Leadership

Geri Weinfeld currently works as Vice President of Investor Relations at Xperi Corp., listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. From 2011 to 2014, she worked as an IR consultant for Nexon Co. Ltd., a free-to-play online gaming company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, that traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after going public in 2011 and raising $1.2 billion. Prior to working with Nexon, Geri was Senior Manager of Investor Relations at Activision Blizzard from 2004-2009, Director of Investor Relations at Autobytel.com and Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Buy.com. She started her career as a NASDAQ market maker working at a full service brokerage firm in Washington, DC.

Kimberly Esterkin is a Managing Director at ADDO Investor Relations, a strategic investor relations and financial communications firm in Los Angeles. Kimberly has over 14 years of experience in investor relations, finance and corporate communications. Kimberly began her career in management consulting in New York where she focused on researching the fixed income markets.

After moving to Los Angeles, in 2009, Kimberly worked as an associate for Goldman Sachs' Private Wealth Management Division. In 2011, she joined ADDO Investor Relations, where she managed and supported over a dozen IR campaigns across the consumer, technology, internet, and financial services industries as Vice President of Investor Relations. In 2015, Kimberly joined Tetra Tech (Nasdaq: TTEK), a $3 billion market cap engineering and consulting firm in Pasadena as the Manager of Investor Relations where she supported an IR program that saw the company nearly triple its market cap.

Kimberly has also served as Vice President of Investor Relations for a pre-IPO financial services company and Senior Vice President at a full-service investor and public relations firm both in Los Angeles.

Kimberly holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated summa cum laude, and is an active volunteer for the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Secondary School Committee. Kimberly was recently recognized as part of the inaugural class of NIRI’s top “40 under 40” in investor relations in the country.

Learn earn more about Kimberly’s suggestions for IR best practices in the Nasdaq Series Intro to an IRO".

Josh McGinn is the Senior Vice President, Western Region Relationship Management at AST and has more than 30 years of industry experience. In his current role, Josh manages shareholder services for corporate issuers and IPOs and is heavily involved with planning, developing, and administering a wide range of issuer services, including annual meetings, equity plan administration, market surveillance, acquisitions involving stock/cash exchanges, corporate spinoffs, tender offers and other special projects including the communications around such programs. Before joining AST in April 2012, Josh was with Computershare and its predecessor, EquiServe and Bank of Boston. Josh also has a solid background with annual meetings, proxy mailings, solicitations, and proxy contests. He started Bank of Boston’s proxy solicitation department in the late 1980s and contributed to that organization’s e-proxy, e-distribution, and proxy householding services. Josh received both his bachelor’s and MBA degrees from Boston University, has earned his Series 7 license, and has attained the Certified Equity Professional (CEP) designation. He is a member of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP), Global Equity Organization (GEO), the Society of Governance Professionals, and the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He is a board member of the San Francisco chapter of NASPP, has authored materials for the NCEO, and was a former board member of the Silicon Valley Chapter of NIRI.. He enjoys thought leadership and speaking on industry trends and regulatory changes while always looking to achieve the greater operating and cost efficiencies.

Katie is a Director in BlackRock’s Product Strategy team supporting BlackRock’s Global Credit Platform. Katie manages the investor relations efforts for BlackRock’s publicly traded business development company, BlackRock TCP Capital Corp (Nasdaq: TCPC).

Prior to joining Tennenbaum (which was subsequently acquired by BlackRock, Inc.) in 2018, Katie was a member of the investor relations team at Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. Prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2014, Katie held various roles in financial services organizations in New York, including as a sell-side analyst on the Power & Utilities team at Credit Suisse, and as a Vice President in the Finance Department at Goldman Sachs. Katie also spent a brief period as the chief financial officer for an early-stage clean technology company. Katie began her career in the financial services audit practice at KPMG, after graduating with a degree in Accounting from Hartwick College. Katie also holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Rodrigo Salazar currently serves as an independent consultant.

Prior to his current role, Rodrigo served as an Investor Relations Analyst at Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV), the world’s leading live entertainment company, where he was responsible for communicating the company’s narrative to the investment community. Previously, Rodrigo held several roles across the investor relations and capital markets divisions at Nationstar Mortgage (NYSE: NSM).

Rodrigo holds a BBA from the University of North Texas. He joined NIRI in 2018 as a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter.

Stéphanie Van Hassel is head of investor relations for MedMen Enterprises, the nation’s preeminent cannabis company and the most recognized brand in the emerging marijuana industry.

Ms. Van Hassel brings more than a decade of experience in investor relations in the hedge fund world and is the principal liaison between MedMen and the investment community, responsible for communicating the company’s growth strategy and performance measures. Prior to joining MedMen, she was co-head of investor services at Atlantic Investment Management, which reached a peak of $2.5 billion in assets during her tenure, and associate vice president at Advent Capital Management. Ms. Van Hassel holds of Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

Kara J. Stancell is a public relations, investor relations and corporate communications veteran with over 20 years of professional healthcare/pharma/biotech communications experience, including 10 years as corporate spokesperson for Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, ending her career there as vice president, investor and public relations and corporate communications when the company was acquired in 2012. Kara also has served10 years as an independent consultant. She joined Dermavant Sciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, as vice president, investor relations and corporate communications in June of 2018.

Kara is adept at developing and managing consistent and compliant messaging for a gamut of audiences and has extensive experience with crisis communications, reputation management, executive and internal communications and corporate event oversight – from product launches to global integrated campaigns. She also enjoys providing clients with creative ways to enhance their corporate reputation.

Kara has been a member of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) and member and/or board member of NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) since 1999. She is a summa cum laude graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a summa cum laude graduate from UC-Irvine with a Master’s Certification in Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. She also studied Digital Communications from Johns Hopkins University.

Amy Akmal is CEO and founder of STAKE IR, a strategic communications agency that works to build trust and close the value gap between high growth companies and investors. With more than 20 years’ experience in corporate communications, Amy is well versed in delivering precise messaging, corporate positioning, media relations, and crisis communications.

Stacy Feit is Vice President, Investor Relations at The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated. Previously, Stacy was a Senior Vice President in the investor relations and financial communications division of MWW.

Stacy has guided numerous clients through major milestones, including initial public offerings, spin-offs, acquisitions and restructurings, while also developing and implementing ongoing investor relation programs. Stacy has worked with companies across industries including alternative energy, consumer, healthcare, industrial, lodging, mining, media, real estate and technology.

Prior to joining MWW, Stacy was an associate at Citigroup Global Markets in their middle market institutional equity sales group. Earlier in her career, Stacy was an analyst in the global corporate and investment banking division at Bank of America where she covered companies in the gaming and leisure industry.

Stacy holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2005. She is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Los Angeles.

Matthew Policastro is the Group VP for the West Coast. Based in Los Angeles, he is responsible for sales and operations for the entire West Coast that includes, Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, and Phoenix.

In 2003, Matt joined Business Wire as an Account Executive in its Los Angeles office. In 2008, he was appointed Regional Manager of Los Angeles.

Matt is an alumni of Rutgers University and received his MBA from Pepperdine University. He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and The Public Relations Society of America.

Jennifer DiGrazia is the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at Ariel Investments and is responsible for strengthening and cultivating Ariel’s client relationships. She joined the firm in 2017, after serving as Head of Investor Relations for DreamWorks Animation. In this capacity, she developed relationships with key stakeholders, including institutional investors, portfolio managers and investment research analysts. Jenn was also in charge of articulating DreamWorks Animation’s strategic priorities while fostering confidence and credibility among the investment community. Before DreamWorks, she held two senior positions at DIRECTV; Principal Strategist for Revenue, Strategy and Planning, and Senior Director of Investor Relations. Prior to that, she served in various roles in Corporate Finance and Strategic Planning at Time Warner Cable and MTV Networks. Jenn is a board member for Communities in Schools Los Angeles, a member of the National Investor Relations Institute and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut.

Jason is a Vice President at ADDO Investor Relations and has over ten years of experience in investor relations, strategy, and financial services. Prior to ADDO, Jason held strategy/investor relations roles at Banc of California (NYSE: BANC) and Maxim Integrated (NASDAQ: MXIM) as well as finance, operations, and private banking roles at J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM).

Jason has been heavily involved in strategic investor communication, developing, planning and executing quarterly earnings releases, annual report content creation and design, website administration, investor targeting, IR plan development and supporting multiple strategic planning projects during his career in strategy and IR.

In addition to serving on the board for NIRI’s Los Angeles Chapter, Jason also serves on the board of Berkeley Humane located in Berkeley, CA. Jason received a BA in Economics from The Ohio State University and an MBA with concentrations in both Finance and Entrepreneurship from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Terri MacInnis is Vice President Investor Relations at Bibicoff + MacInnis, Inc., a boutique small cap. consulting firm. Since 1982, Terri has represented more than 150 public companies, developing and implementing strategic communications and IR programs for clients in widely diverse industries and business segments - through various stages of business development. She has developed deep, long-standing relationships with high net worth investors, fund managers, institutions, analysts, and members of legal, private equity and corporate finance.

Terri has been a member of NIRI National and the Los Angeles Chapter since 1991 and joined NIRI’s Senior Roundtable in 2015. She is a second generation Los Angeles native and attended California State University, Northridge.