Anne Plasterer fulfilled a lifelong dream in 2011 when she entered the show jumping event at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. An avid horseback rider who has participated in the sport since age 10, Plasterer has cleared four-foot-six jumps in riding competitions. On horseback at home, she has jumped higher than five feet, “an amazing feeling” that she describes as akin to flying.

“Because IR is such a stressful job, I love to go to the barn after work and be around horses,” says Plasterer. “If the horse senses any stress, you won’t have a good ride, though. On my drive to the barn, I try to breathe deeply and let go of the stresses of the day.” 

When not wearing jodhpurs and tall boots, Plasterer is Executive Director of Investor Relations at Newalta Corporation. Although many attribute their IR careers to serendipity, Plasterer decided to pursue investor relations while still an undergraduate at the University of Victoria, where she majored in international finance and marketing.

At first, Plasterer planned to follow in the professional footsteps of her grandfather, a successful stockbroker in Victoria. He discouraged her, pointing out that the rise of online trading had made the profession less rewarding. “I’m a people person and I love the markets and communications,” says Plasterer. “I asked myself what could combine all these things, and then I stumbled across investor relations and realized it’s perfect for me. It combines all my interests.” 

Pioneering an IR Function

After college, Plasterer applied for a number of IR positions and was hired as a consultant at Ciris International in Toronto. She then moved to the IR team at HSBC Investment Bank in London, before being hired to start the investor and employee relations function at BFI Canada (now Progressive Waste Solutions).

When Plasterer joined Newalta in 2006, she was once again the first IRO within the company. She’s since grown the function into a team of three as the organization expanded, too. Newalta, which recycles and recovers crude oil, lead, and other usable materials from what was once considered waste, has historically averaged 20% annual revenue growth.

In Plasterer’s early days at Newalta, the company was an income trust in the process of becoming a corporation. This shift naturally meant a dramatic change in the shareholder base. “We lost a lot of our retail investors and so the challenge was to find a whole new shareholder base to fill the void,” she says.

Because Canadian shareholders were reeling from the financial downturn, Plasterer decided on an IR strategy of pursuing European sustainability funds with inflows. “The advantage of the European sustainability shareholder base is that they are very long term focused, and they are interested in companies that are improving the overall environment,” she says. For a time, 12% of Newalta’s shareholders were based in Europe, although that number has since declined to 6%-7% as more Canadian shareholders have come on board.

For Plasterer, one key to being an exemplary IRO is a thorough understanding of the business. “I try to be as knowledgeable as my senior management team. And if I don’t know the information,” she says, “I know where in the company to get the answer for the investor or analyst as quickly as possible.”

Co-Chairing CIRI’s Annual IR Conference

In 2000, Plasterer joined CIRI, and she credits the organization’s conferences and seminars with helping her master her chosen profession.

During 2012 and 2013, Plasterer served as President of CIRI’s Alberta Chapter, where she helped introduce a mentorship program for newcomers to IR. This year, Plasterer will co-chair CIRI’s Annual Conference, along with Rudy Sankovic, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at TD Bank Group. She explains that the focus of the Conference will be leadership and IR excellence, while session topics run the gamut from shareholder activism to corporate governance, communicating with the Board, and sustainability.

Above and beyond the lineup of speakers, which includes an economist and buy- and sell-side investors, Plasterer is eagerly anticipating an opportunity to compare notes with colleagues. “[The CIRI Annual Conference] is a chance to get together and talk with people about what is really going on in the industry and what best practices are on the horizon,” she concludes.