The Alpha IR Group is a holistic investor relations consulting firm that provides strategic counsel and informs the decision-making of America’s leading public companies.
Alpha IR was founded in early 2012 and is rapidly becoming the country’s premiere independent IR consultancy. Our consultants have experience on Wall Street, in corporate America and at both large and small agencies. Our founder was the former co-founder of Ashton Partners, which grew from two to 60 consultants over its ten year history as an independent agency (1997-2007).
Our work is customized to fit each client’s internal support structure, strategic priorities, and overall IR needs. While much of our work is strategic in nature, we also have the ability to service the tactical and execution needs of the IR function. All of our deliverables are CEO/CFO/Board quality. Alpha IR brings big agency experience and combines it with small-agency, high-touch, senior level consultation.
Chris Hodges is the Founder & CEO of the Alpha IR Group and former Co-Founder of Ashton Partners. He has been a strategic IR consultant for nearly two decades and has counseled clients across all industries, and through various points of the business cycle, including multiple recessions and valuation peaks. While the majority of his experience has been focused on small- and mid-cap companies due to their inherent market inefficiencies, he has also delivered multiple strategic projects to large-cap concerns. Hodges has delivered over 400 perception studies, managed over 150 M&A engagements, and has completed over 90 IR Audits. He has also run 30 IPO engagements and counseled clients through 50 activist/and or proxy crises.
Michael Cummings is an Senior Managing Director & GM for Alpha IR Group’s Boston office. Cummings has extensive experience managing client relationships, developing messaging strategies, and conducting strategic investor outreach. Much of his investor relations work has involved crisis management, management transitions, and transaction communications. Prior to joining Alpha IR Group, Cummings was the Senior Vice President for FTI Consulting, where he established best practice communication programs for clients across various industries including Energy, Technology, and Healthcare. Previously, Mike spent over six years in mutual fund strategic development at John Hancock Advisors in Boston, where he was responsible for FP&A, and evaluating potential corporate and portfolio M&A activity. Cummings also served in financial planning and analysis and investor relations at The Hartford Financial Group.
Robert Winters is a Senior Managing Director and GM of Alpha IR Group's New York City office. Winters joins Alpha IR Group with extensive money management and Wall Street experience. Previously, Winters spent 13 years as a buy-side analyst and portfolio manager for Zesiger Capital Group, LLC, a New York City based investment advisor. Prior to joining Zesiger, Winters was a sell-side analyst for nine years (primarily with Bear, Stearns & Co.) and covered global natural resources industries, including metals and mining companies, metals distributors and recyclers, materials science companies and the wholesale energy sector.
Steve Calk brings more than 20 years of financial, investment banking, and investor relations experience to Alpha IR Group. Steve was previously a Managing Director at FTI Consulting, which he originally joined after serving as the head of Ashton Partners’ Boston office prior to Ashton’s sale to FTI Consulting in 2007. Steve has also worked as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Lehman Brothers, primarily in capital raising and mergers and acquisitions in the TMT and Energy sectors. He has also served as an investor relations and internal mergers and acquisitions officer with several publicly-traded technology companies, as well as Visiting Professor of Finance at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Sam Gibbons is an Assistant Vice President in Alpha IR Group’s Chicago office. Gibbons joined Alpha IR from FTI Consulting, where he served as a Consultant on the Capital Markets Communications team. Gibbons supported several cross-practice communications programs including, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism defenses, and crisis situations. Gibbons began his career as part of ICR's Industrials practice in 2010 and has spent the past five years providing strategic counsel, market intelligence and research insights to private and public company clients in both large- and small-agency settings.