Education Committee

Holly Gillis

Head of Investor Relations - Diploma

Chair of the Education Committee

Holly is Head of IR at Diploma plc. Prior to that she was a Senior Director at leading financial and corporate communications consultancy, Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR). Before joining CDR in 2021, Holly gained over 15 years of experience in in-house finance, corporate communications and investor relations roles in the high-profile UK public transport sector. In her most recent role – Head of IR at The Go-Ahead Group plc – Holly was a member of the leadership team and was a trusted advisor to the Board and Executive Management.

Having held an in-house Head of IR role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Holly is experienced in crisis management and stakeholder engagement. She is skilled in simplifying complex concepts into digestible messaging with consideration for multiple audiences.  

An active member of the Investor Relations Society, Holly is co-chair of the Education Committee, having previously been a member of the Society’s Best Practice Committee. She completed the IR Society’s prestigious DELIVER programme in early 2021.

Holly is an ACCA qualified accountant and has a BSc in Psychology. 

Kate Patrick

Investor Relations - Harbour Energy

Kate Patrick has over twenty years’ experience working in investor relations both in house and advisory. She began her inhouse career with FSTE 250 Inchcape plc, before moving to FTSE100 Compass Group and was more recently Head of IR at a small cap non standard finance company. She has held roles across size and sector and is currently Investor Relations Lead at FTSE 250 Harbour Energy plc. Her roles have involved advising on M&A communications, debt IR, crisis communications and activist management. Kate graduated from University College London with a First Class degree in Hispanic Literature, was one of the first cohort to sit the Investor Relations Society’s Certificate in IR and more recently completed the Investor Relation’s Diploma in IR.   

Madeleine Bruce

UK Investor Relations at Goodbody

Madeleine has 12 years’ experience working in Investor Relations in both in-house and advisory roles.  Her IR career began at Cookson Group plc, a FTSE 50 engineering conglomerate, in 2010, and managed the investor relations process through a demerger transaction which saw the company re-listed as two separate FTSE 50 companies in 2012; Alent plc ad Vesuvius plc. She remained as IR Manager of Vesuvius until 2014 when she made the jump to the advisory side, and was Head of Investor Relations at Numis Securities until 2019, advising corporate clients on their investor relations programmes and activity and supporting a wide range of IPOs and corporate transactions. Madeleine is now responsible for IR for UK corporates at Goodbody, Ireland's longest established stockbroking firm. Madeleine holds a BSc in International Business from Loughborough University. 

Evelyne Bull

VP Director Investor Relations - Experian

Evelyne is an experienced investor relations professional with 11 years’ experience working in IR at FTSE100 companies. She is VP Director Investor Relations at Experian plc, where in addition to working across all aspects of IR, she’s lead a transformation of Experian’s ESG communication. Prior to that she spent 7 years in the BT IR team, which was voted No.1 in England in Extel for four years running. She began her career working in a number of finance roles across BT. Evelyne read Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, is a member of CIMA, and holds a Certificate in Investor Relations.

Rachel Crossley

Senior Reporting Consultant - Emperor

Rachel has almost 20 years of experience working as a consultant in investor relations and communications. Rachel joined Emperor, a brand, digital and corporate communications agency as Senior Reporting Consultant in March 2016, to provide advice to Emperor's clients on reporting and communicating with their stakeholders drawing on best practice, industry trends and specific corporate objectives. Prior to this, Rachel spent 10 years at Aura Financial, where her focus was on investor relations, regulatory change affecting UK listed companies and non-financial reporting practice. Rachel has an MBA from the Open University and updated the Certificate in Investor Relations and associated examination questions for the IR Society from 2005-2007.

Richard Foster

Head of Investor Relations - GBG plc

Richard is Head of IR at GBG, a global specialist in location and identity, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM: GBG). Prior to GBG, he had responsibility for investor relations at Aggreko, formerly the FTSE250 listed global leader in temporary power and temperature control. Notable achievements included our capital markets engagement to set out a Net Zero strategy, before working on the $3bn public to private sale of the Group to a private equity consortium in 2021, and its subsequent debt refinancing.

Richard’s background also includes two FTSE 100 multinationals in the energy and aerospace & defence sectors. 

Ross Hawley

Head of Investor Relations - ZIGUP

Deputy Chair of the IR Society

Ross is an experienced IRO with both an in-house and advisory background. Originally in equity capital markets banking, Ross has over 20 years of in-house corporate experience, including FTSE100 businesses such as Rolls-Royce, where he was Assistant Director of IR; and Man Group plc, the alternative investment manager, where he was involved in a very wide range of capital raisings and corporate transactions for over a decade.  Ross has also set up and led the IR function for a number of smaller companies, and recently was Sustainability Manager for Virgin Atlantic before heading the IR activities at FTSE250 ZIGUP. He is a graduate of Cambridge University.

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.

Leila Hill

Professional Development Administrator - IR Society

Bio & Photo to follow

Tara Mitchell

Professional Development Executive - IR Society

Tara joined the IR Society in September 2018 as Professional Development Executive. Tara was previously at Old Mutual Group working as an Investor Relations Co-ordinator in their IR team.  Prior to this Tara lived and worked in Sydney, Australia.  Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family.