IR Masterclass

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Diane is a Fellow of the Investor Relations Society. She is an IR specialist with over 25 years’ experience gained in a variety of disciplines including corporate in-house, consultancy and banking. Understanding, attracting and engaging with appropriate shareholders has been a key part of IR experience. During 10 years spent in-house she was involved in developing strategies to increase and improve two way communication with shareholders. She has dealt with investors from all regions, investment styles and size. During 14 years with Citi Depositary Receipts’ Diane advised clients on cross border communication during listing, capital raising and shareholder expansion. She has been a member of the IR Society since 1994, a board director from 2000-2006 and Chairman of the Society from 2003-2005.

Independent

Diane is a Fellow of the Investor Relations Society. She is an IR specialist with over 25 years’ experience gained in a variety of disciplines including corporate in-house, consultancy and banking. Regulation has been a foundation of all these roles working alongside lawyers, brokers and financial advisors. Over her 10 years of in-house roles she was involved in IPO/secondary offerings, M&A and US listings. During 14 years with Citi Depositary Receipts’ Diane advised clients on cross border communication during listing, capital raising and shareholder expansion. She has been a member of the IR Society since 1994, a board director from 2000-2006 and Chairman of the Society from 2003-2005.

Lorraine established IR-connect as a new investor relations consultancy in 2015. Prior to that she had been IR Director at Standard Life plc, Head of IR at The Phoenix Group, and an equity analyst at Exane BNP Paribas. She originally trained as a chartered accountant, and has also worked in strategy, corporate finance and banking.

Director of Investor Relations - G4S

Helen Parris is Director of Investor Relations responsible for the Group’s communication with the investment community, providing stock market analysts and shareholders with quality information on a timely basis so the Group can be assessed and valued appropriately by the market. Helen has been voted top IR professional in the Institutional Investor and Extel Pan European Awards for the Support and Business Services Sector. She is a trustee of the G4S plc £2.3bn pension fund.

Helen has 30 years of City experience, covering fund management, investor relations (for media, security and oil and gas companies) and stock-broking. Prior to this appointment, Helen was Investor Relations Manager at BG Group, the FTSE 100 oil and gas company. Helen has a BSc in Accounting and Financial Analysis from Warwick University and is a Member of the Society of Investment Analysts.

Director, Engagement and Insight, Black Sun

Since joining Black Sun over 20 years ago, Sallie has been providing strategic corporate communications consultancy for a wide range of UK and international clients. Sallie is an IR Society Board member has been Chair of the IR Society Best Practice Committee since 2014. Sallie is a member of the Financial Reporting Lab steering group, and is a recognised commentator in corporate reporting, responsible for publishing a wide range of industry recognised research reports. Her experience of working with leading organisations on their corporate reporting strategies and her industry leading research tracking trends in reporting of the FTSE100 for the past 12 years give Sallie a unique insight into what good looks like!

Asesoria Group

Melissa is a director at Asesoria Group which provides specialist expertise and consultancy support to organisations to assist them in building a sustainable business and creating long term value through their governance, corporate responsibility and human capital strategies. She is an experienced company director and advisor with a proven track record of advising boards on the areas of corporate social responsibility and human capital management. She specialises in, stakeholder engagement, non-financial reporting and leadership capability.  Melissa has extensive experience of advising companies on their annual and corporate responsibility reporting across a range of sectors.  She has undertaken extensive engagement with investors and other key stakeholders to understand their expectations of corporate governance and company reporting.  She uses this knowledge to take a pragmatic approach to narrative reporting and communicating a company’s material activities in annual reporting

International Integrated Reporting Council

Andrew leads the IIRC’s investor engagement programme which aims to help investors to understand the IIRC’s aims and the benefits of a broader more integrated approach to reporting and to encourage them to support or encourage this in their investee companies.Andrew is on a part-time secondment to the IIRC from KPMG Makinson Cowell.  He has over twenty years of experience with Makinson Cowell (now part of KPMG) and leads Makinson Cowell’s research team which advises stock market listed businesses on how institutional shareholders assess their investments and the performance and valuation measures they use. Andrew has long-standing experience on committees and panels involved in application of accounting standards and corporate reporting including:  the UK’s UITF, the FRC’s narrative reporting panel and tax accounting panel.  He also chairs the ICAEW’s Research Advisory Board.

Lorraine established the IR-connect consultancy in 2015 which specialises in IR for IPOs, and personalised IR mentoring for executive and non-executive directors, IR Directors and IROs. She runs a number of courses for the IR Society including the Diploma modules. Prior to setting up her consultancy company, she was IR Director at Standard Life plc, Head of IR at The Phoenix Group, and an equity analyst at Exane BNP Paribas. She originally trained as a chartered accountant, and has also worked in strategy, corporate finance, private equity and banking.

Mike has been helping companies communicate with SRI investors for the past 15 years, during which time he has worked on the buy-side, sell-side and most recently for the independent communications platform, SRI-CONNECT. Mike has spent 18 years as an SRI Analyst, initially at Jupiter Asset Management and then at HSBC Global Equities where he established the first SRI research on the ‘sell-side’ and, most recently, at Citi Investment Research. Mike is currently Editor at SRI-CONNECT and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Society’s advanced IR ESG/Sustainability course, introduced in 2016.

Independent

Deborah specialises in financial training for all levels from beginners to advanced. She presents a comprehensive range of courses to a diverse range of corporate clients and financial institutions and specialises in making complex technical subjects comprehensible. 

Deborah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Young and then worked in Corporate Finance gaining wide ranging experience in a variety of corporate and financial institutions. She then worked as a financial consultant to companies assisting them in raising finance and structuring.

Independent

Diane is a Fellow of the Investor Relations Society. She is an IR specialist with over 25 years’ experience gained in a variety of disciplines including corporate in-house, consultancy and banking. Regulation has been a foundation of all these roles working alongside lawyers, brokers and financial advisors. Over her 10 years of in-house roles she was involved in IPO/secondary offerings, M&A and US listings. During 14 years with Citi Depositary Receipts’ Diane advised clients on cross border communication during listing, capital raising and shareholder expansion. She has been a member of the IR Society since 1994, a board director from 2000-2006 and Chairman of the Society from 2003-2005.

Head of IR, EMEA - Citi Depositary Receipts Services

Lisa joined Citi’s Depositary Receipt Group in December 2014 as Head of Investor Relations Advisory for EMEA.  Lisa has worked investor relations for 15 years and has experience of many aspects of corporate IR including equity capital raising, defence, management transition, shareholder activism, credit ratings and debt IR.  She was Director of Investor Relations for FTSE-250 retail brand Debenhams plc from 2007 to 2014 and for Rentokil Initial plc between 2005 and 2007 and Cookson Group plc between 1999 and 2015.  Lisa holds an LLB Law from the University of London.

Jon’s unique background means that he is ideally suited to helping professionals develop their writing skills. Jon is a Cambridge English graduate, a qualified teacher of adults and an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths University, where he teaches management at BA and MA level, giving him a deep understanding of the challenges and requirements for effective business writing. He has been commissioned by several IR teams to assist in writing critical communications at times of significant change and has lots of experience helping businesses frame and couch language for both internal and external communications. He has delivered writing skills training for the IR Society for several years and has also trained special-interest professional groups in writing skills, including banks, regulators and government departments. Jon is also a qualified business psychologist and a chartered management accountant. 

Jon’s unique background means that he is ideally suited to helping professionals develop their writing skills. Jon is a Cambridge English graduate, a qualified teacher of adults and an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths University, where he teaches management at BA and MA level, giving him a deep understanding of the challenges and requirements for effective business writing. He has been commissioned by several IR teams to assist in writing critical communications at times of significant change and has lots of experience helping businesses frame and couch language for both internal and external communications. He has delivered writing skills training for the IR Society for several years and has also trained special-interest professional groups in writing skills, including banks, regulators and government departments. Jon is also a qualified business psychologist and a chartered management accountant. 

Jon’s unique background means that he is ideally suited to helping professionals develop their writing skills. Jon is a Cambridge English graduate, a qualified teacher of adults and an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths University, where he teaches management at BA and MA level, giving him a deep understanding of the challenges and requirements for effective business writing. He has been commissioned by several IR teams to assist in writing critical communications at times of significant change and has lots of experience helping businesses frame and couch language for both internal and external communications. He has delivered writing skills training for the IR Society for several years and has also trained special-interest professional groups in writing skills, including banks, regulators and government departments. Jon is also a qualified business psychologist and a chartered management accountant. 

Sue is a Fellow of the IR Society. She was Chair of the IR Society from 2014 to 2016, during which time the Society launched its Diploma in IR (which she continues to support as an examiner) and its Code of Conduct. She was previously Chair of the Education Committee.

A CIMA-qualified accountant, she first started working in investor relations in the late 1990's, at GKN plc. She was involved in the demerger of its joint venture businesses and the subsequent listing of Brambles Industries plc in London; as well as the late unwinding of this dual-listed company structure. Most recently, Sue spent seven years as Executive Team member and Director of Communications for AMEC plc, during a period of significant and successful transformation.

Sue is a board member at MAC (the Midlands' most visited arts centre) and a Trustee and Treasurer of Re-engage (which brings older and younger people together for social gatherings).

Founding Partner and Head of Chair Advisory at Fidelio Partners

Gillian Karran-Cumberlege leads Fidelio Partners Board Practice, supporting Chairmen and CEOs in building effective Boards and Executive leadership teams which drive value for stakeholders and shareholders. In this context Gillian is actively engaged in promoting greater Board effectiveness through increased diversity. Fidelio is accredited by the Hampton-Alexander Review for its contribution to increasing gender diversity on Boards and leadership teams ‘Beyond FTSE350’.

An internationally recognised thought leader on ESG, Gillian is a Board and Steering Committee Member of Chapter Zero, which supports Board Directors to address climate change on the Board Agenda. Gillian is also an advisory Board Member of the German British Forum. Previously Gillian served as an Independent Board Member of Jaguar Land Rover India and a Member of the Harvard Business School Alumni Board (2015-2018).

Prior to founding Fidelio Gillian held senior executive roles within some of Europe’s leading corporates; this included Global Head of Investor Relations / Capital Market Communications for Volkswagen AG (2000 – 2007) sitting on the Group Governance and Marketing Committees – the most senior female executive globally. Previously Gillian had enjoyed a highly successful career in banking for example heading Group Investor Relations for UBS (1998- 2000). She started her career in Banking Supervision with the Bank of England.

Gillian has an MA in History from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and attended the Harvard General Management Programme.

Chief Executive Officer, EMEA - Orient Capital

Alison joined Orient Capital in June 2010 bringing a wealth of investor relations and analytical experience. Since she joined she has been instrumental in building the brand of Orient Capital initially in the UK, from forging partnerships with numerous brokers and advisers, to latterly developing the Orient Capital and D.F. King brands across EMEA.  As part of ASX listed, the Link Group, she has P&L responsibility for the Corporate Markets business.  Alison joined Orient Capital from Capita where for 7 years she was Head of IR Services, than latterly Managing Director of their IR Services business.  Previously Alison managed the UK Client reporting team at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, specialising in shareholder analytics for UK large/mid cap companies. Alison has a French and German Languages degree from Kingston University and started her career as a translator before working in investor relations for a mining company in Canada.  She was appointed to the IR Society Board in 2014 and is responsible for chairing the Membership Committee.

Group Investor Relations Director - Lloyds Banking Group

Douglas heads up the Investor Relations team at Lloyds Banking Group having been a senior member of the team at Lloyds Bank and subsequently Lloyds Banking Group for the last ten years. 

During this time he has been involved in all the normal Investor Relations activities including the development of the investment proposition, briefing of institutional investors and the development and production of corporate results and announcements.  In addition he has been integrally involved in all the corporate actions and transactions undertaken by the Group during this period including the acquisition of HBOS, the capital raisings and the various business disposals.

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 is also a Board member of the IR Society