"Grow your connections by being patient, kind, and engaging"

Issuer Direct Corporation is an industry-leading communications company focusing on the needs of public relations and investor relations professionals, under the direction of Brian Balbirnie, the company's founder, and CEO. The Company offers a comprehensive suite of communications products, they connect thousands of private and public organizations with the media and the investment community, ensuring their most important moments reach their audiences. Brian’s vison was to build a comprehensive communications and compliance platform where customers could one day create, distribute, and amplify their message, and brands – 17 years later, Issuer Direct serves over 6,000 customers globally.

Earlier in his career, Brian learned it was important to build a strong team around him, that could help both curate and execute, all while having have fun and balanced work life while doing it. Finding these A list contributors, allowed Brian to do what he does best and that is lead strategy, mentor the younger professionals, as well as build paths for team members that have a thirst to learn and progress in their careers.

From a work life balance perspective, Brian has always taken a very different approach to building relationships with his employee base, something he learned early in his career – people are not numbers and having professional connections with each and every employee is at his core, which drives him to push himself daily to get better, be better and do better. A common quality found in amazing leaders is to “do well by doing good”, and at Issuer Direct, because of its management, we live this.

Brian believes that while many leaders focus on the prize, focusing on the team that is there to help them win is what truly leads to the success of an organization. He believes these traits have also made him a respected, fair, and decisive leader.

For Brian, he has always thrived with in-person communication and built an incredible space for his people to work together, connect, and service customers with excellence. While the post pandemic period has changed the work paradigm, the Issuer Direct family has been given the ability to embrace an in-person environment as well as the trust to have flexibility in their schedules while maintaining the integrity of output believed to be an integral piece of the company’s success.

As a leader of a multi-million-dollar organization that Brian has built through tenacity, learning, failing, and hard work, he has never wavered on his commitment to both innovate and grow for himself, his team, and his organization. Through times of economic change, new competitors, and an ever-changing industry landscape, he has had to be nimble in his decision making and adjust the business goals and objectives accordingly to ensure the continued success and growth of Issuer Direct, all while staying the course on strategy of the goal. This has required tough business decisions at times, product adjustments & enhancements, acquisitions, all made by keeping a pulse on the industry and competitive landscape, while keeping customer needs always at the core of the business. By doing so, Issuer Direct has seen consistent growth year over year and become a powerhouse in both compliance and communications.

Brian has gained incredible respect from his team and customers by operating from a place of respect, and truly listening to the needs and concerns of all. Inclusion is a core value of both Brian and the organization and by ensuring that all thoughts, perspectives, and feedback is heard, he has created a culture of trust and loyalty. As the team has continued to grow and flourish, Brian has been hands on with new hires ensuring that they have the tools to succeed and grow within the organization. The possibilities continue to be limitless, and employees have clear career paths within the organization. Brian takes incredible pride in seeing his employees continue on with the company for numerous years and has seen the average tenure with the team grow every year.

As for innovation, we can expect to see continued new product enhancements as well as new product launches in both the short and long term. Issuer Direct has grown its product offerings over the years from the early beginnings of a compliance organization to addressing the needs of a pandemic world and launching a virtual event platform to serve the needs of Investor Relations professionals that had to act quickly and find new ways to communicate with shareholders and investors. The organization has now propelled itself to be one of the top newswires in the industry with both its current ACCESSWIRE brand and the acquisition of Newswire this past year.

In Brian’s humble words, his success is fueled by his leadership team's conviction and intuition. He has built a formidable management team that he collaborates on a daily basis to make strategic, and data driven decisions to continue to provide excellence for customers.

He believes the business can disrupt the market and continue win market share and be a dominate market leader for years for come. Over the past five years, they have grown clients and revenues by listening to customers, delivering what they need, and providing the best value in a $5 billion industry. While numerous top competitors have not innovated in years and have been purchased and sold numerous times, Issuer Direct’s innovative strategy is winning over the market.

Thankfully, the business has an amazing management team, employee base and industry leading products to drive value for its customers in the Public Relations and Investor Relations professionals across the globe.

Posted in CLF | Top 10 Inspiring CEOs of 2023Brian Balbirnie, Founder & CEO of  Issuer Direct Corporation Profile