Nominations Committee

Rob Gurner

Head of Investor Relations, Inchcape

Deputy Chair of the IR Society
Chair of the Conference Committee
Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee

Rob joined Inchcape plc, the leading global automotive distributor, as Head of IR in April 2023, have previously been at Plus500, a global fintech group, which he joined in May 2020. Prior to that, Rob spent 3 years as Head of IR at Inmarsat plc, a satellite operator, before which he was Head of Global Investor relations for Tokyo-listed Dentsu Inc, following their acquisition of Aegis plc in 2013, where was Head of IR. Before that, Rob had senior IR roles for Lonmin Plc, a platinum mining business, and G4S plc, a security services company. Before moving into in-house IR, Rob worked for a number of financial communications consultancies.

Alison Owers

Senior Managing Director, Sodali & Co

Alison joined Sodali & Co. in 2023 and is responsible for designing and overseeing the strategy around IR, ESG and shareholder engagement services to clients across the UK and Europe.  Prior to joining Sodali & Co., Alison spent 12 years at Orient Capital and D.F. King Ltd in various senior leadership roles, and most recently as their Global CEO, working with some of the world’s largest companies to support shareholder engagement and investor relations activities.  Previously she spent seven years at Capita plc as Managing Director of IR Services. She started her career within investment banking at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. 

Alison has a French & German Languages degree and began her IR career working in-house for a mining company in Canada.  

Bethany Barnes

Director of Investor Relations - Dr. Martens Plc

Deputy Chair of the IR Society

Bethany has been Director of Investor Relations at Dr. Martens Plc since its IPO in February 2021. Prior to this Bethany held the same role at Domino’s Pizza Plc and N Brown Group Plc. Bethany previously worked as a sell-side analyst covering European General Retail at both Berenberg and Investec, and for capital markets advisory firm Makinson Cowell. She is a CFA charterholder.

Matthew Hall

Vice Chairman of UK Investment Banking, UBS

Matt is Vice Chairman of UK Investment Banking at UBS, having previously worked at Credit Suisse as Co-Head of UK Investment Banking and Corporate Broking. Matt started his career at Credit Suisse in 1997 where he worked until 2010 before spending 10 years at Deutsche Bank where he ran the Corporate Broking business. Matt’s current clients include Bunzl, CCH, Halma and Intertek and over the last 27 years in the broking industry, he has advised the likes of Barratt Developments, Carphone Warehouse, BAT, Diageo, IAG, ITV, RB, Stagecoach and Talktalk. 

Laura Hayter

CEO - IR Society

Laura is CEO at The Investor Relations Society. Formerly Head of Policy and Communications, Laura took on the role of CEO in 2019 and has been with the Society for over 13 years. Laura has been part of the IR community since 2001, and among other roles, she was formerly a director at the IR consultancy, Taylor Rafferty, providing IR advisory services to blue chip clients, both in London and New York. Laura’s particular interests within IR are around career progression, mentoring and professional development. She graduated from the University of Leeds, with an honours degree in German and management studies.

Douglas Radcliffe

Group Investor Relations Director - Lloyds Banking Group

Chair of the IR Society

Douglas is Group Investor Relations Director at Lloyds Banking Group, having led the team since 2014 and been a senior member of the team at Lloyds Bank and subsequently Lloyds Banking Group since 2007.  Prior to joining the Investor Relations team Douglas held management positions within Group Strategy, Group Risk and Private Banking having initially joined Lloyds Bank on the graduate development programme. 

Douglas was elected to the Board of the IR Society in 2016.

Julian Smith

Managing Director at BRR Media

Julian Smith has worked in the capital markets and investor relations ecosystems for over 25 years.  He is Managing Director at BRR Media, a leading agency specialising in helping companies to create engaging online videos and live events for investor relations and critical stakeholder communications worldwide. 

Prior to joining BRR Media, Julian worked in investment banking for 18 years, both on transactions and continuing advisory mandates across different teams in M&A, equity capital markets and corporate derivative solutions, latterly leading the corporate broking team at Jefferies.