Painted Pony Petroleum names first IRO

Calgary, Alberta-based Painted Pony Petroleum has appointed Mark Polak as its first investor relations professional.

Polak, who took up his role on September 22, is a CFA charterholder with more than 10 years’ capital markets experience covering Canadian oil and gas companies. Prior to heading up investor relations at the IR Magazine Award-winning company, Polak served as director of oil & gas equity research at Scotiabank and as an equity research analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Painted Pony Petroleum won the gong for best investor relations by a TSX Venture Exchange-listed company at the IR Magazine Awards – Canada 2014, having lost out to Raging River Exploration the previous year.

At the time of the win, Patrick Ward, Painted Pony’s president and CEO, and CFO John Van de Pol took joint responsibility for communicating with analysts and investors at the natural gas exploration and production company. One sell-side analyst commented in the awards research: ‘Painted Pony does IR like a TSX-listed company. It gives you grown-up guidance and proper financial reporting.’

Since then, the company has moved to Toronto Stock Exchange, posted a record quarter across a number of fronts in August 2014, and has now established an IR department.