Monthly Events

NIRI-Chicago's monthly meetings feature a mix of city and suburban locations. The fee for each monthly luncheon, breakfast and networking event is included in NIRI-Chicago dues - including luncheons to announce winners of the Triad Annual Report Awards. Meeting discussions tend to be both lively and thought-provoking. Attendees often gain equal value from conversing with colleagues and networking with service providers.

Thursday, October 7, 2010  (Add to Outlook)

Priceless – How to Protect and Strengthen Your Company's Reputation

Reputation is how stakeholders (as a group) perceive and interpret a company's past actions and future prospects. In study after study, people say they're more likely to buy the products of companies they trust, work for companies they respect, and recommend companies they like. But short of a major crisis like the BP oil spill, how does reputation affect stock valuation? How can IROs address the key non-financial metrics that impact reputation? And as a major voice to investors and other stakeholders, what can you do as an investor relations officer or consultant to protect and strengthen a company's reputation?

7:30 a.m. Registration
8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast & Program

Panelists:
Kasper Ulf Nielsen
Managing Partner, Reputation Institute

Jeff Zilka
General Manager and Executive VP,
Financial Communications & IR, Edelman
Jeff Zilka is a strategic financial communicator with more than 25 years of senior-level U.S. and international IR experience. At Edelman, he provides counsel in five areas: strategic transactions, financial services marketing, corporate and financial media relations, financial litigation and investor relations. In the area of corporate reputation, Edelman annually publishes the global Edelman Trust Barometer and the 2010 Financial Services U.S. Trust Barometer. Before joining Edelman in 2002, Zilka headed U.S. financial communications for Hill & Knowlton, was chief communications officer of Archipelago and served as IR officer for Hillsdown Holdings, London. He began his career as an investment banker with PaineWebber and a bond trader with Lehman Brothers. His article, It's Time: IR Professionals Must Adopt Social Media, was published in NIRI Update in November 2009.

Moderator:
Maryellen Thielen
Senior Manager, Financial Communications, Allstate
Maryellen Thielen has managed investor relations, financial communications and/or media relations for a variety of companies, primarily in the financial services or healthcare industries. She joined Allstate in 2008 and currently serves as president of NIRI-Chicago. Thielen earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago and MBA from Northern Illinois University, and has been designated as an accredited business communicator by the International Association of Business Communicators.

Metropolitan Club, 66th Floor, Willis Tower
(map)
233 S. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL