‘Earnings are our Super Bowl halftime show’: Tales from 100 quarterly updates with Mary Winn Pilkington
Earlier this year, Tractor Supply Company (TSC)’s Mary Winn Pilkington celebrated her 100th earnings call – with balloons, cake and the typical quarterly stress to match. ‘In IR you touch on everything – that’s probably part of the reason I…
Featured deep dives
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‘Earnings are our Super Bowl halftime show’: Tales from 100 quarterly updates with Mary Winn Pilkington
Earlier this year, Tractor Supply Company (TSC)’s Mary Winn Pilkington celebrated her 100th earnings call – with balloons, cake and the typical quarterly stress to match. ‘In IR you touch on everything – that’s probably part of the reason I have stayed in investor relations for 25 years,’ she says. ‘Every day is different and you get to work with the smartest people inside the company. ‘You’re working with people that are on the board or the management team, you’re working with high potential individuals that have been given strategic projects to work on,’ she adds. ‘Then, outside of the…
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‘People aren’t robots’: How can companies support mothers in their IR teams?
How do you keep a mother in investor relations? How do you support her in a way that keeps diversity of knowledge and experience climbing the corporate ladder? This is a very difficult act to balance, with our recent article on the topic hearing from high-functioning, street facing women who hold senior positions while also raising children. And as Debbie Nathan of Debbie Nathan Associates explained, the issue of childcare is not one that men ever raise in the recruitment process: this is predominantly a female issue. So what should companies be doing to make sure that women feel they…
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The sustainability Taliban, the eco right and why we need a new language for ESG: down the rabbit hole with Robert Eccles
When Robert Eccles wrote a piece called Grift capitalism: The GOP’s brilliant strategy for ripping off ordinary Americans, it received the usual dose of online hate mail. It also led to a challenge: if you can find a conservative that thinks sustainability is good for capital markets, will you stop ‘writing nasty stuff’ about Republicans? That led him to the position he speaks from today: a liberal ex-hippy who has found common ground with the so-called ‘eco right’. Eccles, a well-known author and lecturer who has been writing about non-financial metrics since the early 1970s, had already become frustrated with…
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Mothers of IR: From babies at conferences to the metaphorical ‘sticky floors’ beneath the glass ceiling
If you were at an investor event in May 2022 alongside alternative defense firm Axon, you might have spotted a rather unusual attendee: the softest of blonde hair, pacifier in place and no socks on their feet. This was Andrea James’ third child getting a fast-track induction to IR so that James could continue breastfeeding as she worked a high-profile, Street-facing job. Today, James is finance lead at Oncocyte. But she isn’t just a CFO, nor just an IR Impact Award-winning former head of IR either. On her CV she proudly lists the position of ‘co-founder at Family Inc’. Check…
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The CFO: ‘My best advice comes from a former marine – embrace the suck,’ says Andrea James of Oncocyte
Earlier this year, Andrea James – the IR Impact Award-winning former investor relations lead at Axon – talked to us about taking a sabbatical from investor relations as she sought a new role. Having taken time to herself, then taken time think about what her next move might look like, she manifested a CFO position at a small cap. That small cap is Nasdaq-listed precision diagnostics firm Oncocyte. Here James talks to IR Impact about the skills you need to make the move from IR to CFO, what she looks for from her advisers and why stock-picking and finance appealed…
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Talking DEI under Trump 2.0: how anti-woke investors are hijacking pro-ESG proposals
What does DEI mean to you? Here at IR Impact, we’ve stopped spelling out diversity, equity and inclusion, working under the assumption that this most tricky of news items is known to all. But it seems that other interpretations exist – on the White House official X account for example, where a post was recently put out stating ‘the only DEI we support is Deport Every Illegal’. That very much sums up the kind of narrative companies are up against with today’s very public broadly anti-ESG and specifically anti-DEI rhetoric.
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‘We’re experienced in market drawdowns’: Setanta’s Fergal Sarsfield talks value, opportunity and luck
Fergal Sarsfield joined Dublin-headquartered Setanta in 2007 and it today responsible for co-managing the EAFE (European, Australasian and Far East) Equity Fund. Previously, he divided his time with sector responsibility for the technology sector within the Setanta Global Equity Fund, while co-managing EAFE. Setanta was established in 1998 and today manages around $15 bn with $8.9 bn in equities across three strategies: global, EAFE and dividend (with roughly $3-$4 bn in US equities). Setanta is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada Life, which is in turn owned by Canada’s Great-West Lifeco. There is an investment team of 30 based mainly…
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Featured research
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How to leverage data to successfully navigate market expectations
A modern IR team needs a solid foundation of real-time analytics to confidently steer their organization through the turbulence of market expectations. High-quality data transforms challenges into opportunities, fostering a culture where every forecast is an informed step toward sustainable growth. This playbook, developed in partnership with Visible Alpha, now a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, offers a comprehensive guide to mastering this critical aspect of navigating the capital markets.
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IR Playbook: Maximizing your return on time
In this playbook, written in association with Notified, we look at how IROs divide their time and what tasks they consider most valuable.
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Governance Playbook: Building an effective creation process for your proxy statement
The proxy statement is the cornerstone of a company’s communication with its shareholders and other stakeholders including employees, regulators and customers. In recent years, this vital document has evolved from being a publication designed solely to comply with SEC requirements into something that conveys – often in novel ways – the company’s message and strategy. Now more than ever, companies face deep scrutiny of how they operate and the values they adhere to. Crafting the content and design within proxy statements for success would not be possible without the process involving – at its head – the corporate secretary’s office…
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Global Roadshow Report 2025
IR Impact’s 15th annual research report into the who, where, how and why of corporate roadshow activity.
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Briefing – Lessons from the 2025 Proxy Season
In partnership with WHEN 8.00 am PT / 11.00 am ET / 4.00 pm BST / 5.00 pm CET DURATION 45 minutes About the event The 2025 proxy season was influenced by several key issues, including changes announced in Staff Legal Bulletin 14M regarding the interpretation of Rule 14a-8, and…
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