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Best Practice Awards entries open today

IR Society leads the way in excellence in Investor Relations

The IR Society, the UK’s professional body for investor relations practitioners, today launches its 22nd Annual Best Practice Awards (the ‘Awards’). 

These prestigious Awards celebrate the achievements of companies demonstrating their commitment to delivering best-in-class investor communications. The Awards, which will be judged by an independent panel of esteemed investor relations and investment community professionals, chaired by Paul Lee, Head of Stewardship and Sustainable Investment Strategy at Redington, comprise both Self-entry and Voted Awards. IR teams can now submit self-entries for awards rewarding best practice in investor relations in the following four categories:

  • Best IR Communications and Engagement Programme
  • Best Innovation in IR
  • Best Communication of Sustainability
  • Best Annual Report

Awards in the Self-entry category will be presented to Small-cap, Mid-cap and Large-cap companies integrated across all international markets, in recognition of the diverse range of companies looking to the UK for excellence in IR. This year, for the first time we will also include a Private Company category within the ‘Best Communication of Sustainability’ award.

Through the work of the IR Society Best Practice Committee, the awards criteria are continually reviewed and adapted to ensure they align with current best practice. For this year there are no major changes to the Self-entry Awards, although all categories have been evolved to emphasise the importance of digital in all communications. Furthermore, the previous ‘Best Communication of ESG’ award has been renamed to ‘Best Communication of Sustainability’ to reflect the evolving and broader nature of sustainability communications.

For the Voted Awards, which recognise excellence in individual and team investor relations, the IR Society is delighted to be working once again in partnership with Institutional Investor, as it seeks to address a wider audience and voting universe. Nominations are now being accepted for:

  • Best Newcomer to IR (individual)
  • Best IRO (individual)
  • Best Overall Company IR (company)
  • Best Investor Engagement (investor)

For 2022 we will introduce Small-, Mid- and Large-cap category winners for both the ‘Best company IR’ and ‘Best IRO’ awards, to encourage and promote best practice across all company sizes.

Laura Hayter, CEO, The IR Society, commented:

“Promoting best practice in IR is a key tenet of the Society’s mission and our annual Best Practice Awards, now in their 22nd year, are a great way to do this. As well as an opportunity for companies to demonstrate excellence in IR, it also allows us to communicate to the wider IR community what it is that the companies who are leading the way in their IR Engagement, Innovation, Sustainability and the Annual Report are actually doing differently. This is a great way to raise your profile and strengthen your corporate reputation, so I would strongly encourage companies to enter. I wish you all the very best of luck, and look forward to seeing you at the Awards dinner in November.”

Sallie Pilot, Director, Chief Insight and Engagement Officer, Black Sun, and Chair of the IR Society Best Practice Committee, said:

‘‘The IR Society Awards have existed for over two decades and continue to champion best practice investor relations in the UK, Europe and beyond. To create truly meaningful Awards, which recognise leaders in investor communications, we need to keep responding to a constantly evolving market. This year’s Best Practice Committee has further refined the Awards to ensure they are effective and reflect current best practice in communications and investor engagement across all company sizes, including the importance of digital communications and the broader conversation we are seeing within sustainability.”  

Entries to the 22nd Annual Best Practice Awards are open to all companies from today, 26 April 2022, and the Self-entry Awards remain open until 31 August 2022. Click here for more information, including our best practice criteria and entry forms for the Self-entry Awards. Further information regarding the Voted Awards, conducted in partnership with Institutional Investor, can also be found here.

For more information contact:

Laura Hayter, CEO, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or laura.hayter@irsociety.org.uk

Liz Cole, Head of Policy and Communications, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or liz.cole@irsociety.org.uk

Notes for editors:

About the Investor Relations Society
The Investor Relations Society (IR Society) is a membership organisation that exists to promote best practice investor relations in the UK and beyond. It is run by IR professionals for IR professionals.

Established in 1980, the IR Society’s mission is to promote best practice in investor relations; to support the professional development of its members; to represent their views to regulatory bodies, the investment community and government; and to act as a forum for issuers and the investment community.

The IR Society has over 850 members from the UK, Europe and beyond, including representatives from most FTSE 100 companies, a large number of FTSE 250 companies and several AIM and smaller companies, as well as IR advisers and service providers. For more information on the IR Society and the Best Practice Committee, visit irsociety.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter (@IRSocietyUK) or LinkedIn.

Published 26 April, 2022