De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, London
The IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2024 took place on Thursday, June 20 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms. This was a very special event honouring excellence in the investor relations profession across Europe and we were excited to welcome everyone for an evening of fine food and lots of celebrating!
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 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 researched categories, companies do not submit nominations. Instead, hundreds of analysts and investors cast their votes and give their opinions on which companies provide the best IR service. In our nominated categories, companies submit written entries to articulate their success and achievements from the past year, giving any publicly listed company the opportunity to be considered for an award.
For our awards-by-nomination categories, individuals and companies are given the opportunity to submit written entries, free of charge, to be put forward to a panel of expert judges made up of investment professionals and IR Magazine editorial team members.
View the full list of 2024 nominees and winners by clicking here.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 8004 4989.
The awards-by-nomination categories differ from our traditional researched awards, as individuals and companies are given the opportunity to submit written entries, free of charge, to be put forward to a panel of expert judges made up of investment professionals and IR Magazine editorial team members.
The judging process consists of three simple phases:
Phase one: Once the entry deadline has passed, the IR Magazine editorial team reviews all submissions and produces the short list
Phase two: The short-listed entries are shared with an independent judging panel made up of industry experts. The judges review each short-listed entry and select their top two picks per category
Phase three: The judges come together to discuss, debate and select the final list of winners who will go on to win an award
The judges’ votes are not made public, but their comments may be published in articles or reports after the event. Judges are not required to make comments against every submission.
We are delighted to announce our judging panel for the 2024 awards! Click on each photo below to find out more.
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
Head of corporate, ESG and IFRS Reporting
Howden Joinery Group
*Scoring selected categories
Simon’s current role combines best practice corporate and ESG reporting with IFRS technical accounting and reporting. He leads the Howdens Annual Report team as well as the interpretation and implementation of new IFRSs and makes sure that the Group stays ahead of new developments in corporate and ESG reporting.
Simon is a specialist 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.
Dr. Agnes Neher
Head of responsible investment
Baloise Asset Management
Agnes Neher is Head of Responsible Investment at Baloise Asset Management. In her role, she is further expanding responsible investment across all asset classes for Baloise Group. Agnes previously worked at Bank J. Safra Sarasin as an ESG analyst and Corporate Sustainability Manager.
Agnes completed her doctorate at the German University of Hohenheim on the materiality of non-financial risks in the financial markets. Her focus was on ESG reporting by institutional investors, the relationship between ESG ratings and government bond yields, and the regulation of responsible investment in the EU.
Agnes holds a Diploma in Economics from the University of Tübingen and a MSc in Philosophy of Social Sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.
René Nicolodi
Head of equities, deputy head of asset management
Zürcher Kantonalbank
René Nicolodi is the head of Equities and deputy head of Asset Management at Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank. After starting his career at Swiss Bank Corporation and UBS, he held several positions in Investment Bank and Asset Management at Zürcher Kantonalbank prior to his current function. René received his Ph.D. in the area of ‘Sustainable Pension Fund Engagement’ from the University of Zurich (2006), and since 2009 has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA). He also holds an Master in Digital Management from Hyper Island (2022). René is part of the ESG Commission of the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) and is Vice-President of Swiss Sustainable Finance.
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 President of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He was a member of the Patient Capital Review panel with the Chancellor of the Exchequer six 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).
Laurie Havelock
Editor
IR Magazine
Laurie Havelock is a journalist, writer and podcaster who has worked with IR Magazine for more than a decade. He was previously assistant business editor at the Daily Telegraph and acting business and money editor at the i newspaper. In his spare time, he is a keen boardgamer and hosts a podcast about them called Idle Fantasy. He lives in London with his husky, Mischa.
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.
View the full list of 2024 nominees and winners 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].
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 2023: Sample selection
IR Magazine has been building investment community databases for more than 30 years. As part of the updating process, listed companies are contacted every year for details of the professionals who currently cover their stock.
January – February 2024: 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 2023 – February 2024: 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 2024: 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 20, 2024: Winners announced
And finally… the winners are announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, June 20, 2024!
June 2024: Report published
Shortly after the awards, the IR Rankings 2024 report is published and made available to IR Magazine subscribers.
Past winners of our coveted IR Magazine Awards are invited to be inducted into the IR Magazine Hall of Fame. This is an exclusive alum organization reserved only for individual winners of our awards including the categories – Best IR Professional across all cap sizes and Lifetime Achievement award winners.
We wanted to provide a platform that offers ongoing recognition for this monumental achievement and an opportunity for our award winners to help shape the future of excellence in the IR community.
The IR Rankings – Europe Top 100 report is the ultimate benchmarking resource for any IRO looking to improve their IR program. It provides detailed analysis and statistics on the working practices of the awards-by-research winners, selected through an independent survey of investors and analysts.
The report offers:
This report will be released on June 21, 2024, after the awards ceremony. Please note, an IR Magazine subscription is required to access the report.
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 | |
Business development director | Volution Group | Head of IR | Marshall Group | |
CFO | Volex | Head of IR | Mister Spex | |
CFO | International Personal Finance | Head of IR | OMV | |
Deputy head of IR | Capita | Head of IR | Siemens Healthineers | |
Director, head of IR, EMEA and Asia | Burford Capital | Head of IR | Smiths Group | |
Director, IR | Anora Group | Head, corporate development and IR | Kenmare Resources | |
Director, IR | AstraZeneca | Head, sustainability | Barratt Developments | |
Director, IR | flatexDEGIRO | Interim VP, IR | Burberry | |
Director, IR | Rolls-Royce | IR | BP | |
Director, IR | Schneider Electric | IR | Experian | |
Director, IR | YouGov | IR analyst | Pirelli & C | |
Director, IR and communications | Duni Group | IR manager | International Airlines Group | |
Finance risk and assurance director | Unite Group | IR senior associate | Criteo | |
Head of investor relations | Severn Trent | Manager, IR | BAT | |
Head of IR | Britvic | Manager, IR | Lufthansa Group | |
Head of IR | Carlsberg | Manager, stakeholder communication and corporate access | Swedish Orphan Biovitrum | |
Head of IR | Frequentis | Senior IR manager | DHL Group | |
Head of IR | Group BCPE | SVP, head of IR | GSK | |
Head of IR | Imperial Brands | VP, IR | Sage | |
Head of IR | Lloyds Banking Group | VP, IR | Valmet |
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
Notified makes it easy for brands to create and share powerful stories with the world. Our suite of world-class, award-winning solutions and our dedicated customer service team are relied upon by more than 10,000 global customers, from growing businesses and public companies to some of the world’s most recognizable brands.
Notified’s solutions help businesses effectively share and amplify their stories to customers, investors, employees, and the media. From press release distribution via GlobeNewswire to earnings calls, IR websites, social listening, media engagement tools, webinars and virtual events, Notified has you covered.
Learn more at www.notified.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or our Blog.
OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates regulated markets for trading 12,000 U.S. and international securities. Our data-driven disclosure standards form the foundation of our three public markets: OTCQX® Best Market, OTCQB® Venture Market and Pink® Open Market.
Our OTC Link® Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) provide critical market infrastructure that broker-dealers rely on to facilitate trading. Our innovative model offers companies more efficient access to the U.S. financial markets.
To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit otcmarkets.com.
Q4 Inc. is the first IR Ops Platform with the world’s largest set of proprietary investor data, purpose-built to remove obstacles between public companies and their investors. Q4 gives investor relations leaders and their teams the tools to attract, manage, and understand investors — all in one place. The AI-enabled Q4 IR Ops Platform boasts a simple yet powerful IR website management system, frictionless events software, a robust analytics engine, a streamlined investor CRM, and shareholder intelligence with enhanced metrics to elevate investor targeting strategies. Q4 delivers the data, insights, and workflows that give IR teams the power to focus on what really matters: strategy, relationships, and driving premium valuations for their companies.
The company is a trusted partner to more than 2,600 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.
Supported by
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
Since 1991, AERI has been bringing together the most relevant IR professionals and other stakeholders in Spain, focusing on the development of best practices, but also on providing the best possible options for networking. AERI Members are well known for their top performance in the capital markets, always developing the highest standards in the Investor Relations world.
For more information, please visit www.aeri.es
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
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
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?
Our awards provide 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.
Partnering with the event will provide:
All our partnerships are created using a mix of branding, thought leadership, lead generation and meetings with your target audience. You tell us your objectives and we will work with you to create you a package that’s makes sense for your company and will help you achieve those objectives. To find out more get in touch with Henry Wright or call on +44 20 8004 5337.
We are delighted to announce that Hal Cruttenden will be the master of ceremonies at this year’s awards presentation.
Hal Cruttenden is one of the top touring stand-up comedians working in the UK and Ireland and an accomplished writer, presenter, and actor. On TNT Sport he hosted The Rugby’s On with Ugo Monye. He has also made several appearances on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You, The Royal Variety Performance, Would I Lie To You, The One Show, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and The Apprentice: You’re Fired.
He’s toured extensively in the UK and Ireland over the last ten years, and has taken shows to the Montreal, Melbourne, and New Zealand comedy festivals. Hal has recorded three stand up specials for Next Up – Tough Luvvie, Straight Outta Cruttenden and Chubster.
Hal wrote and starred in his sitcom, Hal on Radio 4. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and has appeared in Shackleton, Eastenders, Touching Evil, and Orwell A Celebration.
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For partnership inquiries
+44 20 8004 5337
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+44 20 8004 4989
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