Our Team

Jane founded Investor Relations Department Pty Ltd in 2008 in response to the demand for highly experienced investor relations and corporate communications support on a contracted basis. She has more than 15 years’ experience providing specialist communications consultancy to clients across investor and public relations, marketing and corporate communications.

Jane is passionate about working with companies and initiatives that deliver positive global impact. She has worked with hundreds of clients, listed and unlisted, from micro-caps to ASX top 50 and has overseen more than 80 secondary capital raises, many IPOs and M&A campaigns, and has a strong network of domestic and international investor and media contacts.

Prior to founding IR Department, Jane led the Sydney investor communications team for what is now WE Communications (then Buchan Consulting) and was the head of IR and PR at Geodynamics Limited, a (then) ASX300 company.

Jane was a founding member of online investor communications group IRM, where she drove successful electronic investor relations strategies for listed companies across a diverse range of industries and built a strong balance sheet for the IRM business. Earlier, she worked in roles that successfully positioned private businesses for trade sale.

For the past four years, she has volunteered as a mentor for SBE Australia (part of Springboard Enterprises), supporting female founders and CEOs accelerate their businesses to achieve global scale.   

Specialities include: strategy, investor relations, investor outreach, M&A and corporate transactions, corporate communications and marketing.

Cherie has more than 20 years’ experience in the communications industry, with vast expertise in the areas of public relations and marketing. Having held senior positions both agency and client side in Australia, Europe and the Middle East, her knowledge spans consumer, corporate, not-for-profit and government communications. Cherie has worked extensively across numerous industries, including sport, tourism, healthcare and FMCG sectors.

Her experience includes heading up strategic communications for the Government of Abu Dhabi where she advised on government policy, developed the Emirate’s tourism brand, and secured and marketed major sporting events such as the FIFA Club World Cup. Prior to this, Cherie headed up Consumer PR for Burson-Marsteller in Australia where she developed award-winning campaigns for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Heineken and Tourism New Zealand.

Specialities: strategic communications, media relations, event management, sponsorship, marketing (ATL and BTL), digital, social media and content development.

Ilona Marchetta is one of the few Sustainability Practitioners in Australia to hold certifications with both the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (SASB, TCFD, ISSB).

Ilona is also an internationally certified Change Manager and she has more than 20 years’ experience in communications spanning journalism, public relations and marketing, including influencer marketing and social media. Ilona has supported or led the delivery of transformation projects across finance and government, for organisations ranging from 500 to 60,000 employees, with on and offshore teams.

Ilona has considerable experience developing communication and engagement strategies for challenging subjects and in heavily regulated environments, having held senior positions at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and Westpac as part of the core team delivering reform following the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.

Ilona is completing further studies in Sustainability and Climate Policy via Curtin University.

Specialties: ESG, materiality assessment, sustainability strategy, plain-English writing, corporate communications, change management, engagement, training, media relations, copywriting, social media.

George has over 30 years’ financial markets experience across equities research, portfolio management, and equity capital markets, within the institutional stockbroking and funds management industries. George started his career as an equity analyst at James Capel Australia.

He later moved to Westpac Investment Management (now Pendal) where he was appointed Deputy Head of the Australian Equities team and a portfolio manager responsible for $2.5bn in Australian listed equities. George later moved to LINWAR Securities, a small  cap focused stockbroker (acquired by ANZ), where he was appointed Head of Equities Research.

More recently, George has assisted listed small cap companies to raise growth capital through his equity capital markets capabilities at both Petra Capital and Shaw & Partners (Director Corporate Finance).

Phillipa (Pip) Thorn has over 20 years’ experience in marketing, communications. brand management, and more recently, investor relations, having worked across the healthcare, legal and design industries, globally.

Pip’s passion is to help clients commercialise their products and services while communicating a compelling story, to enhance their brand. She thrives on managing multiple projects, focused on bringing products or campaigns to market. This includes the development and implementation of marketing and communication strategies, stakeholder engagement, event, website and social media management, utilising her extensive experience across the regulatory and IP landscape.

Most recently Pip was working for an ASX listed healthcare manufacturer, launching products to market across North America and Australia. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the change to a telehealth business model and Pip managed the distillation and simplification of messaging to achieve this.

She also assisted with investor communications and engagement activities, including webinars, announcements, web content, presentations and statutory reports, along with IP and trade mark requirements. Pip prides herself on her exceptional attention to detail and believes that an open, honest approach mixed with integrity, compassion and a sense of humour are the foundation for great working relationships.

Evelyn has nine years of experience working in public relations in Australia, specialising in B2B external communications and media relations. Evelyn’s expertise is focused on the financial services and enterprise technology sectors, helping companies build consistent media profiles that support their reputational and commercial growth.

Prior to joining IR Department, Evelyn held an Account Director position at the global advertising agency Dentsu Creative, leading corporate and financial services PR accounts including Cuscal, Equifax and Corpay. A native Mandarin speaker, Evelyn is a bilingual communicator with extensive experience coordinating media campaigns across multiple geographical and cultural markets. During her time working at Beijing-headquartered conference GMIC, Evelyn crafted local media campaigns in Australia with stakeholders at various venture funds based in China, the US and Europe.

Evelyn holds a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) degree from the University of Sydney.

Specialties include: media relations, corporate communications, digital, social media and content development.

Anna has 5 years of financial services experience, having built experience at Deloitte within the tax/accounting and M&A Valuation teams, as well working in the equity capital markets space at Wilsons Stockbroking. She also has investor relations experience, driving investor communications and engagement activities.

Anna is passionate about developing robust strategies and frameworks to help companies grow, managing investor relationships and providing insights on market activity. Anna also holds a CA accreditation.

Specialties include: financial markets, M&A and corporate transactions, corporate communications and marketing.

Qiran has more than five years’ experience in the marketing sphere, spanning industries such as tech, finance, industrial relations and corporate advocacy. Currently working as the Digital Content Producer at IR Department, Qiran creates digital campaigns that help support client communications and investor relations strategies.

Prior to this, Qiran played a key role in the marketing team at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and the Committee for Melbourne, where he managed a database of 55,000+ members within Salesforce Marketing Cloud and the strategic development of eDMs across multiple business areas, including Events, Global Trade, Policy, and Industrial Relations.

Specialities include: video editing, social media strategies, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, CRM management, eDM campaigns, website development, customer journey mapping and automations.