The IR teams at ARC Resources and Agnico Eagle Mines will need to clear some space in their trophy cabinets, because these mainstays of the IR Magazine Awards – Canada have won big again.
The award ceremony was hosted virtually, with hundreds in attendance, following on from the success of the virtual IR Magazine Awards in the US and Europe. But while the virtual format was new, the winners were familiar.
ARC Resources – which won six awards in 2018 and two in 2019 – claimed five trophies this year, for best overall investor relations (mid-cap), best investor relations officer (small to mid-cap) for Kris Bibby, best IR by a senior management team (small to mid-cap) for CFO Van Dafoe and CEO Myron Stadnyk, best in sector: energy (mid-cap) and best use of technology & social media for IR. Since the awards were researched, there has been a change in a number of leadership positions at the company: Van Dafoe retired in February 2020 and was succeeded as CFO by Kris Bibby, while Myron Stadnyk retired from ARC Resources in April.
It was also a big night for Agnico Eagle Mines, which won four awards, one shy of last year’s tally. Brian Christie won the best investor relations officer (large cap) award, Sean Boyd (CEO) and David Smith (CFO) won the best IR by a senior management team (large cap) trophy, and the company also won for best overall investor relations (large cap) and best in sector: materials (large cap).
This year’s lifetime achievement award was presented to Janet Craig, who has won more than 20 IR Magazine Awards during her corporate career at Fortis, Loblaw, Nexen, Nortel Networks and Angiotech. Craig now works as executive director and practice leader of IR and stakeholder communications at Deloitte Canada.
Elsewhere, Enerflex’s director of strategy, risk and investor relations – Stefan Ali – was crowned 2020’s rising star. This category is reserved for individuals with fewer than five years’ corporate investor relations experience.
Winners are selected by two methodologies: the researched awards are based on a survey of hundreds of members of the investment community, and the winners of the nominated awards are selected from a short list by an independent judging panel.
Click here to view the list of winners in all 27 categories. Special thanks to the judges of this year’s nominated categories, who are:
- Ben Ashwell, editor, IR Magazine
- Colleen Johnston, corporate board director
- Yvette Lokker, CIRI CEO
- Pat Marshall, former IRO at Cineplex and lifetime achievement award recipient.
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect Myron Stadnyk's retirement from ARC Resources.
