Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel, San Francisco
The IR Magazine Think Tank – West Coast took place on Tuesday, September 26 as an invitation-only event exclusively for senior IR officers. Our think tanks are free to attend and our unique format enables participants to network extensively, discuss, debate and dissect topical issues affecting today’s IROs.
What makes our format so unique?
Our think tanks are far removed from the traditional conference set-up as the event consists of a series of panel sessions followed by roundtable discussions on select IR issues. These interactive sessions are an opportunity to share experiences with and learn from other top-rated IROs. All table discussions are confidential, and none of the participants’ comments is attributed. This allows attendees to talk freely and have frank, open discussions.
How do our roundtable discussions work?
Industry experts, top-rated IROs and members of the investment community set the agenda on a panel discussion by sharing their thoughts on session topics.
Small round tables of IROs discuss these issues face to face.
Each table gives feedback from its discussion and shares ideas with the group as a whole.
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.
You can see the full agenda by clicking here.
08:00 AM
Registration, refreshments and networking
08:55 AM
Welcome to the IR Magazine Think Tank
Laurence Taylor, senior conference producer, IR Magazine
09:00 AM
Debate the impact of the anti-ESG movement on how companies communicate their sustainability efforts
As ESG movement grows and evolves, so too does its opposition. But how significant is the ESG pushback for public companies, and how – if at all – should IR teams respond? Here we will debate whether the anti-ESG movement should be taken into account in your ESG communications, or if doing so risks diluting your sustainability story.
Moderator: Lauren McDonald, conference producer, IR Magazine
Alex Hughes, vice president of investor relations, Guidewire Software
Mike Rost, senior vice president, corporate development and investor relations, Workiva
09:30 AM
ESG Roundtables
Topics:
Managing and communicating your environmental performance to stakeholders
IR caught in the middle: When social issues hit your company
10:00 AM
Innovating your outreach with retail investors
There are now more retail investors trading for themselves than ever before. Yet, despite their growing prevalence, retail investors often find themselves relegated to the sidelines. In this session we will take a deep dive into the value of an effective retail strategy in the current environment, and share advice on how best to target, manage and sustain relationships with retail shareholders.
Moderator: Laurence Taylor, senior conference producer, IR Magazine
Anil Gupta, vice president, investor relations, Coinbase
10:20 AM
Coffee break
10:40 AM
Getting better returns on shareholder engagement
It’s been several years since the return to in-person events but the corporate access world has changed dramatically since the pandemic. Here our panellists will discuss the different channels of engagement, how corporate access trends are evolving and how to maximize the efficiency of your outreach.
Lance Spacek, head of corporate access, Wells Fargo
Lisa Rubinger, broker and corporate relations, Ashler Capital
11:10 AM
Planning and executing a meaningful investor day
A well-timed investor day is a unique chance to provide a much deeper view into the company’s strategy, update investors on the long-term financial framework, provide access to the broader management team and reframe your investment case. In this panel, we’ll discuss when and how to put on a successful hybrid event to make the most of this crucial opportunity.
Moderator: Lauren McDonald, conference producer, IR Magazine
Brooke Bakewell, senior manager, investor relations, Salesforce
Hunter Stenbeck, senior vice president, strategic situations and investor relations, Edelman Smithfield
Dave Zbojniewicz, vice president, investor relations, Mattel
11:55 AM
Targeting and engagement roundtables
Topics:
Reaching the right people in the right way
Investor Relations in the Digital Age: The Rapidly Evolving Retail Investor Landscape
12:25 PM
Lunch
13:30 PM
Leveraging AI to strengthen the issuer-investor relationship
In this session our panellists will share their views on how AI is reshaping how IR teams and investors communicate with one another. Learn how investors are using AI to screen stocks, what the implications of this is on IR teams, and how IROs themselves can leverage AI to improve how they approach and communicate with investors.
Erik Carlson, COO and CFO, Notified
Victoria Hyde-Dunn, vice president of investor relations, Informatica
14:00 PM
'IR plus': Staying ahead in your career as the role evolves
The role and perception of IR has changed a lot over the years. IROs now take on diverse responsibilities beyond their traditional functions, reshaping careers, team dynamics, and the profession’s future. Here we look at how market and technological trends are impacting the skills needs of future IR professionals, and share tips on growing your career within and beyond IR.
Moderator: Lauren McDonald, conference producer, IR Magazine
Daniel Amir, vice president, finance and investor relations, ironSource/Unity
Katrina Rymill, senior vice president, corporate finance and sustainability, Equinix
14:30 PM
Roundtables: Enabling smarter IR teams
15:00 PM
Afternoon break
15:15 PM
Buy-side Q&A: Understand investor priorities for 2024
During this open Q&A session, our panel of investors will address any concerns and questions about the next 12 months, and what they expect from IR teams. This is your chance to engage directly with a range of investors on various topics, including:
Moderator: Laurence Taylor, senior conference producer, IR Magazine
Lori Keith, director of research and portfolio manager, Parnassus Investments
15:40 PM
The IR situation room
A carefully structured, collaborative session that gives attendees an opportunity to work together to solve each other’s real-life IR challenges in a consultation-style setting
Moderator: Victoria Hydde-Dunne, vice president, investor relations, Informatica
16:20 PM
Closing remarks and cocktail reception
For all agenda inquiries, please contact [email protected]
Matt Joanou
CEO and co-founder
Stakeholder Labs
Matt Joanou is the co-founder and CEO of Stakeholder Labs, an enterprise software company helping public companies engage their shareholders, and has over 10 years of experience working with digital loyalty, community, and marketing products. Matt’s career as an entrepreneur started in his Cal Poly dorm room when he helped launch a customer loyalty company called Punchd, which was quickly acquired by Google. Matt went on to lead Punchd’s national expansion and eventual integration into Google Wallet and then worked across Google’s suite of advertising products with some of the world’s top brands and agencies. Matt later joined Reddit, where he worked alongside the founders to accelerate revenue growth, which gave him a front row seat to the evolution of dynamic retail investor communities and their potential impact on our global financial system. Matt brings his unique experiences from Google and Reddit to Stakeholder Labs along with a network of investors and teammates who share his passion and dedication to the evolution of corporate ownership as a solution for our global challenges.
Kaitlin Kikalo
Managing director
Joele Frank
Kaitlin Kikalo is a Managing Director at Joele Frank where she helps companies navigate dynamic and complex communications situations, including corporate crisis issues, M&A, and shareholder activism. In the times that matter most, her focus is on leveraging each client’s unique stakeholder landscape to drive support, mitigate risk and best control the narrative. Kaitlin joined Joele Frank in 2015 following the opening of the firm’s San Francisco office. Previously, she served as a Teach for America corps member in the Bay Area.
T.J. O'Sullivan
Managing director
Joele Frank
T.J. O’Sullivan is a Managing Director at Joele Frank, advising companies across industries and in a wide range of special situations, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism and crisis management. In addition, he works extensively with clients to develop and refine their investor and public relations programs. T.J. joined Joele Frank in 2019 from PG&E Corporation, where he served on the investor relations team through several crises, including the 2017 Northern California wildfires, the 2018 Camp Fire and PG&E’s Chapter 11 filing in 2019
Daniel Amir
Vice president, finance & investor relations
ironSource/Unity
Daniel is a VP Finance at Unity/ironSource. In this role he deals with both IR, ESG and Finance functions. Prior to ironSource he held senior IR and finance positions at both HP Inc and DSP Group. In the past he was a senior sell-side research analyst for 16 years at Lazard, JPMorgan, Ladenburg and WRHambrecht covering the technology sector. Daniel has a BA and MA in International Relations and Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a MBA from UCLA.
Brooke Bakewell
Senior manager, investor relations
Salesforce
Hunter Stenbeck
Senior vice president, strategic situations and investor relations
Edelman Smithfield
Dave Zbojniewicz
Vice president, investor relations
Mike Rost
Senior vice president, corporate development and investor relations
Workiva
Victoria Hyde-Dunn
Vice president, investor relations
Informatica
Alex Hughes
Vice president, investor relations
Guidewire Software
Lori Keith
Director of research, portfolio manager
Parnassus Investments
Lori Keith is the Director of Research and Portfolio Manager of the Parnassus Mid Cap Fund with responsibility for portfolio management for the firm’s Mid Cap strategy. She joined Parnassus Investments in 2005 after serving as a Parnassus research intern. Before joining the firm, Ms. Keith was a Vice President of Investment Banking at Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance LLC and was a Senior Associate in Robertson Stephens & Company’s investment banking division. Prior to that, she worked in the management consulting practice at Ernst & Young. Ms. Keith received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and her master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Katrina Rymill
Senior vice president, corporate finance and sustainability
Equinix
Katrina Rymill is the SVP of Corporate Finance & Sustainability, and leads Equinix’s global Investor Relations, Treasury, and Sustainability departments. Joining Equinix in 2011, her focus areas include leading the company’s award-winning IR program, elevating and expanding sustainability efforts across the company and industry, and positioning the company long-term with a strong and optimized balance sheet. Katrina is an avid advocate of Equinix to investors, customers, and industry groups to elevate the company’s leadership position, and she is passionate about the intersection of Sustainability, capital investment, and customer needs.
Prior to Equinix, Mrs. Rymill was Director of Investor Relations at CyberSource, an e-commerce payment gateway, which was acquired by Visa in 2010. Previously, Mrs. Rymill was the Head of Investor Relations at Redback Networks, and started her career at Merrill Lynch in Investment Banking, where she worked on various leveraged finance and debt deals.
Mrs. Rymill earned an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan and a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University.
Laurence Taylor
Senior conference producer
IR Magazine
Laurence Taylor is a content researcher and conference producer at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary where he is responsible for crowd-sourcing intelligence on global issues facing public companies. In this role, Laurence creates industry-wide conferences overseeing the event all the way from conception to completion.
Prior to this role, Laurence held similar roles with Westminster insight, A UK based policy organisation for both private and public sector. Laurence also produced events for Metal Bulletin, American Metal Market, and Industrial Minerals market.
Lance Spacek
Head of corporate access
Wells Fargo
Lisa Rubinger
Head of corporate relations
Ashler Capital
Lisa Rubinger joined Ashler Capital, one of Citadel’s four equities businesses, in late 2019 as Head of Broker and Corporate Relations, a role that ensures Ashler’s investment teams have the best possible access to corporate management. To support the rapid growth of Ashler’s business, Lisa helped build a sustainable corporate access strategy, focusing on thoughtful process and long-term partnerships. Lisa collaborates closely with the Portfolio Managers and continuously develops her team’s strategy as Ashler’s business needs evolve.
Lisa joined Ashler with more than a decade of experience in corporate access. She previously served as a Director at UBS and a Vice President at Deutsche Bank, and she began her career as an analyst at Morgan Stanley. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.
Anil Gupta
Vice president, investor relations
Coinbase
Erik Carlson
COO and CFO
Notified
Erik Carlson is chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Notified, a technology partner for investor relations, public relations and marketing professionals. He brings over 10 years of M&A, strategic finance and business transformation experience across private equity portfolio companies in technology, media, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Prior to Notified, he was senior vice president of M&A integration at Intrado and director of M&A and strategy advisory at PwC.
Lauren McDonald
Conference producer
IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary
Lauren McDonald is a conference producer at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary. She brings a wealth of experience from her past roles in campaign organizing for The Labour Party in Leeds and Tower Hamlets.
Lauren holds a Masters degree in the History of Race & Resistance and a Bachelors degree in American History & Politics, both from prestigious universities. She uses her expertise and knowledge to inform her current work and ensure high quality outcomes.
In her free time, Lauren is actively involved in a number of charitable causes. She has volunteered with the Girl Guides, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and regularly donates her time to political campaigns in and around London.
In her role as conference producer at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, Lauren is passionate about providing the best experience to all stakeholders and ensuring all events she produces are of the highest quality.
Our attendees are leading IR practitioners with an established track record and strategic IR role within their company.
Below is a sample list of attendees:
Job title | Company | Job title | Company | |
AD, head of IR | OmniAb | Senior manager, IR | Salesforce | |
Chief financial officer | Medexus Pharma | Senior vice president | Genasys | |
Chief financial officer | Nuvve Corp | Senior, manager, IR | Box | |
Director | Airbnb | SVP, IR | FIGS | |
Director IR, FP&A | lithia | SVP, IR | Okta | |
Director, IR | Atlassian | SVP, IR, corporate development | Workiva | |
Director, IR | ContextLogic | VP, finance | Hinge health | |
Director, IR | Del Monte | VP, finance | Unity | |
Director, IR | Electronic Arts | VP, head of IR, communications | Kinnate Biopharma | |
Director, IR | Gap | VP, head, IR | Upstart Holdings | |
Director, IR | Roku | VP, investor and industry analyst relations | Cambium Networks | |
Director, IR | Splunk Technology | VP, IR | Allbirds | |
Director, IR | United States Steel Corporation | VP, IR | Bill.com | |
Head of IR | Affirm | VP, IR | BlackBerry | |
Head of IR | AOL | VP, IR | Central & Garden & Pet | |
Head of IR | DataStax | VP, IR | Coinbase | |
Head of IR | Expensify | VP, IR | Domo | |
Head of IR | Joby Aviation | VP, IR | Farmers’ Business Network | |
Head of IR | Longboard Pharmaceuticals | VP, IR | J.M. Smucker | |
IR | PDF Solutions | VP, IR | NuVasive | |
IR & treasury | Granite Construction | VP, IR | PagerDuty | |
IR manager | Fortive | VP, IR | Revolve Group | |
IR, corporate development | Hippo Holdings | VP, IR | SciPlay Corporation | |
IRO | FLYW | VP, IR | Stem | |
Manager, IR | GAP | VP, IR | Sutro Biopharma | |
Manager, IR, strategic finance | 10x Genomics | VP, IR | The Honest Company | |
Senior director, IR | Equinix | VP, IR and capital markets | Rover Group | |
Senior manager, IR | Applied Materials | VP, IR, corporate development | Edgio | |
Senior manager, IR | Elastic | VP, treasurer and head of IR | Intuitive Surgical |
Why partner with us?
Our events provide a unique opportunity to get in front of some of the most influential people in the IR community globally. 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 industry excellence and network with key decision makers from across the region.
Being a partner will provide:
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 Think Tank – West Coast. Get in touch with Ian Richman or call on +1 212 430 6865.
Partners
Edelman Smithfield is a global financial communications boutique that specializes in the financial markets and strategic situations, with the reach and resources of the world’s largest public relations firm.
We are a top advisor for companies across industries in M&A, IPOs, investor relations, restructuring, and shareholder activism defense. We are also a trusted partner for financial markets companies as they seek to protect, promote, and evolve their reputation.
Our purpose is to help clients solve complex issues, build trust, and enhance valuation. To find out more information, please visit www.edelmansmithfield.com.
Joele Frank provides strategic counsel and tactical support for high-stakes, high-profile special situations as well as for ongoing public and investor relations.
The Joele Frank team is broad and deep and recognized by peers, the financial community and journalists for their quality work, strategic acumen and creative approach to challenging issues.
The firm’s clients range from large, global public companies to smaller, private enterprises across virtually all industries.
Joele Frank consistently ranks among the top PR firms in announced M&A transactions, shareholder activism defense and engagement, and bankruptcies and restructurings. It also has leading practice areas in crisis communications, including for litigation, cybersecurity and other special situations, as well as in private equity, ESG, IPOs, and spin-offs. The firm has dedicated design and digital teams to differentiate and drive client narratives in these areas. For more information please visit our website www.joelefrank.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.
Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking delivers a comprehensive suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services. A trusted partner to our clients, we provide corporate and transactional banking, commercial real estate lending and servicing, investment banking, equity and fixed income solutions including sales, trading, and research capabilities to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients across the globe. Our office locations span the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking is part of Wells Fargo. Founded in 1852, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.
Cocktail Reception Partner
Supported by
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 Virtual Chapter is the second largest chapter in the NIRI ecosystem, with over 230 members representing 160+ publicly traded companies from a wide range of professional experiences, industries, geographies and market caps. The Virtual Chapter has been providing online educational, professional development and networking opportunities for its members and the broader IR community for more than 16 years, and is the only NIRI chapter to offer CPE credits in addition to IRC PDUs. For more information, please contact [email protected].
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+1 212 430 6865
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+44 20 8004 4818
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