UK Think Tank 2008 - Session Leaders

Rachel joined easyJet on 1st November 2007 from SABMiller Plc where she was a Senior Manager in the Investor Relations team. Prior to SABMiller Rachel worked for Diageo Plc in a variety of finance roles including Investor Relations. A qualified accountant, she has previously held finance positions with NatWest Plc and Unilever Plc.

Julia Wilson is the Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Vectura Group; a leading, UK based, speciality pharmaceutical company.  Julia holds a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has over fourteen years experience in the healthcare sector, having worked in both UK and US based businesses.  She was most recently Head of Corporate Communications at Vernalis and has previously held investor relations positions with Merlin Biosciences, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Cambridge Discovery Chemistry.

Cynthia Alers joined the FTSE 100 technology company, The Sage Group plc, as Investor Relations Director in 2006.  She is responsible for managing all communications with investors, financial and industry analysts and the financial media, including producing strategy presentations, presenting at industry conferences and producing the annual report and IR website.  She advises on Sage’s corporate and regional public relations strategies worldwide and regularly reports to senior management, the Board and the Executive Committee on the external perceptions of Sage.  Her other responsibilities include organising international roadshows; targeting investors and share register analysis.

Before joining Sage, Cynthia was Head of Investor Relations Advisory Services with corporate brokers, JP Morgan Cazenove.  She previously held senior positions in corporate broking with Citigroup, with the financial public relations consultancy, Financial Dynamics, and with the advertising and corporate communications consultancy, Young & Rubicam (now part of WPP) in the US.

Cynthia earned a BA (Hons) in economics and political science from Yale University in America and an MBA (Finance) and an MA (international politics) from The Wharton Business School.  She is a dual Dutch/American citizen and speaks Dutch and French.

Steve has covered telecom operator stocks for 5 years, most recently at Deutsche Bank. He specialised in the wireline operators, covering both the PTTs and alternative carriers. Prior to working as an equity analyst, Steve spent two years working in structured finance focusing on the media and telecoms sectors at Greenwich Natwest. Steve is a qualified chartered accountant and was educated at Durham University (Masters in Economics.) Steve covers the telecoms operators at Arete.

Keith Russell joined Stora Enso in March 2002 as a member of the Management Group with responsibility for Investor Relations. The majority of his career has been spent as a corporate finance specialist in major investment banks in London and New York, latterly as head of the Nordic Region for HSBC Investment Bank (1994-1997). From 1997-2000 he was Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations of Kvaerner ASA, the Anglo-Norwegian industrial group, based in their London head office. Just prior to joining Stora Enso he was CFO of a private industrial venture capital firm.

Keith is a British national but lived in Canada and the US until 1982 when he moved to the UK. He obtained a Bachelors degree from Harvard University in 1980 and has studied at London Business School.

Daniel is Group Investor Relations Manager for Thomas Cook Group plc. Previously Daniel worked for MyTravel plc as Investor Relations Manager, MyTravel Airways as a Finance Manager,  N Brown plc as a Commercial Accountant, and Citigroup as a Financial analyst. Daniel is an economics graduate of St.Andrews University in Scotland.