Steve Wade, head of event content, IR Magazine
Steve Wade is the head of event content at IR Media Group. As a content researcher, conference producer, and event host for IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, Steve is responsible for gathering intelligence on public companies' most significant global issues. Steve’s team develops events that promote excellence in investor relations, governance, and sustainability for issuers and investors.
Prior to Corporate Secretary, Steve’s background was in corporate social responsibility and responsible investment. During his time at Ethical Corporation (now Reuters Events), Steve launched the ESG symposium; an event focused on connecting the socially responsible investment community with corporate sustainability leaders at listed companies. Steve was a judge for the Deloitte Green Frog Awards, celebrating the best corporate reporting in Eastern Europe. Steve also presented research at the Global Sustainable Event Summit in London and has spoken about extra-financial reporting with the United Nations Global Compact, the World Bank, and the Polish Ministry of Finance.
Steve has a BSC in Event Management, is a member of working groups toward improved practices in international event management, and enjoys swimming, rugby and outdoor pursuits in his spare time.
Sylvie Harton, chief business strategy officer, Lumi
Sylvie Harton is currently the Chief Business Strategy Officer at LUMI Global where she leads LUMI’s future growth strategy. Prior to her role at LUMI Sylvie was SVP, Strategy & Global head of IR and PR solutions at Notified where she led M&A, strategic partnerships, and P&L for its global IR and PR solutions business.
She draws on 25 years of executive leadership and expertise in organic, inorganic expansion, and turnaround situations with global scope and credibility in IR solutions, PR solutions, ESG & sustainability. She brings a win-win approach to strategic partnership and alliances negotiation. Sylvie is a passionate advocate of bringing the client to the table when making strategic business decisions and a firm believer that strategy is the anchor for sustainable corporate performance that benefits the marketplace, workplace, and the global community. Prior to LUMI, Sylvie held various executive positions with Nasdaq and Marketwired, where she spent a decade growing the organization to its successful exit to Nasdaq. Sylvie is a recent graduate of The Wharton School and the University of New Haven EMBA program. She holds a Law and Finance degree from Université de Montréal and Concordia University in Canada.
Karen Sansot, VP of IR, BILL
Karen has approximately 25 years investor relations and investment banking experience. She has developed top-ranked investor relations programs at three companies and led IR teams at large, mid, and small-cap companies. During her investment banking career, Karen raised $12 billion in 32 debt and equity transactions for her clients and also advised on M&A transactions.
Karen is currently Vice President and Head of Investor Relations at BILL, where she and her team are Institutional Investor-ranked #1 among software companies according to a sellside survey. Previously, she was at Zendesk, where the investor relations team was Institutional Investor-ranked #1 among small and mid-cap software companies. Prior to that, Karen was Head of Investor Relations at LeapFrog and at Electronic Arts. At EA, Karen built a top-ranked IR program that was recognized by Barron’s and IR Magazine as “Top 100 in the Country” and Institutional Investor-ranked #2 in the software industry. Karen was previously an investment banker at Montgomery Securities and BT (Bankers Trust) Securities.
Karen holds a B.A. in Economics from UCLA and a M.S in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is a Stanford Sloan Fellow, Chartered Financial Analyst, and NIRI San Francisco Chapter Board Member.
