Kay Bommer, managing director, DIRK
Kay W. Bommer is Managing Director of DIRK, the German Investor Relations Association, since 2001.He started his career with a large, international auditing firm, followed by working for two years as head of Investor Relations for a software company listed on Germany’s Neuer Markt.
Kay studied law and business in Göttingen, Passau and Sydney and holds a Master of Business Administration. He is a registered lawyer since 2001 and was elected Honorary Member of DIRK in 2011. He sits on a number of supervisory boards of small innovative companies and exercises teaching assignments in Capital Market Law and Corporate Communication at German Universities.
Mark Dimont, product manager for Bloomberg terminal news applications, Bloomberg
Mark Dimont is a Product Manager for Bloomberg Terminal News Applications, responsible for social media and analytics targeted to financial professionals. In this role, Mr. Dimont is focused on information flows relevant to Bloomberg’s investment, trading, IR, and government clients. He is currently responsible for the definition of client requirements, assistance in the design of solutions, working with developers to create the best product, and delivering the product in the most effective way to end users.
Prior to Bloomberg, Mr. Dimont was the Director of Business Development for Dataminr, a Twitter-partnered social media analytics company. He began his career at Morgan Stanley where he held multiple roles across Information Technology, Asset Management, and Equity Sales & Trading.
Mr. Dimont holds an MBA from Columbia University and a B.S from the University of Colorado.
Laurie Havelock, editor-at-large, IR Magazine
Laurie Havelock is a freelance journalist, writer and podcaster who has been working on financial titles for more than 5 years, dabbling with commercial property finance, responsible investment and investor relations as his main areas of focus. Outside of that he also writes about music, with a predilection for independent and emerging artists, has worked on a number of comedy projects, including a podcast he makes with musical comedian Paddy Gervers called Podshambles, and hosts a weekly show on Shoreditch Radio. Laurie has been published in the Independent, the Guardian and Q Magazine.
Jen Rubin, partner and member of employment, labor and benefits, Mintz
Jen’s employment practice crafts business solutions to legal problems facing corporations and executives. While she is a zealous advocate in the courtroom, she relishes her role as counselor and focuses her practice on solving employee mobility issues, litigating wage and hour class actions, and making employment regulations accessible for her corporate clients.
Jen, who has an AV Preeminent ranking from Martindale-Hubbell, is a faculty member and advisor to The Honor Foundation, a non-profit organization that assists Navy Seals and other armed services special operators transition from military service to the private sector. She was recently named to the San Diego Daily Transcript’s 2018 Top 50 list of Most Influential Leaders in San Diego, is frequently quoted in the Wall Street Journal and other publications about employment topics and frequently authors employment-related articles.
Carol Villazon, investor relations officer, Cisco Systems
Carol Villazon is an Investor Relations Officer at Cisco Systems, Inc., a mega-cap company with close to $50B in revenue in FY17. Carol is part of the global investor relations team which is responsible for building Cisco’s IR strategy and relationships with the financial community. Carol is a strategic advisor to the executive leadership team that includes the CEO and CFO, as well as the company’s business development organization.
Since joining the company in 2000, Carol has been part of several functions within Cisco including Sales Finance and later expanding her responsibilities to support Global Operations Finance. In those role, she utilized her acumen in finance, communication and organizational skills to begin her career in Investor Relations in 2007.
Under Carol’s leadership, she led the business operations for investor relations team and expanded her role to manage buy-side and sell-side relationships. Carol has continued to excel in cross functional strategic projects across Legal, Finance, Corporate Communications and several other functions across Cisco. In 2014, Carol leveraged synergies in communications functions across the company by effectively launching the first IR social media program for the investment community at Cisco. In 2016, she began to co-lead the Corporate Governance award winning program where her responsibilities help drive pro-active engagement with the investment community.
In 2018 Barron’s named Cisco as the #1 Most Sustainable Company in the US. In 2017, Institutional Investor Magazine recognized Cisco as the Best IR Program and Analyst Day by the Buy-Side and Sell-Side community plus the Best CFO by the Sell-Side. In 2016, IR Magazine recognized the team for the Best Corporate Governance Program.
Carol sits on Cisco’s Finance Talent Council and the Inclusion and Collaboration team and is a member of Conexion, Cisco’s Latino Employee Resource Organization.
Carol received a B.S. from San Jose State University and holds an M.B.A. from University of Phoenix Business School.
