Rich has been in the financial services industry since 1987 with most of his career focused on shareholder communications and proxy event management.

Rich is the Director of Issuer Solutions at Mediant, responsible for overseeing the delivery of investor communication solutions to funds, annuities, alternative investments and corporate issuers. Rich and his team support Mediant’s distinctive high tech and high touch approach, delivering technology leadership with an unparalleled white-glove service model. Rich brings his extensive experience in the proxy lifecycle to support Mediant’s continued growth across all issuer types.

Prior to joining Mediant, Rich managed corporate issuer programs at Georgeson LLC, where he designed and executed successful solicitation strategies to support long-term corporate governance goals. Prior to Georgeson, Rich spent over 12 years in leadership roles at Broadridge Financial Solutions, where he was responsible for client services, operations and product management for mutual fund proxy solicitation services. He has held management roles at D.F. King & Co., leading call center operations for corporate issuer and mutual fund proxy solicitation campaigns and John Hancock Signature Services, where he led shareholder and broker service teams. Earlier in his career, Rich held the position of assistant vice president of legal operations at Putnam Investments where he led all proxy efforts including vendor selection and oversight.

Rich is an active member of leading industry associations including National Investment Company Service Association (NICSA), Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), Investment Company Institute (ICI), Society for Corporate Governance, Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (IPA), and National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI).

Rich is graduate of the Securities Industry Institute, sponsored by SIFMA and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a certificate from the Corporate Governance Bootcamp Program at New York University’s School of Law. Rich attended Northeastern University where he studied organizational leadership.

Mark is currently Vice President, Strategy, Planning & Investor Relations at Gibson Energy, an oil-focused infrastructure company, and was previously Vice President, Corporate Planning & Investor Relations at Veresen Inc.  In both these roles, Mark’s IR duties focused on transforming the companies’ communication, positioning and perception in the market.  Mark is CFA charterholder, and through both Investment Banking and corporate roles, has a broad spectrum of experience including strategic planning, corporate development, equity & debt capital markets, corporate finance, risk management and M&A.

Milla is Founder and President of Millani Inc.

Throughout her career, Milla has worked closely with senior management and
investor relations teams of Canadian publicly-listed companies, as well as
financial analysts and investment managers of several Canadian pension and
investment funds. Prior to founding Millani in 2008, she worked for more than
15 years in the institutional equity markets for major Canadian financial
institutions.

Later, as Deloitte’s Sustainability Leader, Quebec, she was actively
involved in the development of sustainability strategy, management, stakeholder
engagement, and reporting for a variety of Canadian organizations.
Milla is a board member of the Responsible Investment Association and sits on
its Nomination Committee. She is Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the
Finance and Sustainability Initiatives of Finance Montréal. Milla is recipient of
the 2017 Clearn16 Award, and in 2020 was awarded Montreal’s Y Foundation
Women of Distinction Award, in the Business & Entrepreneurship category.

Pete guides The Buddy Group’s Storydriven vision. Founding the company more than two decades ago, it reflects his blend of work in creative marketing roles across film, television, radio and theatre and his passion for innovation, creative strategy, design thinking, media and business building. Since 2005, Pete and his team have worked at the convergence of marketing, storytelling and connected technology.

Under Pete’s leadership The Buddy Group has shaped the trajectory of countless firms across industries while shaping the terrain of storydriven consulting. The diversity of his experience and expertise is reflected in The Buddy Group’s client list, past and present including; Michaels, Vertafore, Goodwill, Wells Fargo, AARP, St. Joseph Health, GE, Washington Mutual, Pentel, American Express, Microsoft, King’s Hawaiian Bread, Western Digital (WDTV), Google, YouTube, Epson, National University, McDonald’s HappyMeal.com and Experian. Along the way, it has executed 200 product and program launches; deployed across mobile, web and connected television.

Prior to starting The Buddy Group, Pete held executive and management positions at VPI, Iconixx and Melanie Griffith’s One World Live and worked on Broadway with producers of Into The Woods (25th anniversary), at The Broadway League (co-presenters of The Tony Awards®) and as an investor of several Broadway shows. At those respected entertainment/media-focused organizations he led efforts on brands such as Harry Potter, AOL, News Corp., Hypnotic (Universal), the first online short film festival and Ashton Kutcher’s first web presence, AshtonKutcher.com. Pete also shaped the digital media landscape, playing a major role with pioneers across several ad/media formats including Eyeblaster, Pointroll and YouTube’s custom brand channels. Pete sits on the OCTANe Innovation Accelerator board of directors, TBG Adventure Capital board of directors and the Project Hope Alliance board. He is an investor in or advisor to several startups.

Pete holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob has held various leadership roles in sales and business development that have always focused on expanding quality client relationships and driving revenue. With over twenty years of experience providing technology solutions in the financial services and public safety industries, Rob rejoined OpenExchange in March 2020 with a track record of building relationships and delivering exceptional services to customers globally. Previously, as Executive Vice President at Thomson Financial, Rob was responsible for successfully relaunching First Call’s business in Europe, increasing revenues over 200% and expanding broker partnerships globally. His success in building teams, expanding markets for innovative technology and accelerating growth was evident at Credence ID, OpenExchange (2012-2015), IntraLinks and Thomson. While at IntraLinks, Rob guided the company transition to an all SaaS model with customers such as JP Morgan, Chase Bank, Ernst & Young and Bank of America. Based in New York, Rob is responsible for OpenExchange’s Corporate Services in the Americas.

Matt joined Danaher in 2013 as Vice President of Investor Relations. In 2019 he assumed responsibility for Financial Planning & Analysis, and he was appointed Group CFO for the Life Science Instruments Group in 2021. Prior to joining Danaher, Matt was a Vice President in Equity Research at Barclays Capital and served in a similar capacity at Morgan Stanley. He began his career at KPMG where he held positions in the Audit and Transaction Services groups.

Matt is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant. He holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and a Masters in Accountancy and Professional Consultancy from Villanova University

Debbie is Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for Hasbro, a global play and entertainment Company.

Debbie has more than 25 years of experience in investor relations.  During her career, she has been a key contributor to corporate and business decisions and a trusted advisor to senior management for strategic communications, corporate events, M&A and crises.

Debbie’s and her companies’ IR programs have been recognized over the years by IR Magazine and Institutional Investor Magazine.

Debbie has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and a Certificate in Investor Relations from Bentley College. She has been a member of the National Investors Relations Institute (NIRI) since the mid-90s and currently serves on the NIRI National Board of Directors. She also served as a subject matter expert on the IRC Question Writing Committee for the inaugural IRC exam and subsequently on the NIRI Certification Council. She previously sat on the NIRI Senior Round Table Steering Committee and has been a speaker at NIRI and IR-focused conferences.

Prior to joining Hasbro, Debbie was Director, Corporate and Internal Communications for APC by Schneider Electric.  At APC, Debbie established and ran the investor relations program until the Company was acquired by Schneider Electric in 2007.  Debbie led APC’s communications for the Company’s $6.1 billion acquisition, developing messages for all stakeholders including investors, customers, vendors and employees. Following the acquisition, Debbie served as Chief of Staff, serving as strategic advisor to the incoming chief executive officer and executive committee during the integration process.

Aaron Howald has been Director of Investor Relations at LP Building Solutions (LPX) since October of 2019. Prior to IR he served in a variety of roles including Continuous Improvement, Strategic Planning, and FP&A since joining the company in 2011.

Before LP, Howald worked as a management consultant specializing in strategy, change management and business process improvement. Before that I worked for Hillenbrand Industries in Batesville, Indiana as a manager of strategic planning.

Howald earned a BS in Finance and Economics from Franklin College and an MBA from Indiana University with emphases in Operations Management and Decision Science.

Dave Hughes was appointed vice president, investor relations and continues improvement in January 2017.

Mr. Hughes joined Imperial in 1989 as a systems analyst in Toronto, where he supported refinery capital projects. He has since held a range of technical, supervisory and management positions within the company’s upstream, downstream and corporate groups. His depth and breadth of knowledge extends to refining, supply and transportation logistics, business analysis and reporting, upstream project management, and commercial pipeline work. Mr. Hughes’ career includes an international assignment with ExxonMobil, where he spent five years in various downstream roles in Fairfax, Virginia and Houston, Texas.

Today, Mr. Hughes leads the investor relations team and is responsible for the company’s continuous improvement efforts, with direct accountability to Imperial’s management committee. In his continuous improvement role, Mr. Hughes has leadership responsibility for Imperial’s Clarify. Simplify. Focus. program, where he leads a cross-functional team in the prioritization and capture of efficiency initiatives to support the company’s business priorities of safety, operational integrity, reliability and profitability.

Mr. Hughes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Queen’s University.

Balaji Krishnamurthy is the Head of Investor Relations at Uber, and joined the company in November 2019. In his role, he leads the company’s investor engagements and works closely with the senior leadership team to shape the investor narrative. In addition, he is involved with Uber’s Corporate Development and Capital Markets efforts, and closely works with the ESG reporting team. Previously, he was at Goldman Sachs for several years, most recently as the Vice President on the Hardware and Communications Technology Equity Research team in San Francisco.

Sam Levenson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arbor Advisory Group. For more than 25 years, he has served as a trusted advisor to Boards of Directors, CEOs, CFOs and other executive management in the investor relations, corporate communications and public affairs functions. In 2015, he was inducted as a Fellow to the National Investor Relations Institute, an honor bestowed on “distinguished investor relations professionals.”

Prior to founding Arbor in 2013, Sam’s experience includes leading investor relations for Sony North America in addition to creating and implementing the first investor relations program at Staples. He also directed global investor relations and corporate communications for Cendant Corporation in the wake of fraud and one of the largest-ever shareholder lawsuits brought against a public company. Sam has deep expertise in strategic and financial communications, crisis management, M&A and capital markets transactions, and legal and regulatory issues.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Sam has been deeply involved with both the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and the Investor Relations Association (IRA). For NIRI, he has served on the Board of Directors, as chair of its Senior Roundtable as well as its External Affairs Committee and its Think Tank study on the application of AI in IR in addition to other roles at both the national and local level. In addition, Mr. Levenson co-chaired the CFAI/NIRI Joint Task Force on Issuer and Analyst Relations, which published Best Practice Guidelines that were subsequently endorsed by both the NYSE and NASDAQ. For the IRA, he served in each of the officer roles on the Executive Committee, including president.

Sam was appointed by the Financial Accounting Foundation as the sole member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) to represent the investor relations community and served for four years in this capacity. The FASAC is responsible for advising the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on technical issues, project priorities and other matters that affect standard setting.

Sam holds a BS from Boston University.

Ms. Levy-Odom is a member of BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team in the Americas. She has coverage responsibility for the Consumer Sector. BIS evaluates the corporate governance of companies in which BlackRock invests, including the assessment of environmental and social factors material to a company’s business operations. The team engages with companies to build mutual understanding regarding governance expectations, risk mitigation and long-term financial performance. Prior to joining the BIS Americas team, Ms. Levy-Odom served as the Executive Director of Investor Relations at Time Inc. Additionally she served as the firm’s Corporate Responsibility Officer. Prior to joining Time Inc., she was a Vice President and Domestic Equity Analyst at Alliance Bernstein, responsible for equity forecasting and stock recommendations in the Consumer sector.

Since joining Equinix in 2015, he has held various roles in investor relations and treasury.  In his current role, he has helped shape the company’s IR messaging and communications strategy and while in treasury he managed the company’s capital markets activities for the Telecity, Verizon and Bit-Isle acquisitions.  Prior to Equinix, Mr. Newcom spent seven years HSBC in the Global Banking and Capital Markets division, where he advised US multinational clients on foreign exchange hedging.

Mr. Newcom earned an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

Jill is Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Hilton. She joined Hilton in 2014.

Prior to that, she spent more than 10 years in the financial services industry, most recently at Morgan Stanley where she was an Equity Research Analyst specializing in the lodging industry, including the coverage of Hilton, among other global hospitality companies.

Prior to Morgan Stanley, she held similar roles at Lazard Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch. She has been ranked by Institutional Investor and Investor Relations Magazine as a top ranked IR professional.

Michael S. Smith is chief financial officer (CFO) and interim chief risk officer (CRO) of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), which helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings —to get ready to retire better.

Smith —who became CFO in November 2016, interim CRO in April 2019, and also serves on Voya’s Executive Committee —is responsible for strategic finance, risk, capital management, actuarial, tax, insurance investments, controllership, financial reporting, procurement operations, expense management, treasury and investor relations. Smith also oversees Voya’s legacy individual life insurance and annuities businesses, which generate approximately 20% of Voya’s adjusted operating earnings.

Smith has held several leadership roles during his tenure at Voya. From January 2014 to September 2016, he served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Insurance Solutions. In this role, he led Voya’s Individual Life and Employee Benefits businesses to achieve higher returns on capital, introduce new technologies and generate greater value for Voya’s customers, distribution partners and shareholders. Under Smith’s leadership, both the Individual Life and Employee Benefits businesses generated higher returns on capital. He also oversaw significant in-force premium growth in Employee Benefits and successfully shifted the company’s Individual Life sales to indexed life insurance products.

From May 2012 to January 2014, Smith served as Voya’s CRO, and was responsible for overseeing the enterprise-wide and business-level risk monitoring and management program for the company. He joined Voya in 2009 as CFO and CRO of Annuities, and subsequently served as CEO of Annuities. In addition to his other roles at Voya, Smith continued to oversee Voya’s legacy variable annuity business until its sale in June 2018.

Prior to joining Voya, Smith held several leadership positions at Lincoln Financial Group, where he ultimately served as head of profitability and risk management of the company’s Retirement Solutions business. He also served as CFO and CRO of Lincoln Life and Annuities, from 2004 to 2006, and as CFO for Lincoln Financial Distributors, from 2003 to 2004.Smith holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and Russian studies from the University of Michigan and attained Fellowship in the Society of Actuaries in 1990. He is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and has been a CFA® Charterholder since 2003. Smith serves on the boards of The Actuarial Foundation as well as People’s Light & Theatre Company. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13.8 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $7.5 billion in revenue in 2019. The company had $606 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2020.

George Trisic is the Chief Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary of Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. He has broad experience managing in high growth, start up and expanding businesses across multiple sites and regions. In his role, Mr. Trisic is responsible for the governance, sustainability and corporate secretarial functions of the Corporation. His skill set includes leading multi-functional groups in finance, human resources, legal and information technology in a senior role. Mr. Trisic also serves on the board of directors of Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc. and the Yves Landry Foundation. He holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Western Ontario. Additionally, he holds a Chartered Director certification from the Directors College (McMaster University).

Chris Varvares is Vice President and Co-Head of US Economics at IHS Markit. He previously co-led Macroeconomic Advisers, a company he co-founded in 1982, and which was acquired by IHS Markit in 2017. Mr. Varvares has nearly 40 years of experience in macroeconomic forecasting and policy analysis, both as a principal of Macroeconomic Advisers (1982 to 2017) and as a member of the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (1981-1982). Mr. Varvares is a past president (2008-2009) and a former director of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).  He serves as a member of the New York State Economic and Revenue Advisory Board, and he sits on advisory boards for the Olin Business School at Washington University and the Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University. He and the other senior economists within the US macro and regional teams serve as consultants to key agencies of the U.S. and foreign governments, major trade associations, and private corporations, and are widely quoted in the business and financial media. A specific focus of Mr. Varvares and his team over the past decade has been the expansion of its scenarios business and products in support of financial institutions needs around stress testing and risk management, including regulatory programs (CCAR, DFAST, IFRS9, CECL) and voluntary risk management involving alternative scenarios.

The firm is widely recognized as among the most accurate forecasters of the U.S. economy. Among the many accolades the firm has received for forecast accuracy, the Wall Street Journal named IHS Markit the most accurate forecaster for 2017 from its panel of over 60 professional forecasters. The Blue Chip Economic Indicators named IHS Markit the most accurate US forecaster for 2016. Mr. Varvares holds a B.A. in Economics from The George Washington University and received his graduate training in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was also a member of the adjunct faculty in both the economics department and the Olin School of Business.

Mark Wilson heads up the creative delivery team at Cramer and has more than 25 years of experience as a hands-on strategic creative director. His many years in digital marketing, event, and brand experience design give him a unique ability to marry and deliver attendee journeys that integrate across a wide range of platforms, technologies, and venues.

He thrives in a world where broadcast, virtual and face-to-face events intersect. He has led his teams to award-winning work for clients that range from Google, UPS, and Fidelity to Elizabeth Arden, Boston Scientific, and Siemens. Prior to joining Cramer, he was a primary driver of creative product for The Boston Group, George P. Johnson, PreVision Marketing, Ingalls and Mullen.

Ben Ashwell is the editor at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, covering investor relations, governance, risk and compliance. Prior to this, he was the founder and editor of Executive Talent, the global quarterly magazine from the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants. Before moving to the US, Ben was the vice president and editor at Executive Grapevine, overseeing a daily news website, ten annual supplements and HR Grapevine, the UK’s leading HR and talent management magazine. In his spare time, Ben writes fiction, poetry and arts and culture reviews. Eyewear Publishing recently named him in their list of the Best New British and Irish Poets.

Laurie Havelock is a journalist, writer and podcaster who has worked with IR Magazine for almost a decade. Outside of writing about investor relations, corporate governance and green finance, he also works for the i newspaper as a news editor and culture writer. Away from writing, he works on several comedy podcasts including Podshambles and Idle Fantasy and was formerly a radio DJ, and hosted a weekly show on Shoreditch Radio called What’s Your Plan B? He lives in London with Mischa, his dog.

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

Steve Wade is a content researcher and conference producer at IR Magazine where he is responsible for crowd-sourcing intelligence on the big global issues facing investor relations. Steve also creates events where the IROs and the wider financial community can discuss, debate and learn about ways to develop the IR function.

Prior to IR Magazine, Steven’s background has been in corporate social responsibility and responsible investment. During his time at Ethical Corporation (now Reuters Events), Steve launched the ESG symposium, an event focused on connecting the socially responsible investment community with corporate sustainability leaders at listed companies. Steve was a judge for the Deloitte Green Frog Awards, celebrating the best corporate reporting in Eastern Europe. Steve also presented research at the Global Sustainable Event Summit in London and has spoken about extra-financial reporting with the United Nations Global Compact, the World Bank and the Polish Ministry of Finance.

Steve has a degree in Event Management and enjoys playing rugby in his spare time.