Policy Committee

Ross Hawley

Head of Investor Relations - ZIGUP

Deputy Chair of the IR Society
Chair of the Policy Committee

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.

Stephen Butler

Investor Communications and ESG Director, Luminous

Stephen Butler leads our Investor Communications & ESG division and sits on our Executive Board.

In his 12 years at Luminous, he has led our core Investor Communications division from a strategic perspective, and his work has been recognised through multiple awards from the UK’s most respected industry organisations.

His strategy team consists of reporting best practice, research, ESG, investor analysis and wider investor communications experts who help clients develop meaningful reporting strategies and offer advice on content, messaging, regulation, and framework alignment.

Liz Cole

Head of Policy and Communications - IR Society

Liz joined the IR Society in January 2022 as head of policy and communications. Liz qualified as a lawyer with Linklaters, where she practiced in the corporate tax department for five years. In 2003, Liz joined the technical strategy department at the ICAEW where she was responsible for policy, representations and member guidance on various aspects of business law including company law, distributable profits, insolvency, data protection and workplace pensions. Liz graduated from the University of Oxford with an MA in Biology.

Christian Cowley

Head of Investor Relations - Computacenter

Christian Cowley has over 20 years’ Investor Relations and capital markets experience. He is Head of Investor Relations at Computacenter. Previously he was Head of Investor Relations at Kingfisher and Euromoney. Before his IR roles he was an advisor at a financial communications consultancy and an equity analyst in the City. 

Phil Corbett

Head of Investor Relations - Jadestone Energy

Philip Corbett was appointed Head of Investor Relations at Jadestone Energy in August 2021. Prior to that he was Head of IR at GasLog Ltd. and GasLog Partners LP between January 2018 and April 2020, and was a top ranked IR professional in the Institutional Investor All-Europe Executive Team (Oil & Gas Exploration and Production) survey in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He was also Head of IR at Genel Energy following a career as a sell-side European E&P analyst at Deutsche Bank and RBS (formerly ABN AMRO) in teams that were regularly top ranked by Institutional Investor and Excel. He also had sell-side roles at Oriel and Numis after starting his career at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. He has a PhD in Statistics from the University of Warwick and a BSc. 1st Class in Mathematics from the University of Cardiff.

Amie Gramlick

Head of Investor Relations - Network International

Amie has over 15 years’ experience across Investor Relations and Capital Markets. She is currently Head of Investor Relations at FTSE250 payments business, Network International. Previously, she spent six years as the Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Pets at Home plc. She specialises as an IR for newly listed companies. She started her career in equity research, covering the healthcare sector at UBS in London and at Morgan Stanley in Sydney.

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.

Cat Hoad

Outgoing Secretariat to the 100 Group

Bio to follow

Patrick McNamara

Senior Specialist, Net Zero Stewardship – IIGCC

Patrick is a Senior Specialist at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), as part of their Corporate division supporting members in effective engagement, stewardship and active ownership of investments.

Previously, Patrick worked for five years at Sodali & Co as a Senior Manager. During his time there, Patrick worked on projects with financial institutions, direct finance institutions, private companies and NGOs in Europe, MENA, Latin America, and emerging markets. He conducted multiple corporate governance assessments, board evaluations, and ESG development sessions to boards and senior management, among other services, and co-authored a Report with the FRC examining the influence of proxy advisors and ESG rating agencies on the actions and reporting of FTSE350 companies and investor voting.

Prior to joining Sodali & Co, Patrick worked in banking and academic research and has a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford and an M.A in Security Studies from Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Rakesh Patel

Director, Investor Relations, Haleon

Rakesh Patel is a Director, Investor Relations at Haleon having joined the company in 2022. Prior to this he was part of the Investor Relations function at IHG. Rakesh has extensive experience on the Sell-Side, having been an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs.

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.

Harriet Rumball

Investor and ESG Communications Director - Black Sun Global

Harriet has over 20 years’ experience in corporate and financial communications. She has spent the majority of her career in financial public relations advising a broad range of listed companies in corporate reporting, M&A and IPOs. Over the last seven years she has specialised in financial and sustainability reporting, focusing on strategic messaging, stakeholder communications, ESG and governance best practice for FTSE 100 and 250 companies. Harriet has a degree in Modern History (BSc Hons) from Cambridge University. 

Mala Shah-Coulon

Associate Partner - EY UK

Mala runs EY UK’s Governance and Public Policy team. Her team identifies, tracks and influences regulatory and policy developments in the fields of narrative reporting, audit, governance, sustainability and climate change. It informs EY UK’s overarching strategic position on key policy matters in these areas; conducts benchmarking analysis to produce thought leadership on how companies adopt and report on new requirements; and provides insights in these areas.

Mala engages with FTSE 350 boards, audit committees, company secretaries and reporting teams to provide insight on regulatory developments and her bespoke points of view on how a company can enhance its narrative reporting. She also engages with policy officials in government and the Financial Reporting Council.

Mala is also a non-executive director on the Board of Trustees of Bliss – UK’s national charity for babies born premature or sick.

By background, Mala is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has audited a number of multi-national companies in the industrial and chemical sector.

George Yannakoudakis

Associate, Investor Communications & Reporting - Brunswick Group

George is a senior reporting strategist at the end-to-end corporate communications agency Brunswick Creative where his responsibilities include helping companies navigate current and emerging regulation related to strategy, sustainability and governance reporting.

George has helped a wide range of FTSE 350, AIM, private and pre-IPO companies across external communications channels to enhance disclosures and integrate key regulation into a purposeful narrative.

George holds a Masters of Business Administration from Warwick Business School and a Certificate in Investor Relations.