The practitioners at the Global IR Group have extensive industry experience including senior level in-house investor relations responsibilities, IR consulting experience, buy-side and sell-side Wall Street experience and have been featured on CNBC and other leading news channels. Additionally, they have been published in Barron's and the Wall Street Journal, to name a few, for their industry opinions.
Gar Jackson - Founder
Gar started his finance career in 1991 as an intern at the investment firm of Cruttenden & Company in Newport Beach, CA. After spending the next few years working for a couple of boutique investment banking firms he founded his own investor relations firm - Corporate Communications Network. CCN did outsourced investor relations for micro and small cap companies in the technology, environmental, golf, and consumer products space. Over the next three years at CCN, through hard work, perseverance and cold calling, Gar built a database of more than 5,000 brokers and individual investors.
It was through his work with the golf industry at CCN that Gar saw an opportunity to develop an investment newsletter that was focused on the golf industry and the golf stocks. Over the next few years that sector ballooned to encompass more than 50 publicly traded companies. This led to the development of the PVGI 30, branded the golf industry index, that was featured in a number of business and golf publications and served as the benchmark for the financial performance of the golf industry. Gar was a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Barrons and CNBC and established himself as the "Golf Industry Expert" - effectively serving as the primary industry analyst in the space.
Following five years in the newsletter business Gar went in-house at Oakley in 2001 where he led the investor relations department through some of the most difficult times in the Company history. Over the next few years the Company faced the headwinds of 9/11, the loss of its primary customer Sunglass Hut, and extensive diversification that included product extensions into the footwear, apparel and watch categories. Always recognizing the strength of the brand, Gar targeted value investors when the stock was out of favor, who also recognized the same potential. Eventually Oakley was sold to Luxottica - owners of Sunglass Hut - in a transaction valued at over $2 billion - an all time high for the stock.
From Oakley Gar was recruited to establish the investor relations department at Pacific Sunwear of California. With more than 1,000 stores and at one time operations under 3 different concepts Gar managed more than 25 sell-side analysts who followed Company. After 5 years with Pacific Sunwear Gar went back into the consulting business with IR Sense where he focused on the consumer and specialty finance space.
Seeing the need to not only help companies domestically with their investor relations efforts, Gar started the Global IR Group to also focus on the emerging markets of Mexico and South America. Additionally, Gar is always looking to utilize his extensive network to help his clients build their businesses and believes that the more he can help develop the businesses of his clients the better the investment theses.
Gar has been extensively involved with the National Investor Relations Institute, NIRI, and served for more than 12 years on the Board of Directors of the Orange County NIRI Chapter. Gar has also held the positions of President, head of Programs and head of Membership for the chapter. In 2014 Gar again joined the Board of Directors of the Orange County Chapter and where he served as the Vice President of Programs. Gar graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Economics.
Mark Levin - Senior Managing Director
Mark’s financial markets career spans almost two decades. With a combined 14 years as an institutional stock broker for three firms (Banc of America Securities, FTN Midwest Research, and Stephens Inc.), Mark has a deep knowledge of the holistic function of sellside research as well as the research and investment processes of institutional money managers and hedge fund managers spanning a variety of investment styles. Mark has extensive experience selling the investment merits of small and mid cap companies from several different industries including: industrials, regional banks, consumer, healthcare, and technology. In addition to managing the constant flow of investment research and relevant information on companies and sectors of interest to his investor clients in a timely and concise manner, he has managed the scheduling and execution of equity offering and non-deal roadshows for several companies.
Mark gained valuable in-house investor relations experience as IR manager for Advanced Medical Optics in 2006-2007. AMO was a $1B global ophthalmic device manufacturer that has since been acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2009 and then J&J in 2017. During his time at AMO, he managed all aspects of the IR function including the communication for the $800 million acquisition of publicly traded IntraLase Corp, crisis management of an FDA mandated product recall that comprised 1/3 of total company revenues, as well as managed relationships with 13 covering sellside analysts and many more institutional investors.
In addition to a thorough understanding of the equity research and institutional investment processes and equity capital markets, Mark brings a vast of amount of sellside and buyside relationships to Global IR Group. Mark earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Mississippi and MBA with concentrations in finance, accounting, and strategy from Vanderbilt University.
Don Delaria - Senior Managing Director
Don is a capital markets specialist with experience in investment banking, equity syndicate & institutional equity sales and a consummate IR professional having founded and led his own IR consulting practice before leading the Investor Relations effort for Regal Entertainment Group, the largest theatre circuit in the World with $2.5 billion in annual revenue and Zep, Inc. a $700 million specialty chemical manufacturer. Don maintains relationships at the highest level of both the NYSE and the NASDAQ for the benefit of the companies he represents. Don has served as a National Board Member for the Association for Investor Relations (NIRI), representing the association and its representative companies before the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., in addition to serving a President of the association’s largest chapter, the Virtual Chapter and board member of the Minneapolis and Atlanta chapters. Don has also served as an entrepreneur-in-residence for the Atlanta Technology Development Center and Launch NY, helping early stage companies with business strategy and investor pitch development. Mr. De Laria is a founder and partner in Larkin Express Logistics, LLC.
Don established and led Regal Entertainment Group's investor relations program following its emergence from bankruptcy and initial public offering in May 2002. Crafted long-term positioning and managed IR effort through bank debt restructuring, establishment of a regular dividend, numerous acquisitions, convertible notes offering, two debt offerings, payment of multiple extraordinary dividends and a spin-out of Regal’s advertising business. Responsible for developing and executing strategic programs for identifying, attracting and maintaining sell-side analyst and institutional investor relationships.
Don served on the Sr. management team of Zep, Inc. and was the primary contact for all investor and analyst communication, reporting directly to the CEO, with responsibility for Zep Inc.’s investor and corporate communications initiatives.
Helen Mikkelsen - Managing Director Investor Relations Division
Helen has more than 15 years experience in financial journalism, corporate communications and investor relations. She began her career as a journalist with New Zealand’s leading business newspaper, The National Business Review, and was soon advising some of that country’s leading companies on their corporate communications and investor relations strategies. Upon moving to the United States in 1999, she worked on Wall Street with The Carson Group and Thomson Financial providing investor relations support to a wide range of corporations including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Trevelocity.com and American Greetings. She transferred to Southern California to establish an investor relations consulting office and then joined the executive team of The Wet Seal, Inc. as Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Helen brings this broad range of corporate and consulting experience across multiple industries to the Global IR Group team.
Chandi Neubauer - Managing Director Investor Relations Division
Chandi is an accomplished investment professional specializing in the consumer and specialty retail space. Chandi started her career with a New York based hedge fund in 2005. She evaluated business trends, built financial models and communicated regularly with management teams in order to make informed investment decisions. As a buyside analyst, first with Trivium Capital Management and then with Hunter Global Investors, Chandi conducted extensive research focused on the retail and consumer universe.
Following her time on the buy-side Chandi worked in investor relations for the Consumer Group (Part of the Blueshirt Group) before going back to Wall Street as a sell-side analyst at Majestic Research - later acquired by the ITG group. While with ITG Chandi appeared on CNBC, Fox News and the Morning Show with Katie Couric to name a few.
Chandi earned a bachelors degree in both Business and Art History; A Masters degree in Education with a focus on Museum Education and earned her MBA from Babson College.