Best Practice IR
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Small (and a mid) caps hit big: Aecon, Calian and TransAlta take three apiece at the IR Impact Awards – Canada 2025
In an event packed with the highest achieving IR teams in Canada, it was two small-cap companies and a mid-cap firm that punched hardest, with Aecon Group, Calian Group and TransAlta Corporation each taking home three IR Impact Awards at the black-tie ceremony in Toronto last night. TransAlta took the trophy for best overall investor relations and best investor relations officer for Tamara Cook – both in the mid-cap category – as well as winning its sector award in utilities. The two small-cap companies also won some of the most prestigious awards of the night, with Aecon claiming best overall…
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‘We’re thinking about what AI is going to destroy as much as what it’s going to create’: Jonathan Knowles of Compound Equity Group
Compound Equity Group (CEG) was founded in 2024 and seeks high-conviction, long-term ideas in global equities. The founder and portfolio manager in charge, Jonathan Knowles, spent more than 30 years managing money at Capital Group. At his time of retirement in December 2024, he was in charge of some $50 bn in assets and was the chief investment officer of the firm’s $70 bn small-cap fund – the largest such fund in the world. CEG has recently raised $500 mn in capital and is deploying a very long-term, highly concentrated approach: to have 20 to 25 investments with some positions…
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What does Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Day’ mean for IR?
After weeks of warnings, Donald Trump finally revealed his full suite of new industry tariffs from the White House Lawn on Wednesday. Announcing the slew of trade measures as ‘Liberation Day’, the US president said that the economic policies would mark the day American industry was ‘reborn’ and the day the country was ‘made wealthy again’. For many IROs, it will herald a period of volatility and uncertainty as they scramble to find out what the implications of those moves will be on their companies.
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Building from a baseline: how IR teams are using new data sources to unlock smarter decision-making
As any IR professional knows all too well, the market is awash with a wealth of data from myriad sources. Everything from earnings calls to websites to press releases – both from your company and from your peers – can help inform strategic IR work. But where do you start without becoming completely overwhelmed? This was what panelists Erik Carlson, chief operating officer at Notified, Glenn Schulman, founder and head of IR at Z3 BioCommunications, and Amanda Tang, head of IR at TMX Group, tackled in a recent IR Impact Webinar, held alongside Notified.
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Amid such a complex environment, IR’s job is to keep things simple
It’s certainly a wild time to be an IRO. While uncertainty is always present in the market, companies are dealing with major surprises far more frequently at the moment. On any day, corporate strategies and financial guidance could be thrown into doubt by a policy announcement, geopolitical shift or another factor.
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The CFO: ‘You need to have a stomach of iron during times of volatility,’ says Block’s Amrita Ahuja
Many IROs hope that their time in the profession might set them up well for a C-suite position well one day. But for Amrita Ahuja, CFO and COO for payments company Block, the transition happened directly during her time as head of IR for interactive entertainment firm Activision Blizzard, where she was called upon to become finance chief of its video-game publishing wing Blizzard Entertainment in 2018. Fast forward a few years and she now holds the dual posts of CFO and – for the past two years – COO at Block, the financial technology company founded by Jack Dorsey,…
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How long do you have to be ‘short’? Recent debate puts spotlight on the movements of short sellers
Short seller reports can have a huge impact on the stocks they target. Everyone from regulators to law firms and even Netflix are looking to the impact of shorting stocks – with one law firm arguing free speech is being put at risk In the stock market, the traditional way to make money is to buy shares in a company and wait for the share price to rise. Another way is to short a company and wait for the share price to go down and buy back the cheaper shares. If the share price goes up, those shares must quickly…
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Taking management on tour: What’s the sweet spot for investor meeting attendance?
‘We’re spending more time with investors without our management team,’ Naji Baydoun, director of IR at Innergex, told IR Impact editor Laurie Havelock in the Global Roadshow Report 2025. ‘Maybe at the beginning of the [2024] we were spending 10 percent of our investor engagements without management and now we’re up to about 25 percent with just the IR team,’ explained Baydoun. ‘That’s because we’ve built relationships and trust with those investors, so I’m happy about that.’ According to IR Impact’s 15th annual research report into the who, where, how and why of corporate roadshow activity, there has been a…
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Why anxiety is your biggest enemy in communications
How much time and thought have we spent building scenarios and thinking about the reception of a report, a press release or a statement on a current issue where our company or client is expected to have – or even required to have – an opinion? Knowing your subject too well is often the big risk when it comes to communications: it presents the risk that your story will be far too detailed and ultimately incomprehensible. The point of your story will disappear in a cadre of details that do not contribute to the overall picture, much less to the…
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How to talk tariffs: IR in the new era of uncertainty
The US economy is in ‘a period of transition,’ US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Sunday. By close of trading on Monday, the US S&P 500 had dropped almost 3 percent, with tech stocks taking a particularly heavy hit. Weeks of back and forth as Trump threatened tariffs, paused tariffs, reintroduced tariffs – and saw retaliatory levies by affected markets – finally came to a head.
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The CFO: The best IROs bring in ideas from all over, says Ciena’s finance chief
Gregg Lampf, head of IR at Ciena, is a familiar face at IR Impact events. He’s also a big advocate for AI for investor relations – a topic he talks about, writes about and puts to work in his day job.
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‘What we don’t need is more masculine energy’: Where ESG fits in the corporate scandal warning system
What links Wells Fargo, the largest retail bank in the US with Boeing or failed blood-analysis startup Theranos? They all offer up examples of corporate scandal that feature in Guido Palazzo’s book The Dark Pattern: The hidden dynamics of corporate scandal, co-authored with Ulrich Hoffrage. In it, Palazzo, a professor of business ethics and TEDx Talk speaker, and Hoffrage, a professor of decision theory, seek to uncover what lands huge multinational firms with multi-million-dollar fines for fraud, their senior executives at best fired or at worst jailed.
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Backup, baby! Five simple steps IROs can take to mitigate the risks of cloud computing
When everything is online all the time, you need a (literal) backup plan Back in July 2024, a cybersecurity firm released a faulty software update to customers, impacting IT applications around the world and disabling everything from travel check-in counters to healthcare, banking to payment systems – all running with underlying software from a major […]
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Guidance in the GCC: Analysts and investors favor the few (that share forward-looking metrics)
A ‘quiet transformation’ is taking place across the Gulf Cooperation Council region, but guidance remains relatively rare Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a quiet transformation is underway – one that could reshape how companies communicate with investors and influence the broader dynamics of capital allocation. At its heart, this transformation revolves around two critical […]
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‘I’ve seen the good and the bad from the sell side – it’s framed how I approach IR’: Inside IR at Alamos Gold
What does it take to become an award-winning IRO? Scott Parsons, a former sell-side analyst who joined the IR team at Alamos Gold in 2013, working his way up to lead the program, knows that a lot of it is hard work. But successful IR is also about honing your organizational skills, your people skills and your ability to package up the company story in a way that makes it work for investors and analysts. Here, we dive into the IR program at Alamos Gold to hear about everything from the sell-side to IR learning curve, the way ESG conversations…
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Why I turned down tickets to the opening of the Paris Olympics: the importance of saying ‘no’ in IR
A polite ‘no’ lets you focus on what only the IR team can do – and frees up much-needed time – argues Thomas Kudsk Larsen Last year, I turned down tickets to the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. While many might think I was crazy to pass up such an opportunity (I definitely wasn’t, […]
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Best sneaker forward: Xtep International wins big at the IR Magazine Awards – Greater China 2024
Sportswear firm took home five awards at the gala event in Hong Kong Xtep International won five trophies at the IR Magazine Awards – Greater China 2024, in a day that culminated in a diverse group of companies taking home coveted IR Magazine trophies for excellence in everything from international IR to social media, investor […]
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The CFO: Gord Nelson of Cineplex on how strategy, growth and transparency can get you into the C-suite
Speaking to Gord Nelson, CFO of Cineplex, you get a real feel for why he’s so good at what he does. For him, a successful finance chief needs much more than technical skills – they need those personal qualities that really connect with investors and bring the company story to life. As we chat, Ellis Jacob, the firm’s CEO, pops in to ask Nelson a question. This is indicative of the close-knit relationship enjoyed by the company’s senior management has – perhaps because they’ve been through ups and downs, listings and market growth, near-buyouts and pandemics together
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The CFO: ‘You invariably learn something about your business’ from investors and analysts, says Hostelworld finance chief
Caroline Sherry talks about entering the travel sector just months before Covid-19, the small-team approach and why everyone should visit Dublin
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The CFO: The challenges are where you make a difference, says Sa Sa International’s finance chief
Danny Ho talks working on different sides of the corporate fence and taking himself out of the ‘risk-averse’ mindset of a chartered accountant
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The CFO: Mister Spex finance chief on the value of a good analyst
Stephan Schulz-Gohritz is six months into his role at firm short-listed for best micro-cap annual report at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2024
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The CFO: IR experience offers unique appreciation for profession, says Campbell’s finance chief
Carrie Anderson talks about her time in IR, getting up to speed in a complex industry and the billion-dollar-revenue acquisition of Sovos Brands
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The CFO: Nubank’s finance chief on the Brazilian bank’s three-pillar approach to growth
Guilherme Lago, CFO at Latin America’s digital banking darling, on adding 1.5 mn customers a month, investor education and more
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The CFO: Hubert Lafeuille on IR at Saudi Arabia’s largest drilling contractor
Arabian Drilling CFO talks setting up an IR function from scratch, leading the firm’s IPO and meeting investor expectations
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The CFO: First Horizon Bank’s Hope Dmuchowski on successfully navigating change during a merger of equals
The bank’s CFO details the strategies employed during and beyond the corporate transaction
