Meet the Team: Robert Dann

What is your role at the Society?

I have had several job titles in my time at the Society, but my current role encompasses marketing and operations. The marketing element is focused around making sure we are communicating our purpose and values effectively to the wider financial community, and particularly to our members. Marketing also overlaps with much of our membership activity in ensuring that we are listening to what members want from their society and working to make sure that we are delivering it for them. I also manage our relationships with sponsors and other key stakeholders, whose support underpins so much of what the Society does for our members on a daily basis. 

What brought you to the Society?

I was initially engaged by the Society as a consultant in 2009 to help them address some marketing and sponsorship challenges they were facing at that time. I worked for the Society over a two-year period, during which time it became increasingly apparent to me and to the Society that there was a broader marketing challenge to be addressed, which led to me coming in-house as a full-time member of the team in 2012. 

How have you seen investor relations evolve since you joined the Society?

There are three main changes that stand out for me: the ever-increasing level of professionalism within the sector; the ever-expanding remit of IR professionals and IR teams and the fact that IR is no longer largely perceived as a stepping stone to senior roles elsewhere within the business. I think this is testimony to the quality of the individuals working in the profession today, who are becoming ever more established as trusted advisers to the C-suite, as evidenced by more and more senior IR roles incorporating additional functions, such as strategy or comms. 

How has the Society changed since 2011?

On the surface, the Society continues to do many of the same things that we were doing for our members in 2011 – keeping them up to date with developments in the profession, providing access to best practice information, high quality training courses and qualifications, and running our big flagship events – the conference and awards dinner. The team is also a similar size as it was in 2011. For me, the biggest change has been the continual professionalisation of the various roles within the Society. Having specialist events,  professional development and membership professionals on board, who are all able to build on the fantastic work that done by their predecessors, has allowed us to deliver ever better experiences for members and keep abreast of the sheer volume of topics, channels and content that make up the working environment for modern IR teams. 

What is one thing you’re especially proud of that you or the team has achieved recently?

In terms of recent achievements, the successful rebrand at the end of 2025 was a huge achievement for the whole team, given the amount of work involved in a project of this kind. The process behind the rebrand was really valuable as we began by challenging our established mission, vision and values and it was rewarding to find that many of these still held true, and that what was needed was modernisation rather than anything more fundamental. The rebrand feels like it has given the whole exec team a renewed sense of purpose.

However, the thing I am probably most proud of during my time at the Society is the introduction of the mentoring programme – I think this is great example of one of the ways in which a professional body can deliver real tangible benefits for its members by helping them to connect with each other.

What do you enjoy most about working here?

At the risk of copying Anneka, it is definitely the people. My colleagues on the exec team have always been incredible to work with, and we are extremely fortunate to be supporting a group of professionals who are collaborative, generous with their time and highly engaged in the day-to-day work of the Society. Having previously worked in media, advertising and IT, this is something that can by no means be taken for granted!

What developments or innovations are you most excited about this year?

As you will have seen, we are in the middle of a massive technological upgrade of the systems at the Society, including a new CRM system and a new website. This has been a huge undertaking for a small team like ours, but we firmly believe that it will deliver a significantly improved and tailored experience for our members, whilst also providing time-saving productivity improvements for the team, which will allow us to focus on new initiatives. As with any project of this magnitude there will be some teething troubles, so please bear with us!