IR Magazine Awards ‒ Europe
Celebrating IR excellence

Thursday, June 18, 2020

8 Northumberland Avenue, London

Book your seats

About the IR Magazine awards

The IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2020 will once again honor excellence in the investor relations profession. The prestigious ceremony will host the best of the IR community from across Europe.

Since the event first launched in 1990, tens of thousands of analysts and investors have voted in the surveys behind the awards. The result: vital benchmarking information on which companies do the best IR. Over the last two decades the awards program has expanded to recognize more aspects of an IRO’s role as we add new categories to the list.

By popular demand, we once again presented 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 Europe.

For our awards-by-research 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. For our awards-by-nomination categories, companies have the opportunity to nominate themselves or other publicly listed companies, free of charge, for aspects of IR that complement our awards by research.

Awards by Research

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 Europe. The 2020 research is now closed. For inquiries about the research process and timeline, please contact [email protected].

Please note that the categories below are subject to change depending on the research results.

View the entire list of 2019 winners and nominees here

awards-by-research Categories
How winners are chosen

Best overall investor relations

This category covers companies that have most impressed the investment community with their overall IR program.

Best investor relations officer

This category is for individual IROs whose knowledge of their company and sector and whose ability to build relationships with members of the investment community and to be transparent, accessible and responsive, sets them apart.

Best in sector

This category covers companies that have most impressed the investment community with their overall IR program in their sector:

Communications
Consumer discretionary
Consumer staples
Energy
Financials
Healthcare
Industrials
Materials
Real estate
Technology
Utilities

Best in region

The first thing to explain is that our awards by research are different from our awards by nomination: 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.

The research survey for the 2020 awards will be open soon. We will invite your buy and sell-side analysts and portfolio managers to take part in the survey. If you would like to send us the list ahead of time, please send an excel file with their names, firm, their direct telephone number and their email address to [email protected].

November – December: Online survey
IR Magazine has been building investment community databases over the past 20 years. As part of the updating process, listed companies are contacted every year for details of the professionals who currently cover their stock. A preliminary electronic survey of buy-side and sell-side analysts and portfolio managers is then conducted.

December – February: Telephone survey
The responses from the electronic survey then go to Mary Maude Research for initial analysis. The research firm determines what will constitute a representative sample, weighted for Europe’s industry sectors and geographical regions. It then conducts in-depth interviews with 500 portfolio managers and analysts across Europe. As the research progresses, the sample is adjusted to ensure appropriate weightings are maintained.

March – April: Results analysis & short lists
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 and by country.

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 benchmarking tool.

IR Magazine receives the results in March 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.

June: Winners announced
This year’s winners will be announced live on stage at a black-tie awards ceremony in London on June 18, attended by the leading lights of European investor relations.

July: Report published
After the event the Investor Perception Study – Europe 2020 report will be made available to professional subscribers to IR Magazine. This report will profile the top ranked companies and reveal information on how they conduct their IR activities and why investors voted for them.

For further information on this year’s investor survey, please contact Janet Dignan at +44 20 8004 6322 or [email protected].

Attendees say

"Perfect: venue; speaker: mood; food"

Carlo Di Pierro - Banca Sistema

"Very well organised. Paul Sinha was an excellent host, who injected good amounts of energy into the evening. Food was excellent too!"

Charles Chalkly - Hays

"Excellent evening in the heart of London!"

Morten Buus - RD:IR

Awards by Nomination

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 members.

ENTRY FORM CLOSED

We are no longer accepting entries for the 2020 awards. We will be in touch with successful entrants in due course.

Please note that categories are subject to change based on the final number of entries received. Some categories may be split by cap size.

View the entire list of 2019 winners and nominees here

awards-by-nomination Categories
How winners are chosen

Best annual report

Are shareholders and analysts raving about the quality of your annual print or online report? Give us your vision of good reporting practice. Judges will be looking for a well-articulated equity story, ease of flow or navigation, state-of-the-art design and consistency/complementarity between different reports.

Best crisis management

Have you recently dealt with an unexpected event threatening your company's business or reputation? Tell us about your crisis-ready plan, the strategy you implemented when the storm hit, and how the IR team’s actions successfully protected or restored shareholder value.

Best ESG materiality reporting

Investors are increasingly looking to determine the material ESG risks and opportunities for companies. But the range of data and inconsistency of reporting can make it difficult to get a full picture. This award recognizes the achievement of companies that produce clear investor-facing communications about ESG issues that are material to their business.

Best investor event

Did you hold a capital markets day, site visit or other investor event that made your company stand out from the crowd? Tell us how you came up with an original initiative, the way you managed its organization, and how your audience’s expectations were met; audience feedback is also welcome.

Best IR during a corporate transaction

How did your IR team go above and beyond to support a recent corporate transaction? Let us know the details. We’ll be looking at the IR team’s involvement in crafting/releasing the messaging for the financial markets and how it organized outreach and dialogue to gain approval from key shareholders.

Best IR website

The IR website is the first point of contact for an IRO’s audience. We want to hear from companies that have developed a best-in-class website displaying top-notch customer experience, engaging content that meets analysts’ and investors’ needs, and multiplatform access.

Best use of multimedia for IR

Are you a tech-savvy IRO always looking out for cutting-edge technological solutions for IR? Describe the innovative ways you have incorporated video, audio, infographics or webcasts into your IR program. Judges will be looking for evidence of heightened investor and analyst engagement via these channels.

Rising star

This award seeks to honor individuals who bring fresh thinking and a unique approach to the profession. Tell us why you (or someone else) have what it takes to be the next Magdalena Moll! This category is open to anyone who has been working in IR for less than five years.

The awards by nomination differ from our traditional awards by research, 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 members.

The judging process is made up of the following stages:

Stage 1: Judges are allocated to categories and sent the entry packs, which contain a longlist of submissions to review and score.
Stage 2: Judges are asked to score each submission based on how well the entrant has addressed the category criteria and entry form requirements for each section. These scores are collated and averaged by the IR Magazine awards team and the top scoring entries will form our shortlist of nominees per category.
Stage 3: Once the shortlists are determined, judges come together with renewed scrutiny to discuss and debate the winning entry. This final stage will determine the winners and high commendations (where applicable) in each category.

The judges scores will not be shared with nominees, however, comments may be published in articles or reports after the event. The judges are not required to make comments against every submission.

Meet the judges

Mike Allen
Head of research
Zeus Capital

Mike is an experienced analyst, having worked at UBS Global Asset Management and Numis Securities, before becoming a founding director in the Panmure Gordon Liverpool office. In his current role, Mike is Head of Research at Zeus and has been instrumental in attracting a number of key corporate clients, and has also played a role in some of the company’s largest deals. During his career, Mike has been rated as a top three analyst in the business services sector in the Extel Survey and has also won numerous awards with Starmine and The Wall Street Journal.
Rosanna Burcheri
Portfolio manager
Artemis Investment Management

Rosanna manages the Artemis Global Select Fund and Mid Wynd International Investment Trust with Simon Edelsten and Alex Illingworth. After graduating in economics from Bocconi University in 1996, she joined Paribas Asset Management as a junior fund manager. In 2000, she moved to M&G as a fund manager and director responsible for pan-European equity portfolios. As a senior European portfolio manager at Shell Pension Management Service from 2004, she controlled £710m of assets. Then, in 2006, Rosanna became a partner and pan-European fund manager for FrontPoint Management (UK). She came to Artemis in 2011 and is an Ambassador of the Diversity Project.
Heinrich Ey
Co-CIO for European small caps
Allianz Global Investors

Heinrich Ey has worked at Allianz Global Investors since April 2006.

He is Co-CIO for European Small caps since 2016 and manages in his function retail and institutional money together with a team of 5 members. Before taking on his current role, he was managing an analyst team of six regional telecom and media analysts and covering 30 telecom stocks with his own modelling and formal recommendations. He was also the lead portfolio manager for the Allianz Telemedia funds, which has won several awards from Lipper and Euro Finanzen in the last couple of years. His focus had been also on digital disruption trends and their impact on traditional business models within his industries, and he is part of the jury for the German Stevie Awards since 2016.

Before taking on this role, Ey worked for four years as an analyst at AGI. Prior to that, between 2000 and 2002, he managed European and global equity funds for institutional and retail clients and was a member of the TMT sector team at Allianz Asset Management. He started his career in asset management in 1995 as a buy-side trader for equity, fixed income and derivatives at Allianz.
Simon Gleadhill
Corporate reporting & IFRS controller
Howden Joinery Group

Simon is responsible for the Howdens Annual Report and Sustainability Report, both of which have won various awards in recent years.

He’s a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Literature degree, so he recognises that audited and consistent data is the essential starting point, but that the best companies build on that and find engaging ways to tell their own individual stories.

Simon has a keen interest in developing best practice in reporting and is a member of the Advisory Group on the FRC’s Future of Corporate Reporting project. He is a member of the IR Society, and holds their Certificate in Investor Relations.
Gunhild Grieve
Head of investor relations
RWE

Gunhild started her career in the European Natural Resources Corporate Finance team at Deutsche Bank in 2002. She originated and executed M&A, equity and debt capital market transactions in the utilities, oil & gas and mining sector. In 2008, Gunhild joined German utility RWE where she headed the London IR office, looking after the IR programme for the UK and US as well as taking care of the company’s shareholder register, targeting and investor perception studies. In the recent company restructuring, Gunhild was a key member of the project team preparing the IPO of RWE’s subsidiary innogy, being responsible for the equity story and offer structure. Since October 2016, she has been Head of Investor Relations at RWE. In April 2020, Gunhild will become Head of Financial Planning and Risk Management.

She sits on the Supervisory Boards of RWE Generation and RWE Supply & Trading. Gunhild co-established EIFFEL, a company-led investor conference for utilities. She studied International Business Administration at Vienna University and holds a MScie in Business management from ESCP-EAP.
Erica Lockhart
Chief of staff to the CEO
Vodafone
Karl Mahler
Head of investor relations
Roche

Karl Mahler, Head of Investor Relations, joined Roche in 2002.

Karl started his professional career at Ciba Geigy Switzerland as Head of Investment & Strategic Planning worldwide in 1987, and founded a cancer research hospital in Germany – the Tumor Biology Center Freiburg in 1991/2.

In 1994/5, he accepted a position as General Manager for Pharma with Ciba Geigy in Shanghai, where he ran one of the first joint ventures in China. This was followed by leadership roles in China where he continued his work as General Manager in Beijing. Before he joined Roche, he was Deputy Investor Relations Head for Aventis in Paris and Strasbourg.

Karl studied economics and sociology, and did his Ph.D. at the institute of Mathematical Economics at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Karl is based in Basel.
Róbert Réthy
Head of investor relations
MOL Group

Robert joined MOL, a leading Central European oil&gas company, as Head of Investor Relations in 2015 and he has also been heading ESG at MOL since last year.

Previously, he had been on the sells-side, working 15+ years as an equity analyst covering Emerging European oil&gas companies. He spent 11 years with Unicredit in Budapest before he moved to Prague in 2011 to head the Energy research product at the leading CEE investment services provider Wood & Co and also to become Head of Equity Research, managing the award-winning research team of around 20 analysts. Between 2007 and 2015 he was consistently ranked as a Top3 research analyst for the CEE region and for the oil & gas sector by Extel and Institutional Investor.

Robert holds a Masters degree in Finance from the Corvinus University of Budapest and also studied at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He has been a CFA charterholder since 2003.
Madeline Schultz
Head of investor relations
UK Government

Madeleine Szeluch is Head of Investor Relations at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). She has 14 years of experience across Low Carbon Energy, Financial Services and Climate Change.

In her role, Madeleine is responsible for global investor, regulatory and banking relationships across a range of asset classes, with a focus to shift of financial capital towards low-carbon energy and climate-change solutions. Madeleine advises on the UK’s low-carbon Energy Transition and emerging policy and regulation to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Madeleine also leads on independent thought-leadership research for the Department, evaluating risks and opportunities of emerging market trends and regulatory developments for Investors, Industry and Government.
Harry Stokes
Head of investor relations
SEGRO

Harry joined SEGRO plc as Head of Investor Relations at SEGRO plc in 2013, having previously been Head of the European Real Estate Equity Research teams at UBS, Evolution Securities and Citigroup in a sell-side career dating back to 2002. In 2018, he became Commercial Finance Director at SEGRO, where he is now responsible for the Treasury and IR teams and the FP&A team.
Gervais Williams
Head of equities
Premier Miton Investors

Gervais Williams is Head of Equities at Premier Miton Investors and manages a number of funds and trusts that aggregate to over £1.5bn, he joined the group in 2011. His fund management career extends over 30 years including 17 years at Gartmore Group Ltd, where he was Head of UK Small Companies investing in UK smaller companies and Irish equities. Gervais is a member of the AIM Advisory Council, and a board member of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He was a member of the Patient Capital Review panel with the Chancellor of the Exchequer two years ago where the recommendations were put into legislation in the subsequent budget. Gervais Williams has published three books, ‘Slow Finance’ in the autumn of 2011 (Bloomsbury), ‘The Future is Small’ published in November 2014 (Harriman House) and ‘The Retreat of Globalisation’ published in December 2016 (Harriman House).

Inquire about partnership

Partners

Partnership opportunities

Our awards provides a unique opportunity to get in front of some of the most influential people in the European 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.

Being a partner will provide:

A chance to network with qualified, senior decision-makers in the IR community
Increased awareness and credibility through association with the region’s leading awards
New business opportunities through higher-brand presence among current and potential clients
The chance to entertain clients at the most respected event of the year
Exposure as the market leader in your chosen area by partnering with the categories that best reflect your area of expertise

To find out more about the benefits of partnering the 2020 awards and the various packages available, email Sébastien Dutrieu or call on +44 77315 33165.

Who attends?

Attendees are leading IR practitioners from across Europe. Each participant is someone with an established track record and a strategic IR role within his or her company. We had over 300 IR professionals attend in 2019. They included:

Click here to request the full attendee list

Job title	Company name	Job title	Company name
Assistant director	IFC Group	Head of investor relations	K+S
CEO	CMi2i	Head of investor relations	Kerry Group
CEO, EMEA	Orient Capital	Head of investor relations	Lloyds Banking Group
Chairperson	ABIRD	Head of investor relations	Phoenix Group Holdings
Chief commodity trading strategy	En+ Metals	Head of investor relations	REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais
Co-head of investment trusts	Blackrock	Head of investor relations	RWE
Digital director	Design Portfolio	Head of investor relations	SEGRO
Director	EcoAct	Head of investor relations	Tesco
Director capital markets & strategic initiatives	En+ Consult	Head of investor relations	Umicore
Director of corporate messaging, IR	Jones and Palmer	Head of investor relations	William Hill
Director of financial communications	LVMH	Head of investor relations and comms	Euronav
Director of investor relations	Credit Suisse	Head of investor relations and comms	Orange
Director of investor relations	Merlin Properties	Head of marketing	Trifast
Director of investor relations	Valmet	Head of PR, brand and corporate comms	EMIS Group
Director of strategy, M&A and IR	TUI Group	Head of research	Zeus Capital
DR team	JP Morgan	Investor relations director	McCarthy and Stone
EVP, corporate services	OTC Markets Group	IR director	MTS
Finance director	Inland Homes	Managing director	EQS Group
Financial risk manager	Novo Nordisk	Managing director	Leaders Arena
Global head of IR	GlaxoSmithKline	Managing director	RD:IR
Group director of investor relations	Unibail Rodamco Westfield	Managing director	Rothschild & Co
Group finance director	Henry Boot	Managing director, EMEA	D.F. King
Head of global banking	VTB Capital	Senior director of investor relations	AstraZeneca
Head of international listings	NYSE	Senior vice president, investor relations	BASF
Head of investor relations	Anglo Pacific Group	Vice president – depositary receipts	BNY Mellon
Head of investor relations	Arix Bioscience	Vice president, investor relations	Cargotec
Head of investor relations	BT Group	Vice president, investor relations	Kemira
Head of investor relations	Equinor	Vice president, investor relations	Kone
Head of investor relations	Garanti Bank	VP IR Europe	Royal Dutch Shell
Head of investor relations	Gruppo Banca Sistema

Click here to request the full attendee list

Venue

Venue:
8 Northumberland Avenue
London
WC2N 5BY

Accommodation:
IR Magazine has arranged preferential rates for awards guests at nearby hotels. View the hotels and rates by clicking here.

Dress code:
Black tie

Please note the event may contain flashing lights or sudden loud sound effects

Make a day of it: Join our think tank

Taking place on the morning of the awards ceremony, the IR Magazine Think Tank – Europe is an invitation-only event exclusively for senior IROs.

It is free to attend and our unique format enables participants to network extensively, discuss, debate and dissect topical issues affecting European IR. We have over 100 senior IR professionals attending each year.

It is far removed from the traditional conference set-up as the event consists of a series of panel sessions followed by roundtables on select IR issues. All discussions are confidential so you can have a free and open chat with your peers.

Visit our think tank website to view the list of topics we will discuss and request an invite.

Book your seats

Sign up for the complete experience below. You will have full access to the welcome drinks reception, a three-course dinner, the prestigious awards ceremony and the fun-filled after party! Please note that these are our early-bird rates which will expire on May 1, 2020. Any bookings made after this date, will be charged at the standard rate.

The ‘corporate attendee’ rate is reserved for corporate IR professionals at publicly listed companies only. All others should book under the ‘non-corporate’ rate.

If you have any questions or need any assistance with booking, please contact Priscilla Lim on +44 20 8004 4989 or at [email protected].

Please note that the IR Magazine Awards may contain flashing lights or sudden loud sound effects.

Covid-19 information

We are monitoring the situation surrounding the Covid-19 virus on a daily basis. Based on the current advice provided by the World Health Organization, we will be going ahead with hosting the events as planned. The well being of our attendees is paramount and we plan to take a number of precautions onsite to ensure a hygienic environment. If you have any further questions, please contact Priscilla Lim for more information.

Corporate attendee rate

£495

£395

Book seat

£3,960

£3,160

Book a table of 10
Non-corporate attendee rate

£595

£495

Book seat

£4,760

£3,960

Book a table of 10

2019 Gallery

Best in sector: Communications
Winner: Deutsche Telekom
Collecting on their behalf: Katia Levy-Thevenon from Deutsche Bank

Best in sector: Consumer staples
Winner: Nestlé
Sponsored by: Deutsche Bank

Best in sector: Energy
Winner: Total
Sponsored by: Deutsche Bank

Best in sector: Financials
Winner: Allianz
Collecting on their behalf: Irma de Kruijf from JP Morgan

Best in sector: Healthcare
Winner: Novo Nordisk
Sponsored by: EQS Group

Best in sector: Industrials
Winner: Deutsche Post DHL
Sponsored by: EQS Group

Best in sector: Materials
Winner: BASF
Sponsored by: EQS Group

Best in sector: Real estate
Winner: Great Portland Estates
Sponsored by: The IR Society

Best in sector: Utilities
Winner: Iberdrola
Sponsored by: BRR Media

Best in sector: Consumer discretionary
Winner: adidas
Collecting on their behalf: Katia Levy-Thevenon from Deutsche Bank

Best annual report (small cap)
Winner: Severfield
Collecting on their behalf: Amanpreet Nandhra from Jones and Palmer

Best annual report (mid-cap)
Winner: Britvic
Sponsored by: Jones and Palmer

Best annual report (large cap)
Winner: Royal Philips
Sponsored by: Jones and Palmer

Best crisis management
Winner: Banco Santander
Sponsored by: Zebra Corporate Communications

Best ESG materiality reporting
Winner: Banco Santander
Sponsored by: Zebra Corporate Communications

Best investor event (small to mid-cap)
Winner: Cargotec
Sponsored by: OTC Markets Group

Best investor event (large cap)
Winner: Unilever
Sponsored by: OTC Markets Group

Best IR during a corporate transaction
Winner: Avast
Sponsored by: OTC Markets Group

Best IR website (small cap)
Winner: Northgate Group
Sponsored by: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Best IR website (mid-cap)
Winner: Valmet
Sponsored by: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Best IR website (large cap)
Winner: BASF
sponsored BY: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Best use of multimedia for IR
Winner: Hays
Sponsored by: CMi2i

Rising star
Winner: Calle Loikkanen, Valmet
Sponsored by: CMi2i

Best investor relations officer (small to mid-cap)
Winner: Oliver Stratmann, Lanxess
Collecting on his behalf: Sally Fitzpatrick from Berenberg
Sponsored by: Q4