Jean-Gabriel Prince, director, data analytics and artificial intelligence, KPMG
Jean-Gabriel Prince is a data science leader specializing in data engineering, machine learning, and natural language processing. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry, utilizing modern platforms such as Snowflake, AWS, and Microsoft Azure to develop and implement advanced data and analytics solutions. J-G has a solid background in both AI and the buy-side, having spent 12 years as a quantitative investor in London and New York before joining KPMG as a Director of Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Once of his areas of focus at KPMG is applying A.I. to facilitate the automation of the finance and IR function for Fortune 500 companies.
J-G Prince's educational background includes Master's degrees from Imperial College London and INSA Toulouse, in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics respectively. Over the years, he has acquired a multitude of certifications and accreditations in data science, AI, and cloud computing. With his comprehensive AI and investor relations expertise, J-G has become a well-rounded leader in the data science and finance sectors, dedicated to helping businesses enhance their performance through innovative and data-driven techniques.
Heather Crowell, executive vice president, IR, Gregory FCA
Heather leads Gregory FCA’s Investor Relations advisory where she is responsible for advising both public and private companies on investor relations, corporate communications, capital-raising and issues management. Gregory FCA is at the forefront of incorporating generative AI into our workflows to enhance our efficiency and output for our clients. As a member of the firm’s internal AI task force, Heather is responsible for exploring ways to AI can evolve and support Investor Relations functions.
Prior to joining Gregory FCA, Heather served as Executive Vice President for a retail real estate investment trust, where she was responsible for investor relations, marketing, communications and partnership marketing efforts for the Company. Heather has 20+ years of experience in a variety of challenging and thriving scenarios including strategic transformation, management change and reintroduction to investment community, activist shareholder campaign management and response, corporate restructuring. Heather also has strategic corporate storytelling experience creating communications that enhance absorption of corporate strategy within financial community. Heather has carried out traditional IR program development and has expertise to develop or enhance existing IR programs including presentations, earnings materials, and investor communications and is a non-traditional IR program advocate, with a desire to guide companies to reach audiences through new channels by utilizing video, social media, and retail shareholder engagement platforms.
Erik Carlson, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, Notified
Erik Carlson is chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Notified, a technology partner for investor relations, public relations, and marketing professionals. He brings over 10 years of M&A, strategic finance, and business transformation experience across private equity portfolio companies in technology, media, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. Prior to Notified, he was senior vice president of M&A integration at Intrado and director of M&A and strategy advisory at PwC.
Charleen Wiehe, investor relations lead, CIEL Group
Charleen Ursula Wiehe's unique blend of diverse experiences, financial proficiency, and commitment to corporate transparency makes her an invaluable asset as the Investor Relations Lead at CIEL Group. The Group spans 6 sectors and 10 regions and her specialty lies in effectively communicating the company's financial performance, equity story, and ESG initiatives, while fostering strong relationships with investors and stakeholders.
As a specialist in project and content management, Charleen plays a pivotal role in the annual report process. She oversees the coordination of this critical publication. Furthermore, Charleen reports to the board on the annual budget and provides a quarterly investment report, showcasing her ability to provide key insights to support decision-making processes. Recognizing the power of AI, Charleen is actively exploring ways to leverage this technology to enhance investor engagement strategies. Incorporating AI in Investor Relations can enhance credibility and transparency. AI-driven analytics can provide deeper insights into investor sentiment and behavior, fine-tuning messaging and addressing concerns. AI-powered natural language processing could certainly ensure compliance and minimise errors. Her goal is to optimise investor communications, streamline processes, and deliver greater value to stakeholders through AI. Staying at the forefront of AI advancements, she aims to revolutionise Investor Relations and drive CIEL Group's continued success.
Darrell Heaps, founder and CEO, Q4
Darrell Heaps is the visionary Founder and CEO of Q4 Inc., a global leader in cloud-based investor relations solutions. With over 20 years of experience in technology and investor relations, Darrell has been at the forefront of driving innovation in the industry. He has spearheaded the creation of the Q4 Platform, revolutionizing how companies engage with investors. Under Darrell's leadership, Q4 has developed cutting-edge AI-driven solutions that empower companies to deliver personalized and impactful investor engagement. His forward-thinking approach and deep understanding of technology have positioned Q4 as a trailblazer in the investor relations space and transformed the company into the leading capital markets access platform. Before founding Q4, Darrell held executive roles in the technology sector, where he honed his skills in product development, sales, and marketing. His entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering commitment to customer success have propelled Q4's rapid growth and global expansion.
Beyond his professional achievements, Darrell is actively involved in philanthropic initiatives and advocates for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. His visionary leadership and dedication to pushing the boundaries of technology continue to shape the future of investor relations.
James Tickner, head of product, IR intelligence, Nasdaq
James leads product development and design for the IR Intelligence business at Nasdaq. His team focuses on leveraging AI alongside best in class data and technology to provide insight and workflow solutions for investor relations and ESG professionals. He has been with Nasdaq since 2014 and has over 17 years capital markets experience in a variety of roles advising company executives and building award winning software products for the issuer community.
Matt Edmund, strategic corporate access and IR advisor, InterAxS Global
Matt is a strategic corporate access and investor relations advisor. Over the last 20 years , he has developed & leveraged high quality senior management relationships with FTSE 100/250 & Eurofirst 300 Issuers in roles with the London Stock Exchange plc, Citi, BESI, HSBC & VTB Capital. He extended emerging markets coverage at BESI, HSBC & VTB Capital to South America & EMEA working closely with both public and private companies. Over the last 5 years he has worked with best in class outsourced IR solutions businesses from ESG experts, capital allocation, identification, perception, digitisation and the growing use of artificial intelligence to better support the IR community.
Chris Blake, executive director, IR solutions team, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Chris Blake is an executive director of advisory innovation & technology, within the Investor Relations Solutions team at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Chris has over a decade of experience working with Investor Relations teams in various roles across IPREO, IHS Markit, and now S&P Global Market Intelligence. Throughout his career, he has provided insights and thought leadership to investor relations teams, through shareholder surveillance, targeting, and digital solutions. In his oversight of innovation for investor relations advisory services, he has helped to evolve the tools, content, and workflow across the S&P Investor Relations businesses. In this role, he has helped to build and develop tools that leverage machine learning, data science, and natural language processing & generation. He also currently authors a monthly Insights Report on Capital Flows across the capital markets. Chris has contributed investor relations research for IR Magazine and Institutional Investor.
Daniela Șerban, managing partner, VERTIK and president, ARIR
After 17 years of experience on the capital market, including at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Daniela Șerban uses her expertise to initiate and co-fund ARIR, the Romanian Investor Relations Association, where she acts as President. Then she launched VERTIK Group, which includes a business consultancy company where she collaborates with companies listed on the stock market and interested in listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, where she offers advisory in Investor Relations, to attract financing and other growth tools for top companies in Romania. The VERTIK for the Future Association is also part of the group, a think-tank for ideas and solutions in search for solutions of impact for the economy. In her daily life, Daniela Șerban is involved in financial & entrepreneurial education initiatives, supporting women in business, but also mentoring young professionals.
Gabriel Lowy, founder and CEO, TechTonics Advisors
Gabe is the founder of TechTonics Advisors, an investor relations consultancy focused on message development and delivery for technology companies. Leveraging his background as an award-winning tech analyst, Gabe’s expertise is bridging the languages of technology and finance to help CEOs, CFOs and IROs articulate their story to research analysts, investment managers and shareholders.He is the author of “Why Investor Relations is the New Sell-Side”, a handbook for any company seeking to improve its communications with the investment community. As the digital economy makes companies in every sector more like technology companies, IR must recognize that the definition of “user” extends to include machines. His recent research about the impact on – and application of – AI in IR concludes that while providing data-driven metrics to increasingly automated investment firms has become table stakes, the value of concise, consistent, and credible messaging is more vital than ever.Gabe holds an MBA in Strategy and a B.S. in Marketing, both from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Sam Shapiro, co-founder and CEO, Axle Access
Sam is Co-Founder & CEO of Axle Access, an innovative startup that leverages AI to transform the way public companies and institutional investors connect and manage meetings. Previously, Sam was a key member of Goldman Sachs's Corporate Access team. His vision for Axle was born out of a desire to provide a self-service platform for Corporate Access.
Alistair de Kare-Silver, associate partner, H/Advisors Maitland
Alistair specialises in investor relations, financial communications, digital, ESG, corporate reputation, crisis and issues management. He advises FTSE 350 and international businesses, focusing on the investment companies, reinsurance and TMT sectors. He has a decade’s experience advising companies on placings, M&A, IPOs, complex restructurings and disposals. He also specialises in AI, data and digital and sits on the Havas AI taskforce and the IR Magazine’s AI advisory council. Before joining H/Advisors Maitland Alistair worked at MHP Group. He holds The Certificate and The Diploma in Investor Relations and sits on the IR Society’s events committee. Alistair has a degree in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds.
Antoine Loudenot, co-founder, Theseus
After 2 decades as an investment banker managing mostly complex fundraising, Antoine took over investor relations at Société Générale with a mandate for bringing more warmth, strategy and technology, and loved it (which resulted in a #1 IR in 2017)! He then started investing time, experience (and money) in the fintech space to bring the next generation platforms, which takes time. Now he is running Theseus, which he founded in late 2022 with AI wizard Remi Caland. Theseus unleashes the power of voice acquisition and analytics for capital markets professionals. Meeting, their first product, transcribes conversations to submit summaries and analytics suited to the finance space ; it currently is in beta with selected players. Antoine also teaches corporate finance to the fine engineers of Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE, invests in fintech startups and seats as a board member or advisor.
John Lewis, president, Tf(x)
John is founder and President of Tf(x) Co LLC. Tf(x) Co™ develops cutting edge technologies to help companies control the critical factors influencing any transaction. In April 2023, the company introduced the first corporate service to address a real problem for CFO’s and IRO’s at public companies worldwide – errors and inconsistencies in 3rd Party Data. The Fundamental Data Audit©. John and his partner Will Horn are currently developing additional tools, developing proprietary, leading edge technology. He was the founder of Investor Research, Valuation Technologies, and Valuation Issues. He was on both the SEC's corporate and institutional EDGAR development teams. Awards include an honorary lifetime membership in the largest world-wide organization of individual investors and investment clubs, the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC), after serving as chairman of NAIC's Corporate Advisory Board. John completed bachelors and masters programs in philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Daniela Aldescu, managing partner, VERTIK and executive director, ARIR
Experienced leader with a demonstrated track record in investor relations and strategy. With over 10 years of active involvement in the capital markets, she brings a wealth of expertise to her role as Managing Partner of VERTIK. Passionate about advancing the field of investor relations, Daniela joined forces with her colleague 3 years ago to develop VERTIK, a top consulting company in the capital market specializing in providing comprehensive consulting services for Investor Relations and Public Relations strategies and operations, playing a central role in leveraging her extensive experience and strategic mindset to deliver exceptional results for clients.Daniela's journey in investor relations began during her tenure at prominent companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, including OMV Petrom and Electrica. During her time there, she played a crucial role in overseeing investor relations and strategy activities and contributing to the success of the organizations. Daniela's expertise extends beyond her role at VERTIK. She has been actively involved in coordinating the operational activities of the Romanian Investor Relations Association (ARIR) for over 5 years and collaborating with the 40 members of the organization to assure the implementation of IR best practices on the local capital market. Daniela Aldescu continues to drive excellence and make valuable contributions to the field of investor relations, elevating the performance and reputation of organizations in the capital markets, and being also actively involved in the start-up ecosystem by mentoring, evaluating, and financing them.
Max Goldstein, head of marketing and strategy, Stakeholder Labs
Max Goldstein is the Head of Marketing & Strategy at Stakeholder Labs and has spent over 10 years at the forefront of building digital communities and converting them into more loyal users, customers and retail shareholders across consumer tech and CPG. Before joining Stakeholder Labs, Max worked closely with CEO Matt Joanou in Google’s Mobile Apps Lab and managed a national community marketing team that drove the adoption of a suite of small-business loyalty products. That same team led the launch of Google+, successfully onboarded thousands of content creators, and pioneered early iterations of creator marketing with high-visibility engagements with Google products. As an operator, Max has worked on numerous projects that have leveraged SEC-regulated crowdfunding and community engagement as foundational pillars of the business. Max joins the IR Magazine AI Advisory Council with a focus on researching and sharing best practices for integrating AI tools into day to day IR operations.
Matt Joanou, co-founder and CEO, Stakeholder Labs
Matt Joanou is the co-founder and CEO of Stakeholder Labs, an enterprise software company helping public companies engage their shareholders, and has over 10 years of experience working with digital loyalty, community, and marketing products. Matt’s career as an entrepreneur started in his Cal Poly dorm room when he helped launch a customer loyalty company called Punchd, which was quickly acquired by Google. Matt later joined Reddit, where he worked alongside the founders to accelerate revenue growth, which gave him a front row seat to the evolution of dynamic retail investor communities and their potential impact on our global financial system.
Matt brings his unique experiences from Google and Reddit to the IR Magazine AI Advisory Council with a focus on AI enabling more human interactions between issuers and their shareholders.
Sean Austin, chief executive officer and co-founder, Markets EQ
Visionary technologist Sean Austin is pioneering the future of finance with Markets EQ, merging his lifelong passions for entrepreneurship, audio science and AI into a category-defining conversational platform. As former CPO of aptihealth, Sean led the product to over $100M in enterprise value and revolutionary impact for behavioral telehealth through the nuance of human behavior. Now with Markets EQ, he is writing the next chapter on a bold mission to empower understanding between leaders and investors through conversational intelligence — combining his track record of building audio and ML innovation at Spotify, Klarna, and Helios with the limitless possibilities of today’s exponential technologies.
Krishna Rangarajan, co-founder and CEO, Big Pi
Krishna has been involved for 25+ years in helping build or investing in enterprise software startups. Krishna brings significant expertise in building high-growth companies and helping businesses adopt new technologies. Krishna was previously on the buy-side at AllianceBernstein, a leading asset management firm. While at the firm, he focused on technology investments and worked portfolio managers overseeing over $300 billion in capital. He also helped establish $200 million late-stage venture capital fund.
Krishna started his career at an enterprise software startup. He was the 13th employee at i2 Technologies, a pioneer in the supply chain management category. Joining the company when it had less than $1 million in revenue, he was the company’s first sales engineer and delivered supply chain solutions to industry leaders at that time. In the early days of the Internet’s commercialization, Krishna was one of the early members of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, where he was responsible for helping Cisco’s large carrier customers such as GTE (now part of Verizon) utilize the Internet to transform their businesses. After graduating from business school, Krishna transitioned to the investment world where, for over a decade, he invested in leading private and public technology companies. He joined Internet Capital Group (ICG), a publicly held venture capital firm, as an investment professional when it had less than $100 million in assets. ICG raised over $1 billion in capital and achieved a peak market capitalization of $50 billion. Krishna has an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering) from I.I.T., Madras, where he was awarded the Banco Foundation Gold Medal.
Grant Bartucci, independent advisor
Having spent over 10 years on the buy side at Point72 Asset Management in both accounting and internal audit roles and most recently for the past 8 years running the Corporate Access Origination & Research function, I have very unique experience both partnering with IROs and C-Suite executives, evaluating company research and financials, and developing deep relationships with investors across sectors. I am actively pursuing a move into an IR role as it aligns with both my accounting (CPA) and finance (CFA) analytical background as well as my extensive buy side experience and interactions with some of the largest investors in the industry. I would bring a unique perspective on understanding how certain investors think about analyzing and evaluating companies along with a deep foundation of working with accounting and financial models. I would be an asset to the management team in navigating the investor community, having particular insight into understanding what companies may need in their investor base, which investors a company should prioritize, and how to tell the story to different types of investors.
Helane Becker, managing director, Cowen
Helane Becker joined Cowen and Company in 2013 as part of the acquisition of Dahlman Rose. Ms. Becker is a managing director and senior research analyst who covers airlines, air freight, and aircraft and container leasing. She has more than 40 years of experience on Wall Street, holding positions within the research, trading, and investment banking departments of several broker/dealers including the Citi, Lehman Brothers, and Smith Barney. She has been frequently ranked as the #1, 2, or 3 analyst by Institutional Investor magazine, as well as in the top 5 analysts by The Wall Street Journal. Ms. Becker is currently ranked #1 in three StarMine analyst categories. She holds a bachelor's degree from Montclair State University and a master's of business administration from New York University. She is a member of the international honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma, and is currently on the Advisory Board of the Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State.
Agnies Watson, co-Founder and President, Stockperks
Agnies has been in the investor relations and capital markets space for over 25 years. She has a deep passion for using technology to unlock new and creative solutions in financial services. Agnies previously held senior roles at Microsoft Investor Relations, Ipreo, and Barclays. Agnies earned a BA in Economics from Murdoch University and a Masters in Applied Finance from Macquarie University.
Iris Golani, founder & director, IIRF- Israeli Investor Relations Forum, Israeli Association of Publicly Traded Companies and executive director, Israel Fintech Center
Since 2018, Iris founded and managed Israel's first and only Investor Relations Community (IIRF). From a concept stage to an alive and kicking venture, a professional organization that places Israel in line with many countries in the world where similar organizations have been operating for decades. In 2021, Iris joined The Israeli Fintech Center, the leading Fintech Association, a registered NGO. The association represents the entire Fintech ecosystem and stakeholders in the Israeli Fintech space and operates the innovation community Fintech.IL (a joint venture of the Ministry of Economy, the Innovation Authority, and the financial regulators in Israel)
Since 2009, Iris as a business entrepreneur, has served in senior positions in the field of business development, In this framework Iris has managed and led a wide variety of projects in different content areas with leading clients and partners in Israel, among them: the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the Israel Association for Advanced Industries, the MIT Forum At Tel Aviv University, IVC Research Center, Oppenheimer Israel, Association of Chambers of Commerce and the Commercial Department of the US Embassy in Israel. Iris volunteers as a mentor at the Ment-Or association part of the Ogan group, and advises and accompanies CEOs of social organizations in the management challenges, fundraising, and development. She also initiates and professionally manages a business development course for social organizations. In the past, Iris was employed as a marketing and business development manager at the consulting and accounting firm BDO Israel and a project manager in the business development department at EY Israel.
Academic experience: Iris holds an MBA from Ben-Gurion University, BA with honors, from Ben-Gurion University and in the past, she served as a lecturer and teaching assistant in academic institutions in Israel.
Daniel Redman, director of insights and engagement, Design Portfolio
Daniel Redman is Director of Insights and Engagement at corporate communications consultancy, Design Portfolio. Daniel’s experience is in advising corporates on improving dialogue with investors, engagement with key stakeholders and effectively communicating their purpose and ability to create sustainable value to the outside world. Daniel has been an active member of the IR society for over 10 years and is a member of the QCA Governance Expert Group and a CSE Certified Sustainability Practitioner. He also holds the Certificate in Investor Relations and frequently runs thought leadership campaigns in both the corporate comms and sustainability space.
Tom Rogers, head of client development, Design Portfolio
Tom Rogers is Head of Client Development at corporate communications consultancy, Design Portfolio. Tom's background has been deeply rooted in digital communications for the past 11 years, working with companies of all sizes to excel their online presence through websites, social media and video. As Head of Client Development, Tom is regularly in front of clients exploring new technologies and requirements with artificial intelligence (AI) being a common topic of conversation in both the corporate comms space and internally through employee communications.
Anne Guimard, founder and president, FINEO Investor Relations Advisors
Once featured in IR Magazine as an ”IR legend”, Anne Guimard, PhD, is the Founder and President of FINEO Investor Relations Advisors (www.fineo.com). FINEO helps Boards and Leadership teams articulate shareholder value, inspire investor confidence and maximize returns on stock market listings. FINEO is the only IR firm in the world dedicated to Investor Relations training. Over 1,500 companies from more than 70 countries on five continents have recognized the value of its IR training, coaching and strategy formulation expertise, pre and post IPO.
With over three decades of global capital markets experience as a strategic partner to both private and public companies, Anne brings a verifiable track record of contributing to value creation, the diversification of share ownership structures and sustained reduction in the cost of capital. She has managed large shareholder bases across multiple stock exchanges and has been instrumental in the success of some of the world’s largest Initial Public Offerings. A passionate advocate of the IR profession, Anne is the author of the reference manual “Investor Relations: principles and best practices in financial communications”.
