Virtual event: Live and available on replay
The IR Magazine Forum – Small Cap is a best practice event which focuses on effective shareholder communications attended by CEOs, CFOs and IROs from small and micro-cap companies spanning multiple industries. This one-day virtual forum focuses on the unique issues affecting small cap companies.
Due to current restrictions around the Covid-19 pandemic, the event will take place as a virtual experience.
Using the latest cutting edge technology available, our virtual event platform closely replicates being there in person with the chance to interact with speakers and have one-to-one networking in-between panel talks.
Going virtual connects our attendees to even more attendees, from the comfort of their desk.
NIRI IRC® CREDENTIAL
Holders of the NIRI IRC® credential can earn up to 4 professional development units (PDUs) per day. IRC-credentialed speakers may also earn PDUs. More information is available at www.niri.org/certification.
The 2021 agenda will be announced shortly.
In the meantime, you can view what was discussed in 2020 below or by clicking here.
08:45 AM
Welcome to IR Magazine's Small Cap Forum 2020
Laurie Havelock, editor-at-large, IR Magazine
08:50 AM
SNAPSHOT: Impact of Covid-19 – what are the emerging risks and future outlooks for small and micro-cap IROs?
In a period of disruption to markets and IR programs there can be a risk of value-destructive IR driven by short term-ism. However, there are still opportunities to build credibility with the investor base during volatility and keep your eyes on the bigger picture. This session will take stock of the current market, the exposures on the small cap side and the current focuses for small cap IROs, provide an overview of how new regulations will affect small caps in the coming months, share how companies reacted, and how they should act moving forward.
Moderator: Laurie Havelock, editor-at-large, IR Magazine
AJ Krick, chief financial officer, Smith Midland
Jason Paltrowitz, director and executive vice president, OTC Markets
Vlad Suglobov, co-founder and CEO, G5 Entertainment
09:40 AM
PANEL: Owning the narrative: strengthening your message and ensuring the evolving market understands the story
With an unprecedented level of volatility in the market and uncertainty in the economy, it’s a challenging time to tell a consistent equity story. Public companies are encouraged to focus on their long-term value proposition, while also providing short-term operational updates. In this session, we will explore how messaging has evolved over the last year, and how you can ensure the market understands your story. We will discuss:
Moderator: Laurie Havelock, editor-at-large, IR Magazine
Jason Fooks, senior vice president of investor relations & marketing, iStar and Safehold
Jason Mead, director of finance, Casella
Taylor Thoen, CEO, executive producer, BTV
10:30 AM
PANEL: Getting corporate access & investor targeting right in a virtual world
Investors will almost always say that they won’t invest in a company without meeting the management team first. But the opportunity to shake hands and look someone in the eye seems far away, so how can small and micro-cap companies run a successful virtual corporate access program? For virtual investor meetings how ambitious should you be with your investor targeting and engagement efforts?
Moderator: Laurie Havelock, editor-at-large, IR Magazine
Stan Kovler, vice president of strategy and investor relations, Extreme Networks
Loren Mortman, president, The Equity Group
Lindsey Reardon, corporate access manager, Wellington Management
11:30 AM
PRESENTATION: Responding to the changing investor base during Covid-19, and attracting the right investors for your company
How has the small cap investor base evolved? Has there been a move towards passive vs active, value, or short-term investors? What does this mean for long-term prospects for small caps and liquidity?
Mike Coffey, vice president of strategy, Q4
Billy Eckert, head of surveillance and intelligence, Q4
12:00 PM
BREAKOUTS: Join other delegates to discuss a key topic in our interactive discussions
In this session, delegates can participate in a secure video chat with fellow small cap IROs.
– How to run an IR program as a small or micro-cap: how to do more with less – From budgets to press coverage, messaging and marketing, this session will tackle the unique challenges of small and micro-cap companies, and will break down the key components of running an effective small or micro-cap IR program.
Tom Samuelson, founder, Magellan Yates
– Measuring IR to secure resources: Taking a qualitative and quantitative look at IR’s impact
IHS Markit’s latest research examines how the performance of 30 IR Magazine Award winners compares with their peers. In this session we will discuss the results of the study and how IR teams can showcase their achievements to secure resources. Tune in to discover:
Michael Miller, director, IR advisory, IHS Markit
Jason Oury, managing director, IHS Markit
12:30 PM
PANEL: Generate visibility: targeting covering analysts & how to mitigate impact of the small-cap research squeeze
Sell-side coverage can help small and micro-cap companies gain more visibility, liquidity and trading volume. During times of crisis, a tenured sell-side analyst can also act as an extension of the IR team, helping to reassert a company’s equity story. But the perfect storm of MiFID II and Covid-19 has created a situation where small caps are lacking coverage. In this session, we’ll discuss how companies can stay visible to attract coverage, and what alternatives exist.
Moderator: Ben Ashwell, editor, IR Magazine
Victoria Hyde-Dunn, head of investor relations, 8×8
Jason Tsai, head of investor relations, Synaptics
Peter Tsvetkov, director of investor relations, CTT Correios de Portugal
13:30 PM
PANEL: Responding to increasing ESG expectations with a small cap budget
At a time when ESG is gradually becoming an unwavering factor for investors and regulators worldwide, as well as when long-term focused ESG stocks outperform in 2020, it is challenging to know how small caps can keep up. This session will discuss what is realistic for a small cap, and how companies can look to implement an ESG offering without a big spend requirement.
Moderator: Ben Ashwell, editor, IR Magazine
Martin Jarzebowski, director of responsible investing, vice president, Federated Hermes
Chad Reed, vice president of investor relations and ESG, Hannon Armstrong
Eliza Riego, head of product and service innovation, TMX
14:30 PM
Live Q&A with portfolio managers. What do investors want from small caps at this time?
This session gives the opportunity to have your questions answered by investors and analysts, understand how the markets are viewing key issues of the day, and what is driving current decisions.
Moderator: Jonathan Dickson, vice president, international corporate services, OTC Markets
Heinrich Ey, co-CIO German and European mid/small caps, Allianz Global Investors
William Hench, portfolio manager, principal, Royce Investment Partners
Gervais Williams, head of equities, Premier Miton Investors
15:30 PM
Summary and 1-1 networking
We will now open the platform up for delegates to try out our 1-1 networking feature. Essentially it is chat roulette, so you will be matched at random with a fellow delegate and you will have a short time to chat and, if you like, exchange contact details.
16:00 PM
Close of forum
To inquire about speaking at the forum, please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 3865 8103
Jason Mead
Director of finance
Casella
Victoria Hyde-Dunn
Head of investor relations
8x8
Jason Fooks
Senior vice president of investor relations & marketing
iStar and Safehold
William Hench
Portfolio manager, principal
Royce Investment Partners
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).
Vlad Suglobov
Co-founder and CEO
G5 Entertainment
Vlad is a games industry professional with more than 24 years of experience. In 1995, during his freshman year, he started his career as employee #14 at Nikita Ltd. (now Nikita Online), one of Russia’s first game development companies. In 2000, Vlad graduated from Moscow State University with the M.Sc. in mathematics and programming, and spent the next year working as a software engineer on the Moscow team of the US-funded Voxster.
In 2001, Vlad and his colleagues co-founded G5 to develop PC and mobile games. Vlad has been the company’s CEO since inception, and he continued to write game engine code until 2003, after which he began focusing entirely on the business side. In 2008, the iPhone was released, and it created a new opportunity for the company. After finishing up large publisher contracts, G5 wanted to bring its own games to the promising iOS platform. In February 2009, the company’s first iPhone game, Supermarket Mania, was launched, quickly becoming the company’s biggest financial success to date. Anticipating the revolution that the iPhone was bringing to the industry, Vlad started G5’s publishing operations and set out to license popular PC hidden object games to bring them to this new generation of mobile devices.
In 2011, Vlad moved from Moscow to San Francisco to establish G5’s marketing operations in the US, the company’s largest market. Since 2013, when free-to-play (F2P) games started to quickly gain prominence on mobile, Vlad has been steering G5 to focus on this business model, with an emphasis on quality and fewer new releases. Today, Vlad continues to be deeply involved in the company’s strategy, marketing, and product development.
Chad Reed
Vice president of investor relations and ESG
Hannon Armstrong
Chad leads investor relations and ESG strategy for Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI), a leading investor in climate change solutions.
Previously, he served in various roles, including structured finance, risk management, and investor relations, with TerraForm Power – an integrated renewable energy company now owned by Brookfield Asset Management. Chad is also a co-founder of and current Board member with Blue Forest Finance, a non-profit focused on harnessing financial innovation to design sustainable solutions to systemic climate resilience challenges. Chad started his career as an intelligence officer operating primarily in the Middle East.
Chad holds degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the George Washington University.
AJ Krick
CFO
Smith Midland
Mr. Krick, a Certified Public Accountant, served as Accounting Manager of the Company from 2014 till December 2017. He has 15 years of experience working with executives and management teams to improve processes and provide cost savings. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from James Madison University. AJ is currently a member of the OTCQX Advisory Council.
Martin Jarzebowski
CFA, director of responsible investing, VP
Federated Hermes
Martin is the Director of Responsible Investing, leading ESG integration and active engagement across $630 billion in Federated Hermes assets under management. He is a permanent member of Federated Hermes’ Proxy Voting Committee and Risk Management Committee and is a former Equity Portfolio Manager. Martin is an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Finance at the University of Rochester and serves as an advisory member on the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). He graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with a BS in applied economics, earned a MS in law & accounting from the London School of Economics (LSE) and completed a post-grad in advanced risk management from the Yale School of Management.
Heinrich Ey
Co-CIO German and European mid 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.
Our attendees are leading IR practitioners with an established track record and strategic IR role within their company.
Below is a sample of some of our past virtual attendees:
Job title | Company | Job title | Company |
Analyst, corporate financial | RPT Realty | Executive assistant | Kadmon |
CCO | HBC | Investor relations | Safehold |
CEO | Q BioMed | Investor relations | Safehold |
CEO | Verb Technology | Manager of strategy, corp. development and investor relations | EnPro Industries |
CFO | Smith-Midland Corporation | Manager, international small cap portfolio | The Royce Funds |
CFO | Phunware | Manager, investor relations | Safehold |
Co-founder, president | Intro-Blue | Senior director, investor relations | Veeco Instruments |
Director, financial reporting | Bel Fuse | Sr. manager – IR & financial communications | Garrett Motion |
Director, investor relations | Criteo | SVP, investor relations & marketing | Safehold |
Director, investor relations | NAPCO Security Technologies | SVP, investor relations & treasurer | Titan International |
Director, investor relations & corporate communications | Anterix | Vice president of finance | Bel Fuse |
Director, investor relations & corporate communications | Kadmon | VP, investor relations | Iridium Communications |
Director, IR | Constellium | VP, investor relations | Telaria |
Director, IR | Nanobiotix | VP, treasurer | Glatfelter |
Why partner with us?
The IR Magazine Forum – Small Cap brings together some of the most influential people in the IR community.
The event offers an effective approach to targeting clients when they are exploring how they can improve their IR practice. Through our unrivalled knowledge of the subject matter and commitment to in-depth agenda research, our events are guaranteed to attract a qualified audience.
The unique buzz we create at our virtual events – a far cry from a webinar – makes them multi-faceted and highly interactive with great engagement in particular from heads of IR. This allows our partners to have meaningful conversations with corporates who are deciding which parts of their IR program to invest in, which service providers to engage and consultants to retain. By partnering with us on an event, you can generate leads, showcase your thought leadership and position yourselves as the partner of choice to the IR community.
We’d love to have a chat with you about how you can get in front of a truly engaged and motivated audience at the IR Magazine Forum – Small Cap. Get in touch with Taylor Ray or call on +1 212 430 6895.
In the last 12 months, IR Magazine’s virtual events have attracted the highest, most diverse and senior attendees and experts in investor relations
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Forum Partners
TMX Group operates global markets, and builds digital communities and analytic solutions that facilitate the funding, growth and success of businesses, traders and investors. TMX Group’s key operations include Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Alpha Exchange, The Canadian Depository for Securities, Montréal Exchange, Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation, and Trayport which provide listing markets, trading markets, clearing facilities, depository services, technology solutions, data products and other services to the global financial community. TMX Group is headquartered in Toronto and operates offices across North America (Montréal, Calgary, Vancouver and New York), as well as in key international markets including London and Singapore. For more information about TMX Group, visit our website at www.tmx.com. Follow TMX Group on Twitter: @TMXGroup.
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 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 operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC and SEC regulated ATS.
ZRG Partners’ mission is to bring talented candidates to leading companies. We adhere to a set of core values that allows us to fulfil our clients’ needs on an optimal scale. We take pride and care to ensure that the core values we instill in our staff help our clients acquire strong leadership within their company.
For more information, please visit our website.
Supported by
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
Founded in 1969, NIRI is the professional association of corporate officers and investor relations consultants responsible for communication among corporate management, shareholders, securities analysts and other financial community constituents. NIRI is the largest professional investor relations association in the world with more than 3,300 members representing over 1,600 publicly held companies and $9 trillion in stock market capitalization.
For more information, please visit www.NIRI.org
The NIRI Silicon Valley Chapter was formed to advance the practice of investor relations within the local business environment. In keeping with this mission, the Chapter focuses on IR education, mentoring, and networking with the broad professional community. Our goal is to further the skills of our members, to expand their business opportunities, to increase Chapter membership, and to foster an environment that promotes IR learning for all.
For more information, visit nirisv.org.
The super early bird rate expires on August 13, 2021.
After this date the price will increase to the early bird rate of $95. The standard price booking price is $145.
If you have any questions, please contact Chloë Rutter at [email protected] or +44 20 3002 0396.
For partnership inquiries
+1 (212) 430-6895
For agenda inquiries
+44 20 8004 4818
For all other inquiries
+44 20 3002 0396