Energy company ConocoPhillips has made an impressive debut on the short lists for the IR Magazine Awards – US 2015. It joins familiar face Intel to be one of the two most-nominated companies, with both set to contest awards in six categories.
Celebrating their 20th year in 2015, the IR Magazine Awards – US are among the industry’s most highly respected and sought-after honors for leading companies and individuals working in investor relations. Since the annual event first launched in 1996, tens of thousands of analysts and investors have voted in the surveys that inform the awards. On Thursday, March 26, 2015, IR’s best and brightest will be gathering at a black-tie event at Ciprani Wall Street in New York City to see which companies, executives and IROs are recognized with an IR Magazine Award.
Though this year marks ConocoPhillips’ first appearance in the award short lists, the firm is already competing for some of the most fiercely contested categories, including best IR by a CEO and best investor relations officer at a large-cap company. Intel, meanwhile, will hope to replicate its 2014 success, when it picked up awards for best use of technology and best IR in the technology sector.
Just behind ConocoPhillips and Intel come Covidien ‒ one of last year’s best-performing companies ‒ and a relative newcomer in the form of Enterprise Products Partners. They each pick up five nominations this year.
Healthcare giant Covidien won six awards at last year’s awards ceremony, including the grand prix for best overall investor relations by a large-cap company, as well as finishing in top spot in the IR Magazine US Top 100 rankings. Enterprise, meanwhile, ranked 21st last year and was short-listed for best IR in the utilities sector. This year the energy firm will contest both the grand prix for best overall IR and best IRO at a large-cap company, joined in both categories by ConocoPhillips, Covidien and Intel.
Following these top large-cap performers is a trio of mid-cap companies with four nominations each: Waste Connections, Ryder System and the Hartford Financial Services Group. These three companies, along with Polaris, will contest the grand prix for best overall IR at a mid-cap company. Large-cap firm Danaher also has four nominations, including a short-listing for Daniel Comas in the award for best CFO at a large-cap company.
The IR Magazine Awards – US 2015 are determined by a body of research that identifies the country’s top corporate IR teams and sheds some light on the opinions of their investment communities. This survey is the only one of its kind that contacts respondents through a combination of electronic surveys and one-to-one telephone interviews conducted over the course of two months in 2014, canvassing the opinions of more than 600 investors, analysts and portfolio managers across the US.
The IR Magazine Awards – US 2015 are sponsored by Argyle, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Blender Media, BNY Mellon, Business Wire, Computershare/Georgeson, Corbin Perception, Cowen and Company, GE, Innisfree, Investis, Ipreo, MacKenzie Partners, MBS Value Partners, the Mizuho Financial Group, NIRI, Okapi Partners, Q4 Web Systems, RCS Capital, RR Donnelly, TD Bank Group, TheIRapp, UBS and Wells Fargo.
For a full list of award categories and nominees, click here.
