February 19, 2010

Kay Bommer elected as Chairman of the Global Investor Relations Network GIRN

Sydney/Hamburg, 19th February 2010 - At yesterday’s member meeting, the national IR associations that form the Global Investor Relations Network (GIRN) voted in the Managing Director of the German IR association (DIRK), Kay Bommer, as its new Chair. He follows in the footsteps of Ian Matheson, CEO of the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA), who had held the position since the GIRN was founded in September 2008 and has now retired as Chair.

“DIRK is one of the founding members of GIRN and Kay Bommer in particular has played a major part in establishing this grouping that now has 24 members around the world,” explains Ian Matheson. “Our ‘association of associations’ will benefit from his many years of experience at the helm of a sizeable IR association and his involvement in establishing vocational and further training in the field of IR.”

Kay Bommer thanked the founding chairman, who will continue to be active within GIRN after his chairmanship is over: “Our network would not be where it is today without the groundwork put in by Ian nor without his indefatigable commitment. During his chairmanship, almost two dozen new members joined the network, the GIRN website was set up and the first survey of international IR associations was carried out.”

Kay Bommer endorsed the Steering Committee set up under the initiative of Ian Matheson and announced that further committees of experts from the pool of GIRN members would be created. The Steering Committee focuses on issues relating to the further development of the network. In addition to Kay Bommer and Ian Matheson, its members include Jeffrey D. Morgan (President and CEO, NIRI), Michael Mitchell (General Manager, IRS) and Tom Enright (President and CEO, CIRI).

For more information about GIRN see www.GIRNet.org

For further information:

Kay Bommer
Chairman, GIRN, and General Manager, DIRK
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
P. +49-(0)40.4136 3960
F. +49-(0)40.4136 3969

May 15, 2009

GIRN – THE GLOBAL INVESTOR RELATIONS NETWORK LAUNCHES THE NEW WEB PRESENCE

London, 15th May 2009. The Global IR Network (GIRN) is proud to announce the new web presence. The website www.girnet.org will provide a mutual information exchange for its members and a platform for the IR professionals in general with a comprehensive collection of information on all aspects of Investor Relations.The GIRN is pleased to share this new initiative and hopes the website serves as a useful tool for benchmarking and enhancing the global IR profession.

On the GIRN pages of the website many facilities are available. Firstly the homepage contains objectives on the network and useful information about his members - the national IR societies - including links to the members´websites.

The Events and Conferences sites listing sophisticated IR events and conferences of the member societies and the facility to direct registration for GIRN professionals. Furthermore, the surveys and studies pages offer a current and highly competent list of IR documents and surveys. The user will gain a blanket range of IR specific issues for free download.

“The new Website should enable the national societies to share best practices and resources with the minimum complexity and cost. I would like to thank all those who have helped to get us this far, and wish the best of luck to those who will continue the good work.”, said chairman Ian Matheson.

September 4, 2008

IIRF EVOLVES INTO NEW BODY: GLOBAL IR NETWORK

London, 4rd September 2008. At an EGM of the International Investor Relations Federation Limited (IIRF) held yesterday, the members agreed to dissolve the existing organisation and initiate a new body to be called the Global IR Network (GIRN), to focus more on sharing the experience and
resources of the existing national societies, rather than on having to organise commercial activities in order to fund the international body.

Membership of GIRN will be open to all societies representing primarily investor relations professionals around the world. A new chairman will be elected by simple majority vote each year.

• Ian Matheson of the Australasian IR Association was elected as the first chairman and he will appoint a steering committee for the new network shortly.

The initial objectives of the new network were agreed to be:

• Encouraging the development of new IR societies.
• International meetings of IROs as requested by national societies.
• Development of responses on cross border issues relating to IR practice.
• Maintenance of a database of international contacts.

The chair society will host and organise meetings and specialty committees or task forces will be created to cover specific topics of interest (eg XBRL) as necessary.

GIRN plans to set up a website containing basic information on the network and the national societies as well as a collection of IR studies, and each member society will be expected to create an international page on their own web site, giving an international contact and links to other members’
websites, as well as to education and course programmes, best practice guidelines and other useful information.

Membership of the network will be free, with the emphasis on the sharing of experience and resources by the member societies, with the larger members supporting the smaller or newer societies.

New chairman Ian Matheson said he was delighted with the agreement to form the Network: “This initiative was originally put forward by several of the more developed national societies, and it was great to see the support from the other former members of the IIRF. As our discipline becomes more global we are all increasingly having to meet the international aspirations and needs of our own members, and none of us can afford to retain a purely domestic focus. We need to broaden and deepen the relationship between our societies and this was the initial premise of the Network.
“It is also clear that many of the national societies have developed significant resources in areas such as education and professional development, research and event management, so it makes more sense to share these between us than to develop an increasingly costly superstructure.”

Outgoing chairman of the IIRF, Lynge Blak, hailed the formation of the new network as an endorsement of the achievements of its predecessor. “When the IIRF was established,” he said, “there were just four national societies in the world - in Denmark, France the UK and USA. Its primary
aim was always to promote the international development of the discipline encourage the formation of new national societies. The fact that there are now 25 of them, with enough resources to run a new network using their own resources, proves that the IIRF succeeded spectacularly in this prime objective.

With this new structure, the more mature members agree to encourage and support the newer IR associations. “The new Network should enable the national societies to share best practices and resources with the minimum complexity and cost. I would like to thank all those who have helped to get us this far, and wish the best of luck to those who will continue the good work.”