firms in Canada for both mergers & acquisitions advisory and common equity underwriting. After 25 years as the leading Canadian independent, we combined with Stifel in 2019, a leading global provider of investment banking services to growth companies. As part of the Stifel platform, we now have the major benefit of being able to offer clients unfettered access to the U.S. and global markets, along with a much broader suite of products and services – all while remaining the same group of dedicated professionals serving Canadian capital markets.
TMX Group operates global markets, and builds digital communities and analytic solutions that facilitate the funding, growth and success of businesses, traders and investors. TMX Group’s key operations include Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange, The Canadian Depository for Securities, Montréal Exchange, Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation, and Trayport which provide listing markets, trading markets, clearing facilities, depository services, technology solutions, data products and other services to the global financial community. TMX Group is headquartered in Toronto and operates offices across North America (Montréal, Calgary, Vancouver and New York), as well as in key international markets including London and Singapore. For more information about TMX Group, visit our website at www.tmx.com. Follow TMX Group on Twitter: @TMXGroup.
Works Design is a full-service corporate communications agency and design studio. We help world-class organizations present themselves, tell their stories and build relationships with all of their stakeholders.
For more information, please visit www.worksdesign.com
Corporate Partners
Agnico Eagle is a senior Canadian gold mining company that has produced precious metals since 1957. Its operating mines are located in Canada, Finland and Mexico, with exploration activities in each of these countries as well as in the United States and Colombia. The Company and its shareholders have full exposure to gold prices due to its long-standing policy of no forward gold sales. Agnico Eagle has declared a cash dividend every year since 1983.
For more information, please visit www.agnicoeagle.com
CN is a true backbone of the economy, transporting approximately C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network spanning Canada and mid-America. CN – Canadian National Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries — serves the cities and ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.
For more information on CN, visit the company’s website at www.cn.ca
Supporting Partners
Oakstrom Advisors is a leading international consultancy based in Toronto and focused on the delivery of investor relations, strategic communications and capital markets outreach services. Founded in 2014, Oakstrom Advisors has helped clients from a broad cross-section of industries navigate the nuances and complexities of capital markets communications by leveraging the collective experience of its seasoned practitioners to provide bespoke solutions for its clients.
For more information, please visit www.oakstrom.com
View the highlights from the 2023 awards ceremony
For partnership inquiries
+1 212 430 6865
For awards inquiries
+44 20 8004 4989
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+44 208 090 2156