Ben Ashwell, editor, IR Magazine
Ben Ashwell is the editor at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, covering investor relations, governance, risk and compliance. Prior to this, he was the founder and editor of Executive Talent, the global quarterly magazine from the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants. Before moving to the US, Ben was the vice president and editor at Executive Grapevine, overseeing a daily news website, ten annual supplements and HR Grapevine, the UK’s leading HR and talent management magazine. In his spare time, Ben writes fiction, poetry and arts and culture reviews. Eyewear Publishing recently named him in their list of the Best New British and Irish Poets.
Karen Greene, vice president of customer experience, Q4
Karen is an Investor Relations Partner at Q4, working closely with clients as an advisor. Bringing close to 30 years of experience as a senior executive overseeing investor relations and marketing communications for large to small cap and newly public companies, Karen has managed organizations through a wide range of hurdles, milestones and challenges. Karen’s career in Investor Relations includes time at CIGNA Insurance, Safeguard Scientifics, Internet Capital Group (rebranded to Actua), and Hamilton Lane.
Karen has demonstrated success in targeting and transforming the investor base of publicly traded companies, helping them gain a broader, more aligned following. She has also led IR teams through the IPO process, helping them establish IR plans, budgets and workflow required as a public company. Additionally, Karen brings first-hand knowledge and best practices for how to successfully navigate through a wide range of investor relations issues such as missed earnings guidance, M&A, activist activity, restructurings, strategic shifts, rebrands and corporate governance.
Karen has an MBA from Temple University Fox School of Business/Boston University School of Business and a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Rochester.
Nicole Noutsios, founder, NMN Advisors
Nicole has been running her own consultancy, NMN Advisors, for more than 19 years. During her 25 plus years in investor relations, she has provided over 100 pre-IPO and public companies investor relations and strategic communications counsel and has worked with companies in virtually every facet of investor relations, including IPOs, shareholder activism, M&A communications, global investor targeting and crisis communications.
Prior to consulting, she was the Director of IR for meVC / Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s (DFJ) public venture capital fund where she managed the public relations and investor relations departments. While at meVC/DFJ Fund, she assisted with the company’s $330M IPO on the NYSE. Before working for the meVC/DFJ Fund, Nicole held IR and Finance positions at Infoseek and Imatron.
For 13 years, Nicole volunteered as both an Officer and Director with the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) San Francisco and Silicon Valley chapters and for three years held the position of San Francisco NIRI President. Since 2006 she has been on the NIRI National Editorial Advisory Committee.
