Comings & goings Janet Bergman is the newest partner in the Chicago office of Beacon Advisors, a boutique strategic communications consultancy. She has over 20 years of experience in financial analysis and corporate communications and is the former senior VP of corporate relations for Sara Lee; prior to that, she was with Putnam Management in Boston as an analyst.
Rob Gurner is the new IR manager at Group 4 Securicor, the UK-based security group. He reports to director of communications Debbie McGrath in this newly created position. Gurner, who will become the main point of contact for investors, is responsible for the
development of the group’s IR strategy. ‘Rob brings good experience of equity markets and, in particular, the support services sector,’ said McGrath in a statement.
Before joining Group 4 Securicor, Gurner worked for Financial Dynamics, a leading financial communications consultancy, where he advised several support services companies.
David Sasso has joined Transax International, which provides network solutions to the healthcare sector, as VP of investor relations and corporate communications. Sasso reports directly to Stephen Walters, Transax’s president and CEO. ‘As we continue to make great strides in our business strategy, it has become increasingly important to communicate our efforts and accomplishments to current and prospective shareholders, the media and our clients,’ Walters said in a statement.
Sasso brings a wealth of experience in PR and financial communications to the role. Prior to joining Transax, he was managing director of the marketing services group and IR group at KCSA Public Relations Worldwide.
Identification is the key Advanced ID Corporation has taken on Peter Laipnieks, an independent consultant, to lead its new IR program. Until recently, most of the IR work at the Calgary tech company was handled by its PR department.
The OTC-listed firm has decided to set up a dedicated IR function as it looks to expand its investor base. And it has selected Laipnieks, who has worked in IR for more than ten years, to help it put an IR program together over the next six months.
Laipnieks’ main priority will be to enhance the company’s profile among potential investors. ‘Advanced ID is evolving from a development to a leadership role in the radio frequency identification industry, and we’d like to put it on as many people’s radars as possible,’ he says. ‘The company seems to have a good following within its industry but not within the investment community, and it’s my job to change that.’
Laipnieks is keen to target retail investors ahead of institutions, as he believes ‘the price of the deal is not yet at a level where institutions would be that interested’. He was initially attracted to a career in investor relations by the poor quality of the practice at companies he invested in. ‘I was a fairly large investor before and I came to the conclusion that a lot of companies weren’t doing a great job of their IR, so I moved into the sector,’ he comments.
Prior to taking on this role, Laipnieks was president of NetMeasure Technology for three years. Before that, he co-owned and ran Alliance Corporate Services, an IR firm. Paving her own way Kellie Friery has joined Dix & Eaton’s investor relations practice as an account executive. Friery is a prime example of how an IR novice can turn professional when fueled with enough intrigue and determination. She joins the firm after spending the last couple of years familiarizing herself with its culture, mission and client base.
Friery’s pursuit of IR began when she took a corporate communications course during her MA in accounting at Notre Dame. While there, she was the co-author of a case study, which continues to show up on university curriculums, called Arthur Andersen, LLP: An accounting firm in crisis. Friery ended up working with her professor and mapping out a path to get her going in the direction of IR without going back for a communications degree on top of her accounting MA.
Friery got her start in public accounting after realizing it dealt with the regulatory rules that lend themselves to IR. Through that experience, she ended up talking to an IR professional in the Cleveland area that happened to be a Dix & Eaton client, who set her up with a contact at the firm. After about a year and a half of talks, Friery ended up joining the team.
‘Coming into the firm, I didn’t really have any IR type of experience. I have a pretty strong background in accounting and finance. One of my goals was and still is to learn a lot of the basics of IR and how I can continue to apply my financial back ground to it,’ Friery says.
Friery’s responsibilities include coming up with programs, strategies and ways of communicating to help clients push their investor relations initiatives. She is also an eager and active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (Niri).
Prior to her new role with Dix & Eaton, Friery held a post as a senior auditor at the Cleveland offices of Ernst & Young.
Open for business again Reflecting on over 30 years in the IR industry, Jane Watson can say with conviction that the time to tend to her own practice has come. After a hiatus of over a year, Watson has returned to devoting her energies to her IR consultancy, Watson Investor Relations.
Since 1985, Watson has worn many hats in IR, whether with corporations or consultancies or as a financial journalist. She initially started Watson Investor Relations in 2002, but this venture took a back seat when Montreal’s CGI Group, one of Watson’s long-standing clients, asked her to join as VP of IR, a post she held for a year and a half.
‘I felt it was time to focus on the mid-cap and smaller companies – folks without a developed IR department. That is where I can bring the greatest value, and it’s something I love to do,’ she says.
Watson was presented with the Canadian Investor Relations Institute’s (Ciri) award for excellence in 2003, and her involvement with Ciri has extended from being president of the Ontario chapter to her current seat on the national board. She has been head of Ciri’s issues committee for the last several months, focusing on disclosure and regulatory issues. She is currently updating Ciri’s model disclosure policy.
‘Our standards and guidance for disclosure and model disclosure policy are now in their final stages, reflecting new Sox-related regulations for disclosure,’ she explains. ‘Our policy also reflects the fact that Canadian companies now fall under a statutory civil liability regime for continuous disclosures. The US has had it for a long time, but Canada hasn’t. It opens up the possibility of class-action lawsuits over disclosure.’
Watson was vice chairman of the Barnes Organization, an IR consulting firm, before starting her own firm in 2002. She started her career as a business journalist with major papers like Canada’s Financial Post, the Globe and Mail and the Financial Times.
Pivotal job for veteran IRO Fulcrum Research, a UK share register analysis company, has appointed James Poole as its new chairman. Poole recently retired from his post as head of IR at Old Mutual, the FTSE 100 group with South African origins, after six years with the company.
During his many years in IR, Poole has built up an impressive range of contacts with both brokers and investors, and he hopes to deploy these connections to maximum effect in his new role.
‘When I retired from Old Mutual, I wanted to continue to be active in the field of investor relations. The Fulcrum opportunity was very interesting because this is a pure shareholder research company and it doesn’t give IR advice or work with activist investor groups as some of our competitors do,’ he explains. ‘From my point of view, the fact that it’s pure shareholder research is an advantage because it enables me to keep my relationships with brokers and investors totally straightforward.’
Poole has already been in touch with many of the existing and potential clients that he will be assisting. Over the coming months he will work on updating Fulcrum’s benchmarking study of institutional holdings.
Before joining Old Mutual, Poole worked in shareholder and corporate communications for Barclays and Lloyds TSB. He has also advised on several IPOs, including the listings of Halifax (now HBOS) and Canadian company Sun Life Financial. Poole began his career as a financial journalist, working for ten years at the Sunday Times, where he was deputy City editor and foreign business editor.
