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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 team members.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

We are delighted to announce the winners for the 2023 awards! View the full list by clicking here.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 8004 4989.

awards-by-nomination Categories
How winners are chosen

Best annual report (large cap)

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/complementary between different reports. Market cap breakdown: Small cap = below €1 bn / Mid-cap = between €1 bn - €7.5 bn / Large cap = €7.5 bn and over.

Nominees

adidas
Banco Santander

WINNER
Sage
St James's Place
UniCredit
WPP

Best annual report (mid-cap)

Nominees

Aliaxis Group
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings
Balfour Beatty

WINNER
Britvic
Grifols
HUGO BOSS

Best annual report (small cap)

Nominees

Halfords Group

WINNER
Harworth Group
JLEN Environmental Assets Group
MJ Gleeson
NORMA Group
Warehouse REIT

Best ESG reporting (large cap)

Companies face growing demands to inform investors about the risk and opportunities - they face from a range of ESG issues. Describe how your company was able to meet the demands of shareholders looking for substance in ESG reporting? Market cap breakdown: Small cap = below €1 bn / Mid-cap = between €1 bn - €7.5 bn / Large cap = €7.5 bn and over

Nominees

ČEZ Group
Entain
Iberdrola
National Grid

WINNER
Royal Philips
Unilever

Sponsored by

Best ESG reporting (mid-cap)

Nominees

Barco

WINNER
Ignitis Group
LANXESS
Leonteq
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum

Sponsored by

Best ESG reporting (small cap)

Nominees

Blancco Technology Group
CMC Markets
Foresight Group
illimity Bank

WINNER
Kenmare Resources
Volution Group

Sponsored by

Best innovation in shareholder communications

In this catch-all category, judges are looking for IR teams who have had to think out of the box in the past 12-18 months to update their shareholder communications campaign and keep up with the evolving needs and wants of the investor community. We’re looking for that tiny little spark of innovation that sets your company apart!

Nominees

Banco Santander
EDAG Engineering Group
Iberdrola
Royal Philips

WINNER
Shell
Türk Telekom

Sponsored by

Best investor event (large cap)

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. Both virtual and in-person events can be considered for this award. Market cap breakdown: Small cap = below €1 bn / Mid-cap = between €1 bn - €7.5 bn / Large cap = €7.5 bn and over

Nominees

Airbus
Diageo
Iberdrola
Mercedes-Benz Group
Shell
Unilever

WINNER

Sponsored by

Best investor event (mid-cap)

Nominees

Barco
Criteo
Helios Towers
HUGO BOSS
LANXESS

WINNER
Wood

Sponsored by

Best investor event (small cap)

Nominees

Augmentum Fintech

WINNER
Azerion
Galata Wind Enerji
illimity Bank
Immunic Therapeutics

Sponsored by

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.

Nominees

BBVA
BP

WINNER
FLSmidth
LANXESS
Schneider Electric
Wood

Sponsored by

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.

Nominees

BP
Britvic
CCC Group
Halfords Group

WINNER
Schneider Electric
Unilever

Best retail IR strategy

IR teams have recently started to pay attention to and service the traditional blind spot in their shareholder base – the retail investor block. In this category, we’re looking for IR campaigns that include a retail shareholder communication strategy, how it differed from the usual program and the results of these efforts.

Nominees

Augmentum Fintech
BBVA
CaixaBank
Galata Wind Enerji
Iberdrola

WINNER
Valmet

Sponsored by

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.

Nominees

ABOUT YOU
Banco Santander

WINNER
HUGO BOSS
Iberdrola
illimity Bank
Shell

Sponsored by

Rising star

This award seeks to honor individuals who bring fresh thinking and a unique approach to the profession. This category is open to anyone who has been working in IR for less than 10 years and has less than 15 years of professional experience.

Nominees

Azerion, Marcela Louzada
Banco Santander, Gerardo Maya
FLSmidth, Jannick Denholt
Galp, João Gonçalves Pereira
Hansa Biopharma, Klaus Sindahl

WINNER
TotalEnergies, Benoit Ribaud

Sponsored by

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.

Meet the judges

We are delighted to announce our judging panel for the 2023 awards! Click on each photo below to find out more.

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
Director, Co-CIO German and European mid/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.

Simon has 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 and is a current member of the FRC Advisory Panel.

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.
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).
James Beech
Editor in chief
IR Magazine

James Beech joined IR Media Group as Editor in Chief in January 2022. He was a multimedia journalist, editor, client relationship manager, awards host and public speaker at Campden Wealth, for and about the global ultra-wealthy multigenerational family business and office community, in 2016-21.

The Englishman reported and photographed news and features for daily and weekly regional newspapers and websites, in New Zealand and Australia, including the Otago Daily Times and Canterbury-Bankstown Express, in 2006-15.

He wrote and edited market-leading consumer magazines and websites in Bournemouth then worked in public relations and media communications in London, in 1999-2006.

He graduated Bournemouth University with a BA (Hons) in Multimedia Journalism in 1999.

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. 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.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

We are delighted to announce the winners for the 2023 awards! View the full list by clicking here.

If you have any questions about 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].

Researched categories
How the winners are chosen

Best overall investor relations (large cap)

This category covers companies that have most impressed the investment community with their overall IR program. Market cap breakdown: Small cap = below €1 bn / Mid-cap = between €1 bn - €7.5 bn / Large cap = €7.5 bn and over

Nominees

Allianz
ASML
Banco Santander
EDP – Energias de Portugal
Novo Nordisk

WINNER
UniCredit

Sponsored by

Best overall investor relations (mid-cap)

Nominees

ASR Nederland

WINNER
Aker Solutions
Barco
LANXESS
OTP Bank
Wacker Chemie

Sponsored by

Best overall investor relations (small cap)

Nominees

Altri
Bertrandt
eDreams ODIGEO

WINNER
Mondadori Group
NSI
Volution Group

Sponsored by

Best investor relations officer (large cap)

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. Market cap breakdown: Small cap = below €1 bn / Mid-cap = between €1 bn - €7.5 bn / Large cap = €7.5 bn and over

Nominees

Allianz, Oliver Schmidt
ASML, Marcel Kemp
Banco Santander, Carlos Berastain, Fernando Donoso & Begoña Morenés
Intesa Sanpaolo, Marco Delfrate & Andrea Tamagnini
UniCredit, Magda Palczynska

WINNER
Vonovia, Rene Hoffman

Sponsored by

Best investor relations officer (mid-cap)

Nominees

Aker Solutions, Fredrik Berge

WINNER
Banco BPM, Roberto Peronaglio
Banco de Sabadell, Lluc Sas
Barco, Carl Vanden Bussche
Gedeon Richter, Katalin Ördög
LANXESS, Eva Frerker & Oliver Stratmann

Sponsored by

Best investor relations officer (small cap)

Nominees

Bertrandt, Björn Voss
eDreams ODIGEO, David de la Roz Fernandez

WINNER
LiveChat Software, Marcin Droba
Mondadori Group, Nicoletta Pinoia
NSI, Laura Gomez Zuleta

Sponsored by

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 2021: 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 2022: 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 2021 – February 2022: 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 2022: 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 23, 2022: Winners announced

And finally… the winners are announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, June 23, 2022!

June 2022: Report published

Shortly after the awards, the Investor Perception Study – Europe 2022 report is published and made available to IR Magazine subscribers.

Who attends our events

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 the attendees:

Job title	Company	Job title	Company
CFO	illimity	Head of IR	Aker Solutions ASA
Chief sustainability officer	ČEZ	Head of IR	Entain
Deputy head, IR	OMV	Head of IR	Ignitis
Director IR and sustainability	Galata Wind	Head of IR	Vonovia
Director, IR	Technip Energies	Head, corporate and ESG reporting	Howden Joinery Group
Director, IR	Barco	Head, financial reporting	MJ Gleeson
Director, IR	GSK	Head, group, IR	UniCredit
Director, IR	National Grid	Head, sustainability	Kenmare Resources
Director, IR	St. James’s Place	Institutional IR lead	JLEN
Director, IR	WPP	IR	Novo Nordisk
Director, IR and sustainability	NCC	IR and ESG senior manager	Vodafone
Director, marketing	Augmentum Fintech	IR capital markets interface manager	Airbus
Director, communications	Sobi Orphan Biovitrum	IR, director	Schneider Electric
Director, sustainable business	Britvic	IR, manager	Nestle
ESG IR manager	TotalEnergies SE	IR, sustainability director	Turk Telekom
Finance director	Warehouse REIT	Senior IR manager	Johnson Matthey
General manager, London branch	Intesa Sanpaolo	Senior IR manager	Wood
Global head of IR	IG	VP, IR	Azerion
Group financial controller	Harworth Group	VP, IR	BP
Group head, sustainability	CMC Markets	VP,IR	Valemt Oyj

Request full attendee list

What our attendees say

"The evening was taken care of down to the last detail. Beautiful location, music, well-calculated timing also to leave room for both networking moments"

Illimity Bank

"Great food, good timings, all seamless which is rare to see! Presenter was fantastic."

Augmentum

"Well done to everyone at IR Magazine for another very well organised and enjoyable event. It was a real treat to be mingling and spending time again with so many industry experts and seeing many new and familiar faces! "

Bank of America

"The evening went very smoothly with the transition between dinner and awards, and the pacing of the awards was great so it didn't feel like it dragged at all. The venue was also lovely."

Ocado Group

"Well organised, good venue and separate areas for networking. Nice sponsor touches with balloons. Good food, good service. Nice intro from James (editor). Good to hear from winners briefly.
Good event despite challenges - well done!"

Gather London

"I liked meeting with other corporate attendees, networking and the venue. Organisation was good."

HUGO BOSS

"It was all very elegant and beautifully laid out. The stage was very nicely decorated and the award ceremony was not too long."

Nexxar

Inquire about partnership

Partners

Alliance Advisors

Alliance Advisors

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.
Bank of America

Bank of America

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
Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Awards partners

Deutsche Bank’s Depositary Receipts team is part of the Trust&Agency Services business within the Corporate Bank. In addition, to specialising in administering cross-border equity structures such as American and Global Depositary Receipts, Deutsche Bank provides corporates, financial institutions, hedge funds and supranational agencies around the world with trustee, agency, escrow and related services. The bank offers a broad range of services for a diverse set of products, from complex securitisations and project finance to syndicated loans, debt exchanges and restructurings. The bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. Deutsche Bank is Germany’s leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia-Pacific. For more information, please visit: https://adr.db.com
London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

Awards partners
Notified

Notified

Awards partners

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

OTC Markets

Awards partners

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX® Best Market, the OTCQB® Venture Market and the Pink® Open Market for 11,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link® ATS and OTC Link ECN, 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.

OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are SEC regulated ATSs, operated by OTC Link LLC,
member FINRA/SIPC.
Q4

Q4

Awards partners

Q4 Inc. (TSX: QFOR) is the leading capital markets access platform that is transforming how issuers, investors, and the sell-side efficiently connect, communicate, and engage with each other.

The Q4 Platform facilitates interactions across the capital markets through IR website products, virtual events solutions, engagement analytics, investor relations CRM, shareholder and market analysis, surveillance, and ESG tools. The Q4 Platform is the only holistic capital markets access platform that digitally drives connections, analyzes impact, and targets the right engagement to help public companies work faster and smarter.

The company is a trusted partner to more than 2,650 public companies globally, including many of the most respected brands in the world, and maintains an award winning culture where team members grow and thrive.

Q4 is headquartered in Toronto, with offices in New York and London. Learn more at www.q4inc.com.

IR Magazine Awards ‒ Europe Celebrating IR excellence

Thursday, June 22, 2023

About the awards

Awards by nomination