NIRI Elects New Board Members

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) announced that at its annual meeting today, NIRI members elected four new directors to four year terms: Shep Dunlap, Vice President, Investor Relations, Motorola Solutions, (NYSE: MSI); Hala Elsherbini, Senior Vice President and COO, Halliburton Investor Relations; Ronald A. Parham, Sr., Director of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, Columbia Sportswear Company, (NASDAQ: COLM); and Julie D. Tracy, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Wright Medical Group N.V., (NASDAQ: WMGI).

NIRI members also elected new board member Sidney G. Jones, Vice President of Investor Relations, Genuine Parts Company, (NYSE: GPC), to a three year term, and elected returning board member, Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Advanced Micro Devices, (NASDAQ: AMD), to a one year term.

Felise Kissell, Board Chair of NIRI, and Vice President of Investor Relations for HSN, Inc., (NASDAQ: HSNI), said, “On behalf of NIRI, it gives me great pleasure to welcome these outstanding individuals to the NIRI Board. This is an exciting time for NIRI as we continue to execute on our OneNIRI strategy, which includes our first-ever Investor Relations Charter certification examination that will take place in March 2016. I also want to thank immediate past Chair, Mark Donohue, and outgoing board members Bob Burton, Deb Pawlowski, and Chuck Triano for their efforts and tremendous contributions to NIRI.”

Board Members

Ruth Cotter is the Senior Vice President Human Resources, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations at Advanced Micro Devices. Her responsibilities include leading AMD’s global relationships with Wall Street. Ms. Cotter joined AMD in 2002 as an investor relations manager. Prior to this, Ruth’s expertise spanned several years at CRH plc, one of the world’s largest building materials groups listed on the Irish, London and New York stock exchanges. Following that, she spent a number of years at Trintech Group plc, co-headquartered in Ireland and the USA. Ms. Cotter has public relations experience in the public, banking and consumer industries. Ms. Cotter served on the NIRI Board of Directors from 2011 to 2015 and was co-Chair of the 2010 NIRI Annual Conference. Ms. Cotter holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and History from University College Cork, Ireland.

Shep Dunlap serves as the Vice President of Investor Relations for Motorola Solutions (MSI). He is responsible for executing Motorola Solution’s global investor communications program. Mr. Dunlap also provides guidance regarding MSI’s operating results and business strategies to institutional investors and sell-side securities analysts. Prior to Motorola Solutions, he spent 12 years at Dell, Inc. in various roles, including Investor Relations, Corporate Planning, Services Marketing and Corporate Audit. He was co-Chair of the 2015 NIRI Annual Conference, and has been an active member of the NIRI Austin and Chicago chapters. Mr. Dunlap earned an M.B.A. in finance from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Kansas State University. He is also a CPA in the state of Texas.

Hala Elsherbini serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Halliburton Investor Relations (“HIR”). Ms. Elsherbini joined HIR in 1994 and is responsible for the direction, coordination and administration of the agency’s day-to-day client service programs, and serves as the senior account manager for a number of client accounts. In her former position with Prentiss Properties Limited, Inc., she managed a wide scope of public relations and marketing programs, including advertising, media relations, marketing presentations, and collateral materials, as well as public relations activities at both the national and regional level. Ms. Elsherbini’s prior experience includes marketing-related responsibilities for Guaranty Federal Savings Bank, The Lomas & Nettleton Company, Interfirst Bank Dallas, and Interfirst International Corporation. A long-time NIRI member, she served in various board roles at the Dallas*Fort Worth chapter, including President in 2010 as well as co-Chair for the Southwest Regional Conference in 2012 and 2014. Ms. Elsherbini also served on the 2010 and 2011 NIRI Annual Conference planning committees. Ms. Elsherbini graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.A. in Communications.

Sid Jones is the Vice President of Investor Relations at Genuine Parts Company, a Georgia Fortune 250 Company. He has held this position since 2003, and prior to this served for thirteen years in various financial and accounting management roles at EIS, Inc., an Atlanta, GA based distributor acquired by Genuine Parts in 1998. Previously, Mr. Jones was an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in Atlanta, GA. Mr. Jones is a long-time member of NIRI, and remains active on the NIRI Atlanta chapter board after serving as chapter President from 2013 to 2015. He is a member of the Georgia Society of CPA’s, is active with Junior Achievement of Georgia, and is also on the board of the Northeast and McCleskey East Cobb YMCA’s. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, Athens, and has an M.B.A. from Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Ron Parham joined Columbia Sportswear in January 2008 as Director of Investor Relations and was named Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications in October 2008. From 1998 through 2007 he was Managing Director of PondelWilkinson Parham, an investor relations and corporate communications consulting firm in Portland, Oregon, an affiliate of PondelWilkinson Group based in Los Angeles. From 1983 to 1998 he held various positions with NIKE, Inc., serving as the company’s first full-time Director of Investor Relations from 1987 to 1995. From 1980 to 1983, Mr. Parham was an auditor with Coopers & Lybrand in Portland, Oregon. He has been a member of NIRI since 1988, serving as Co-Chair of the 1994 NIRI Annual Conference and on the 1993 NIRI Annual Conference planning committee. He served as the president of the Portland chapter of NIRI from 2001 to 2008, and has served as a board member of the NIRI Virtual chapter since 2011. He received a B.S. in Business Administration/Accounting from Oregon State University.

Julie Tracy is Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Wright Medical Group N.V., a global orthopaedic medical device company and recognized leader of surgical solutions for the upper extremity (shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand), lower extremity (foot and ankle) and biologics markets. She leads the investor relations and corporate communication functions and is a member of the company's senior executive team. At the 2014 and 2015 IR Magazine U.S. Awards, Wright Medical won the Grand Prix award for best overall small cap IR program, Best IR by a CEO (small cap), and Ms. Tracy was named Best IR officer in the small cap category. Ms. Tracy was also named the Global Top Small/Mid-Cap Investor Relations Officer in 2014 by IR Magazine. Prior to Wright Medical, Ms. Tracy served as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Epocrates, Inc. from March 2011 to September 2011, and as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for ev3 Inc. from January 2008 to July 2010. Prior to ev3, Ms. Tracy served as Vice President and Chief Communications Officer for Kyphon Inc., as well as in senior level management positions at Thoratec Corporation and Sulzer Medica. Ms. Tracy is a member of the NIRI Senior Roundtable. Ms. Tracy graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a B.S. degree in Business Administration and received her M.B.A. from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business. She also received her Certificate in Investor Relations from the University of California, Irvine Extension program in collaboration with NIRI.

About the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)

Founded in 1969, NIRI (www.NIRI.org) is the professional association of corporate officers and investor relations consultants responsible for communication among corporate management, shareholders, securities analysts and other financial community constituents. NIRI is the largest professional investor relations association in the world with more than 3,300 members representing over 1,600 publicly held companies and $9 trillion in stock market capitalization.

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National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)
Matt Brusch, 703-562-7679
[email protected]

Source: National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)

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