IROs are old hands at being evaluated by everyone from buy- and sell-side analysts to portfolio managers allocating finite assets among thousands of possible public company contenders. | Read Article |

One of the increasingly evident downsides of the well-intended efforts by accounting standards setters to improve 'transparency' in financial reporting is disclosure overload. This is exemplified by the new accounting standards on revenue, financial instruments and leases, which each have extensive disclosure requirements. As a result, financial statements are now longer than ever and increasingly difficult for the average reader to understand. Furthermore, information overload risks key information being overlooked by users. Companies and IR professionals are therefore faced with the daunting challenge of sifting through details to identify information that is actually relevant to the users of financial statements. | Read Article |

Gender diversity at the Board level has been a high-profile issue for the past few years. In September 2018, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) released Staff Notice 58-310 summarizing the results of its fourth annual review of the gender diversity of Boards and executive officer positions for issuers across Canada. | Read Article |

Investor relations practitioners invest a lot of time in building relationships with shareholders, potential shareholders, brokers, analysts and other people from the Street. We know how valuable those external relationships are – they are so important to what we do that they define our title. | Read Article |

Good governance (the 'G' in ESG) has been widely recognized as an important tool to address the asymmetry of information between investors and management, enabling economic growth through dispersed ownership of corporations. It has often been postulated that by getting the 'G' right, you tend to get better outcomes on environmental and social factors (the 'E' and the 'S'). Thus, the question that we must address is: Are we getting the 'G' right when it comes to enabling collaboration and stewardship on sustainability issues? Thankfully, there is an emerging body of research that is beginning to establish some best practices in governance with regard to sustainability. | Read Article |