Virtual event; timings to be announced
The IR Magazine Awards – Europe will take place on Thursday, June 24 as a virtual awards ceremony. We will once again be bringing together the investor relations community to celebrate and honor excellence in the IR profession. Further details about the 2021 awards ceremony will follow in due course including information about how to access our virtual platform and timings.
Since the annual 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. 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 Europe.
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.
The nomination deadline is midnight (BST) on Friday, April 2Submit an entry
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 the 2021! Please click here to access the entry form. The deadline for submissions is midnight (BST) on Friday, April 2, 2021.
If you have any questions that are not answered in the entry guidelines section on the form, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 8004 4989.
Please note that categories are subject to change based on the final number of submissions received. Some categories may be split by market cap size.
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.
Download our awards entry pack for more information, including awards timeline, tips and ideasDownload entry pack
We will be announcing the full judging panel shortly
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.
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 technical controller
Howden Joinery Group
Simon’s current role combines best practice corporate and ESG reporting with IFRS technical accounting and reporting. He leads the interpretation and implementation of new IFRSs across the group and makes sure that the Group stays ahead of new developments in corporate and ESG reporting.
In recent years, Simon has developed a specialism in ESG reporting, strategy, business model and culture reporting. He leads the process and development of the Howden Joinery Group Annual Report & Accounts and the Group’s Sustainability Report which have won several awards in recent years. He was a member of the Advisory Group for the UK Financial Reporting Council’s recent project on The Future of Corporate Reporting.
Before moving into industry, Simon qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, where he worked with a variety of consumer and industrial companies in London and Oman. He is a member of the Investor Relations Society and holds their Certificate in Investor Relations.
Tim Human
Senior reporter
IR Magazine
Tim Human is senior reporter at IR Magazine. He rejoined the publication in 2019 after two years working as a freelance journalist for a range of international publications. 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.
Caroline Le Meaux
Head of ESG engagement
Amundi
Caroline LE MEAUX joined Amundi on July 1st, 2019 and takes the responsibility of the ESG Research, Engagement and Voting team. She was previously head of the long-term investment department at the pension division of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) which is the fiduciary manager of several French pension funds including Ircantec and RAVGDT. She was notably in charge of the SRI strategy, ESG and climate policy. Before that, she was director of investment at FRR Fonds de Réserves des Retraites from 2011 to 2014. She was formerly fund manager at BNPPAM, managing Small and Mid Caps European equities and has been head of quantitative analysis for European equities.
Caroline Le Meaux began her career at Paribas Asset Management ; she is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and is a graduate of Paris IX Dauphine University.
Madeleine Szeluch
Investor relations ESG director
Novartis
Madeleine Szeluch is the Investor Relations ESG Director at Novartis, where she specialises in advisory and communications on ESG topics. Previously, Madeleine was Head of Investor Relations at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2015 – 2020). She led global engagement with foreign governments, industry and investors, addressing regulatory and business themes, with a focus on low-carbon energy, climate change and sustainability themes. Within the UK government, Madeleine advised ministers across departments on emerging global policy, market risk and public-private partnerships and developed thought-leadership research on market trends and policy impact for government, industry and investors.
Prior to joining the UK Government in 2015, Madeleine was Senior Manager at GLG, the largest global insights consulting firm, where she advised corporates and investors on primary research, compliance and business and regulatory risk. Madeleine grew the company’s Emerging Markets business and established the Sub-Saharan Africa practice. Madeleine has worked in Europe and North America, she has degrees in Commercial Law and International Relations, and is a Member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
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).
View our awards best practice guide for insights from our past winners and partnersAccess the guide
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. 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.
For the current research survey, the deadline to submit lists has now passed. 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, please contact [email protected].
Please note that categories are subject to change based on the final votes received. Some categories may be split by market cap size.
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.
November – December 2020: 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.
January – February 2021: Electronic survey
IR Magazine then conducts an electronic survey of buy-side and sell-side analysts and portfolio managers. The electronic survey typically receives 300 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 Europe’s industry sectors and geographical regions.
December 2020 – February 2021: Telephone survey
The telephone survey then gets under way. The researchers conduct in-depth interviews with 300 portfolio managers and analysts across Europe. 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.
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.
April 2021: Short list compiled
IR Magazine receives the results 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 24, 2021: Winners announced
And finally… the winners are announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, June 24, 2021!
June 2021: Report published
Shortly after the awards, the Investor Perception Study – Europe 2021 report is published and made available to IR Magazine subscribers.
Awards partners
Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving large corporations, small and middle-market businesses and individual consumers in more than 150 countries with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. BofA Securities, the institutional broker dealer business of Bank of America, is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. The company provides, through various banking and broker-dealer affiliates, M&A advice, equity and debt capital-raising solutions, lending, risk management, treasury, liquidity and payments management. Bank of America Corporation is listed on the NYSE.
For more information, please visit www.bofaml.com
OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market, and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.
To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.
Supported by
Association of Bulgarian Investor Relations Directors /ABIRD/
For 12 years now, the Association of Bulgarian Investor Relations Directors /ABIRD/ has been actively working to unite the interests and improve the qualification of local Investor Relations Directors – members of the organization, to improve the investment climate in Bulgaria and introduce high standards for presentation of the Bulgarian public companies to investors in the country and abroad.
We unite more than 110 Investor Relations Directors of public companies and other issuers of securities, and in 2016 we opened the doors of ABIRD for all colleagues who disclose information in accordance with the Bulgarian and European legislation, and communicate with institutions such as the Financial Supervision Commission, BSE – Sofia and the Central Depository.
ABIRD is an active participant in the Bulgarian capital market, a basic corrective in terms of amendments to the regulation and implementation of the European legislation. Our activities are focused on enhancing the professional qualification of Investor Relations Directors and all of the other officials engaged with investor communication and communication with the institutions on the capital market with the purpose to improve the best disclosure and transparency practices in the activities of public companies and other issuers of securities. We actively cooperate with all institutions and participants in the Bulgarian capital market.
The Association of Bulgarian Investor Relations Directors is a collective member the National Corporate Governance Commission, the Capital Market Development Council in Bulgaria, the Corporate Social Responsibility Council to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association. Together with our national partners we strive to make Bulgaria a more attractive place for investments.
Contacts: +359 2 9882413 and [email protected]
Web: www.abird.info
For more information, please visit www.ir-romania.ro
Created in 1987, the Cliff is the French association of financial communication professionals and is a recognized voice for the profession in France. With an active programme fostering the sharing of experiences, of expertise and of evolving topics, a successful education training programme in partnership with a renowned French University (Paris-Dauphine) and its contribution to the annual publication of the “Financial Communications: Framework and Practices” together with the OCF, the Cliff helps promote the status of Investor Relations professionals.
For more information, please visit www.cliff.asso.fr/en/
About DIRF
The Danish Investor Relations Society (DIRF) was established by investor relations officers, financial and communications executives in a few Danish companies in 1988. The objective was and still is to promote communication between listed companies and their investors thereby increasing investor interest in Danish shares and company bonds.
DIRF represents some 270 members from approximately 100 companies. Members are primarily listed companies, and the member base represents about 95 per cent of the Danish market cap. However, also not-listed companies, organisations, service providers and consultants working with financial communications are represented, cf. DIRF members list.
DIRF activities
The DIRF network seeks to meet its objectives by arranging members’ meetings and conferences dealing with current IR-topics, sessions with academics researching in IR-related areas, trends and new ways of performing the IR-profession, new media developments, new evaluation methods, and once a year the Copenhagen Stock Exchange hosts a network meeting etc. Members’ meetings normally take place 5-6 times a year.
For more information, please visit www.dirf.dk.
IR Club is a well-established investor relations community that allows IR professionals to network with peers from all over the world.
IR Club was formed in 2011, to address the need for an online investor relations community. Since then, it has become an overwhelming success and has around 1,400 members!
The main objectives of IR Club include the promotion of networking, communication, exchange and transfer of knowledge among investor relations professionals – we are particularly interested in the use of social media in investor relations.
IR Club is open to anyone interested in investor relations such as scientists, students and those wishing to make a career change. For the opportunity to mingle with practising IROs at all levels, as well consultants and service providers. Colleagues from the areas of private equity, open-end and closed-end funds, unlisted companies and of course all those who deal with the communication with lenders (creditor relations / fixed income) are welcome, too – we are all one ecosystem.
It takes no time to register as a member and it’s free of charge!
IR Club
Patrick Kiss
Email: [email protected]
Tel.: +49 177 232 0001
The IR club Schweiz was founded 1992 to promote the interests of the IR profession among Switzerland’s publicly-quoted companies. It is an interactive forum for the exchange of ideas, the discussion of current IR issues and the development of practical solutions.
For more information, please visit www.irclub.ch
Turkish Investor Relations Society – TUYID, founded in 2009, is designed to foster collaborative ties among investor relations professionals and the constituencies which they serve such as management, shareholders, bondholders, private investors, analysts, employees, government, corporate customers and media, at both the corporate and personal levels, with a view to develop professional know-how, to be a reference center and to elevate Turkish investor relations applications on a par with global standards.
Our mission is to contribute to the promotion of the Turkish markets, provide assistance for Turkish companies to achieve fair market value for their capital market instruments and to support Turkish capital markets to gain depth and resilience.
For more information, please visit www.tuyid.org/en
Why partner with us?
The IR Magazine Awards – Europe brings together some of the most influential people in the IR community.
Partnering with us is the perfect way to raise your organization’s profile and cement your position in the IR community.
The unique buzz we create at our virtual awards enables you to:
Put your brand in the spotlight and benefit from months of targeted, high profile publicity across multiple channels pre-and post-event.
We’d love to have a chat with you about how you can get in front of a truly engaged and motivated audience through the IR Magazine Awards – Europe. Get in touch with Sébastien Dutrieu or call on +44 77315 33165.
Please fill in the form below for updates about the 2021 Europe Awards.
Last year we brought the awards to you via our first ever virtual ceremony.
Watch the short highlights reel below for what to expect in 2021!
Attendees at this event 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.
Below is a sample of some of our past attendees:
Job title | Company | Job title | Company | |
CVP IRO | Grifols | Head of investor relations | O2 Czech Republic | |
Deputy head of IR | OMV | Head of investor relations | Rovi Laboratories | |
Director investor relations | Borregaard | Head of investor relations | SEGRO | |
Director investor relations | eDreams ODIGEO | Head of investor relations | Vista Alegre | |
Director IR | Telefonica Deutschland | Head of investor relations | Zalando | |
Director of corporate communications and investor relations | Jones and Palmer | Head of investor relations and corporate communications | PSI Software | |
Director of financial reporting and investor relations | Great Portland Estates | Head of investor relations and external communications | Caverion Corporation | |
Director of investor relations | AstraZeneca | Head of investor relations and M&A | Douglas | |
Director of investor relations | Britvic | Head of IR | Ascential | |
Director of investor relations | Cellnex | Head of IR | CompuGroup Medical | |
Director of investor relations | Unilever | Head of IR | EDP | |
Director of IR & corporate communication | IBERDROLA | Head of IR | Go-Ahead | |
Director of IR & shareholders | FLUIDRA | Head of IR | Jeronimo Martins | |
Director, investor relations | REPSOL | Head of IR | McCarthy and Stone | |
Director, investor relations | Credit Suisse Group | Head of IR | Royal Philips | |
Director, investor relations North America | Novo Nordisk | Head of IR | Unibail Rodamco Westfield | |
Director, IR | Valmet | Head of IR | Vonovia | |
Finance and IR director | AENA | Head of IR & strategy | UDG Healthcare | |
Global head of investor relations | HSBC Holdings | Head of IR and ESG | MOL | |
Group communications & IR director | Akka | Head of IR and sustainability | Severn Trent | |
Group investor relations director | Tesco | IR director | Schneider Electric | |
Group IR director | Prysmian | IR director | UNIMOT S.A. | |
Head corporate communications | Implenia | IR, director | Galp | |
Head IR | Sacyr | Managing director | Ford Sinclair | |
Head of group IR | Enel | Senior vice president investor relations | BASF | |
Head of investor & credit relations | Ströer | Senior vice president, head of investor relations & sustainability | Fresenius | |
Head of investor relations | adidas | Vice president investor relations, communications and corporate responsibility | NORMA Group | |
Head of investor relations | Banca Sistema | VP global head, investor relations | Alcon | |
Head of investor relations | Covestro | VP investor relations | Barco NV | |
Head of investor relations | Deutsche Post DHL Group | VP investor relations | Shell International | |
Head of investor relations | International Airlines Group | VP IR | Endeavour Mining | |
Head of investor relations | LANXESS | VP, investor relations | Farfetch Limited | |
Head of investor relations | Mediclinic International | VP, investor relations and financial communications | Fortum | |
Head of investor relations | Merck |
For partnership inquiries
+44 77 3153 3165
For awards inquiries
+44 20 8004 4989
For all other inquiries
+44 20 3002 0396