Ben Ashwell is the editor at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, covering investor relations, governance, risk and compliance. Prior to this, he was the founder and editor of Executive Talent, the global quarterly magazine from the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants. Before moving to the US, Ben was the vice president and editor at Executive Grapevine, overseeing a daily news website, ten annual supplements and HR Grapevine, the UK’s leading HR and talent management magazine. In his spare time, Ben enjoys rock climbing and writing fiction and poetry.

Adam Borgatti is Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations, responsible for leading Aecon’s Investor Relations program and supporting the executive team with developing long-term business plans, evaluating strategic initiatives, and leading the assessment and execution of Aecon’s acquisition opportunities. Mr. Borgatti brings a depth of experience and knowledge of both capital markets and the construction industry.

Prior to joining Aecon in 2009, Mr. Borgatti held leadership roles in the financial services industry, including Vice President, RBC Capital Markets, and Vice President, National Bank Financial. Before assuming his current position at Aecon in 2017-18, he served as Vice President, Investor Relations, at Scotiabank and was responsible for leading all aspects of investor relations, providing strategic direction, leadership and oversight for the company’s investor relations portfolio globally.

Over his career at Aecon, Mr. Borgatti has held leadership roles in the Energy and Infrastructure segments, Strategic Finance division, and previously served as Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Mr. Borgatti holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship from McGill University as well as the CFA and CPIR designations. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI) and serves as Audit Committee Chair.

As Portfolio Manager, Darren’s day-to-day focus is researching mid to large cap Canadian businesses for QV’s Canadian Equity strategy. He is a member of the Investment Committee and also serves as Senior Vice President and Director, helping to manage the firm and the broader QV team. Darren is a QV shareholder.

“You can never know everything about every company on the market, so there is no day that we sit idle. Our job is to try and make the best decisions with the information we can gather.”

Darren joined QV in 2006. He began his career as a research analyst and trader with the Alberta Investment Management Corporation in 2001. He also worked as an Associate with Canada Trust Private Investment Counsel in Edmonton.

Darren’s interest in portfolio management began in university. He enjoys studying the inner workings of businesses across many industries and understanding their place within the economy. He is particularly interested in the people behind each business and the effectiveness of the decisions they make. As markets are continuously evolving with new information, he likes that there is always an opportunity or industry trend to analyze.

To Darren, investment success is achieving one’s return expectations while taking the appropriate amount of risk. When investment objectives and constraints are properly balanced, he believes clients will be more likely to remain invested throughout the market cycle, which is the key to creating long-term value.

Outside of work, Darren enjoys spending time with his wife, Trish, and their three children. He loves the outdoors and travelling to new places with his family.

Ms. Earle is an Investor Relations professional and a geologist. Ms. Earle spent several years in the field prior to making the transition into the corporate side of the industry. She received her Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of British Columbia and her Certified Professional Investor Relations designation from the Ivey School of Business at Western University. She is a founding member of the British Columbia Regional Mining Alliance (BCRMA), a regional partnership between Aboriginal groups, industry and provincial government representatives to promote mining investment in the Golden Triangle of northwest BC and the Founding Industry Advisory Board Chair for CASERM (Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models), a new I/UCRC (Industry‐University Cooperative Research Center) between the Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech, backed by the National Science Foundation.

Billy Eckert is the Head of our Surveillance & Intelligence division at Q4 and has been involved in surveillance and investor relations consulting for 7 years, serving clients ranging in market caps from $100M to $90B. Billy has advised across a number of sectors including: Industrials; Transportation; Materials; Energy; Consumer Goods; Financials; Communication Services; Consumer Services; Technology; and, Utilities. Over his career, Billy has provided critical and actionable intelligence to Investor relations officers and C-Level executives on equity and options trading, shareholder intelligence, shareholder targeting and best practices in the field of investor relations, partnering with some of the world’s most renowned publicly traded companies.

Yonni Fushman is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer and Corporate Secretary. He holds executive responsibility for managing a broad portfolio for the Aecon group of companies, including legal, corporate secretarial, sustainability, ethics and compliance, insurance and bonding, privacy and strategic procurement. Prior to joining Aecon in 2005, Mr. Fushman practiced law in the United States. Mr. Fushman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in Economics from the University of Southern California in 1997 and a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law in 2001. He completed the Duke University Continuing Studies Certificate in Sustainable Management and is a Sustainability Accounting Standards Board FSA credential-holder. He is called to the bar in Ontario, California and Massachusetts.

Mr. Fushman is a Past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association’s Construction and Infrastructure Law section.

Anthony is a Director with the Responsible Investing (RI) team at Nuveen, the investment management arm of TIAA.

Nuveen’s Responsible Investing team is responsible for creating a firm-wide holistic RI vision, executing a unified framework across Nuveen’s multi-affiliate structure, and expanding strategic business relationships across the firm. Nuveen’s RI framework establishes the firm’s overall RI philosophy as well as guidelines for incorporating RI disciplines in investment decisions and new product development.

Anthony’s responsibilities include leading the engagement efforts across Nuveen, including for its largest affiliate TIAA Investments, by working directly with companies to discuss important ESG issues and developing standards for proxy voting.

Prior to joining Nuveen, Anthony worked as a policy advisor to institutional investors at Institutional Shareholder Services. His other professional experiences include a variety of financial and legal research positions.

He received a JD from Vanderbilt University and a BA in Economics from Hamilton College.

Tim Human is senior reporter at IR Magazine. He rejoined the publication in 2019 after two years working as a freelance writer for a range of international clients. Previously, he was editor of IR Magazine between 2013-2017. He has also written for Corporate Secretary, IR Magazine’s sister publication, and CorpComms, the UK-based magazine for corporate communications professionals.

Since November 2018, Marc is Senior Director of Investor Relations for IMV Inc a dual-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel class of immunotherapies. (IMV Nasdaq and TSX). His responsibilities include messaging, targeting, and raising awareness to this emerging biotech both in Canada, the United States and abroad.

Prior to joining IMV, Marc ran his own financial communications agency dating back to 2007. Before this date, Marc served as Director, Investor Relations of Cascades Inc. (CAS-TSX), for close to seven years, and, concomitantly with Boralex Inc. (BLX-TSX), a Canadian and French leader in the production of renewable energy, a position he still held until the end of 2018 prior to joining IMV.

In these strategic roles, Marc worked closely with Senior management of both companies to help reduce their long-term capital cost. He managed all relationships with debt and equity analysts and with institutional and individual investors and was an authorized spokesperson with the  media. In the spring of 2008, Marc was nominated for Investor Relations magazine’s “best investor relations officer” award in his category.

Before he joined Cascades in 2000, Marc held different positions within the securities industry, including those of retail broker and institutional broker. In the 1990s he played an investor relations role with two high-tech start-up companies and served concurrently as a financial  journalist in a Montreal-area community newspaper.

Marc holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the HEC Montréal (finance and economics), and has attained the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) professional designation. He has also successfully completed several courses related to the securities industry, as well as Level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Marc has also been a guest speaker on several occasions for the Canadian Venture Exchange (TSXV), where he has given talks on the fundamental principles in investor relations.

Mr. Javed is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Hydro One Limited. He assumed the Head of IR role in 2018, after joining Hydro One investor relations team in 2015 shortly after its initial public offering. Mr. Javed has played a key role in shaping the successful investor relations program at Hydro One, which was recognized as the Best Investor Relations for an IPO by IR Magazine. He has tremendous experience with both private and public markets having worked in Private Equity, Investment Management and Management Consulting with a focus on value creation. Mr. Javed attended Harvard Business School, Rotman School of Management, and University of Western Ontario.

Prior to joining Corbin, Leahruth worked extensively in corporate governance and non-profit consulting. At Georgeson, a premiere proxy solicitation and corporate governance consulting firm, she managed shareholder engagement campaigns, which first introduced her to the growing importance of ESG from the investor perspective. At Equilar, an executive compensation and board data firm, Leahruth managed content and thought leadership for corporate governance conferences, co-hosted with Nasdaq, that addressed issues such as shareholder engagement, diversity in the boardroom, human capital management, and ESG, among other topics.

After graduating from Columbia Business School in 2016, Leahruth relocated to Chicago where she founded Girlspeak, a public speaking and empowerment program for middle and high school age girls. She was accepted into Google’s competitive Google for Entrepreneurs mentorship program and was a member at 1871, Chicago’s preeminent startup incubator. In 2019, Leahruth began consulting with the nonprofit Free Bikes 4 Kidz. Having worked with public companies, institutional investors and nonprofit organizations, Leahruth has developed a wide breadth of experience and understanding of the CSR and ESG landscape.

Leahruth earned her B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, MN where she graduated cum laude and attended Columbia University’s M.B.A. program in NYC where she was accepted into the competitive Columbia Startup Lab for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Leahruth serves on the board of Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital, where she is Chair of the Recruitment Committee. She lives in Chicago, is an avid student at Core Power Yoga, where she finds balance and strength and is an academic tutor and mentor for middle and high school age students.

Karen has worked for 20+ years as a senior stakeholder engagement and finance executive supporting management teams and Boards in Canada and the UK.  She joined Canadian Tire Corporation as Head of Investor Relations in February of 2021.  Karen has worked in corporate roles as well as in consulting and has had responsibility for Communications and Corporate Responsibility in addition to IR.  She has led Investor Relations across four sectors for multi-listed, globally-focused companies.

In addition to managing 45 reporting events, 12 annual reporting cycles, 14 AGMs and special meetings and 5 investor days, Karen has helped Boards and Management teams navigate strategy changes, capital raising, M&A due diligence and integration, Board and Management changes, capital allocation decisions, and shareholder activism.

Chris King leads the International Corporate Services group at OTC Markets, focusing on business development in Europe, Latin America and Asia. At OTC Markets, Chris has also worked with smaller U.S.  companies to implement best practices as they grow, supported private companies interested in going public on the OTCQX and OTCQB markets, and helped companies already trading on our markets increase investor engagement and achieve fair valuation. Prior to OTC Markets, Chris served in various roles at DF King Worldwide, Capital Precision and Precision IR, helping hundreds of multinational blue-chip companies achieve their corporate objectives. Chris holds a BA from the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

Jill MacRae heads up Investor Relations at Home Capital Group.  She came to investor relations after a long career in fund management, including 19 years as a partner with J. Zechner Associates Inc.   Upon leaving Zechner,  Jill worked for several years as a strategic communications consultant to a range of public companies before joining Home Capital Group in 2018.   At Home Capital, she has led a number of initiatives including a revamp of the website, upgraded board materials and investor communications and running a successful investor day.  She has managed communications around corporate events including two substantial issuer bids, a multi-year technology transformation and the issuance of  Home’s first RMBS.  With the COVID-19 pandemic, Investor Relations has played a key role in strategic communications throughout the organization.

Anna Paglia is a Managing Director and Global Head of ETFs and Indexed Strategies at Invesco. In this role, she is responsible for managing the operations and setting forth the strategy and vision for Invesco’s exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) and indexed business.

Ms. Paglia joined Invesco in 2010. Prior to her current role, she served as head of legal for Invesco’s US ETFs and was team leader for and provided legal support to Invesco’s unit investment trust business for nine years and has worked with various teams, market participants, and external index partners. Before joining Invesco, Ms. Paglia was a partner in the investment management group at K&L Gates LLP and served as fund counsel and counsel to the independent directors for a number of mutual funds and ETFs. Prior to K&L Gates LLP, she was in-house counsel at Barclays Global Investors in London, where she contributed to the European expansion and cross-listings of the iShares ETFs. Ms. Paglia has provided thought leadership to the ETF industry since 2000 and has worked toward ETF innovation in both Europe and the US.

Ms. Paglia earned a JD from L.U.I.S.S. Law School in Rome, a law school certificate from Kingston University School of Law in London and an LLM from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. She is admitted to practice law in Illinois and New York.

Philip and his team have a range of investment strategy responsibilities from capital market research and economic analysis to investor education. In this role, the team analyzes the economy and capital markets to identify and develop investment opportunities. Their expertise spans across multiple asset classes and geographic regions. The team communicates their views through multiple media to Manulife Investment Management’s clients. With over 25 years of experience Philip is a recognized thought leader in the industry. Philip joined Manulife in 1999andin addition to producing a bi-weekly podcast for investment advisors “in*vest*ments unplugged”, he is a regular contributor to many of Manulife Investment Management’s publications. He is frequently quoted in the press, has appeared on BNN and is a sought-after speaker at industry conferences

Joe Racanelli is Director of Investor Relations with Sherritt International, the world leader in the mining and refining of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ores.

He has more than 20 years of investor relations, marketing and corporate communications experience.  Prior to joining Sherritt, he led the Resources, Commodities and Industrials Practice of Canada’s largest capital markets advisory firm, NATIONAL Equicom, providing strategic capital markets counsel to senior management at assorted small and mid-cap companies.

Over the years, Joe has led the communication efforts for complex financial transactions valued at more than $3 billion, helped five companies go public, scheduled more than 500 road show meetings and established strong relations with buy-side and sell-side contacts around the world.   He is a frequent speaker on IR issues and topics.

Joe is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Concordia University.

Eliza Riego, Head Product and Service Innovation, studied Environmental Studies and Geographic Information Systems prior to joining TMX Group.  Having worked in multiple departments at TMX, over the last 12 years, Eliza has been focused on developing products, services and professional development opportunities for publicly listed companies on Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange.  Recently, Eliza created ESG 101, a hub for ESG resources for issuers, and co-produced the updated Primer for Environmental & Social Disclosure.

Mac Ryerse is Head of Stewardship, Responsible Investment (RI), and Senior Portfolio Manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, where he leads and coordinates Columbia Threadneedle Investments’ global engagement activities with portfolio companies and proxy voting. He also serves as a co-manager on the U.S. Social Bond Fund, adding responsible investment expertise and ESG capabilities to the strategy.

Prior to assuming his current roles, Mr. Ryerse was Lead Analyst (US) for three years, Director of Responsible Investment for two years and Senior Corporate Governance Analyst for five years.  Prior to joining CTI, he was corporate secretary and chief governance officer at Potlatch Corporation, with additional responsibility for corporate strategic planning and stakeholder relations.

Mr. Ryerse is currently a member of the PRI Sub-Sovereign Debt Advisory Committee, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB®) Standards Advisory Group, and holds the SASB® FSA Level I certification.

He holds an MBA from Bethel University, a Master’s degree in Organizational Development from Gonzaga University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Gustavus Adolphus College.  Mr. Ryerse has served on the graduate school faculty at Bethel University where he taught corporate finance.

David Whyte is the Co-Founder and CEO of Irwin, an investor relations software product for global public companies that’s designed to help realize shareholder value by intelligently targeting, monitoring, accessing and interacting with global investors. David’s decade spent working for global bulge bracket and boutique investment banks gave him a first-hand view of the complex challenges facing public companies and their advisors — and how to solve them. David drives Irwin’s mission to seamlessly connect the world’s capital seekers and allocators to make them more productive, innovative and successful.

Bill is responsible for business development, relationship management and strategic solutions for clients in Eastern Canada. Bill provides guidance to management, boards and shareholders on corporate governance, shareholder engagement and shareholder activism matters.

Bill has over 23 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Laurel Hill in 2017, Bill worked in business development for a global communications firm (2016-2017) and prior to that held progressive client service, relationship management and business development positions with several leading Transfer Agents (1997-2016). Over the course of his career, Bill has directly served the needs of hundreds of public companies and has worked on the front lines of countless shareholder meetings, corporate actions and other special situations.

Bill is a member of the Governance Professionals of Canada. He is a graduate of Concordia University with a Bachelor of Commerce, Finance and has completed the Canadian Securities Course.