Six-month review
Laurie Thomas is an experienced IR professional in the uranium sector, having spent 12 years at Cameco Corporation and two years at UEX. She joined Standard Uranium in October 2020.
When did you start and how did you get the role? I knew Standard Uranium before starting the role. I’ve known Jon [Bey, Standard Uranium’s president, CEO and chair] for a long time – we went through the inaugural CPIR program [CIRI’s executive education course, in partnership with the Ivey School of Business] together. When he was starting up Standard Uranium, he approached me and said he knew I’d been in the uranium market and that he’d love to talk to me.
I came in for a couple of visits, but at that point the company, which was launched in November 2017, was still private. It went public last May. In October, Jon reached out to me to say he needed an IR person. I’d just left a role, so I joined Standard Uranium in November. Since then I’ve been absolutely drinking from the fire hose!
Has the job lived up to your expectations so far? It has been great. I was in a more junior role at Cameco for 12 years, so it’s different to be in this position. But there’s no team: I’m it!
I’m happy to be back in the uranium space because it’s an exciting time. I took my time deciding whether this role was right for me but, ultimately, Jon has an excellent technical team and that was appealing.
We normally ask interviewees for this column what their typical day looks like, but starting a new job during Covid-19 must be quite unusual. What have you been working on since joining Standard Uranium? I start each day with a to-do list and if I tick even a couple of items off that list, I’m pleased. Largely since I started it’s been working on getting processes in place, so I’ve been working with Jon to establish contracts with vendors.
We want to pick up marketing in the US, so we listed on OTC Markets at the beginning of January this year and participated in the NobleCon Conference in January. Three large uranium funds own our shares, so we’ve been reaching out to them. We’re also ramping up our marketing efforts, but it’s obviously all virtual at the moment, which is different.
What’s been your biggest highlight in the job so far? Jon and I were recently talking about highlights for him in 2020. Last year a lot of companies couldn’t raise money, whereas Standard Uranium had the IPO in May and two capital-raises later in the year. The company also ran a successful inaugural drill. All of that really impressed me.
What’s helped most in the role so far? Probably my connections with CIRI and IR Magazine. I attended the CIRI virtual conference last year and that was helpful. I also started really just reaching out to people I know.
There are times when I don’t know which vendor to go for or I’m working with a limited budget, and I’ve been able to reach out to a lot of people and ask what tools they use.
I’ve also been in touch with many of my contacts in corporate access. I have a lot of connections in the uranium space, and it’s quite a small community. Not everyone will want to talk to us yet, but they understand uranium and I’ve been fortunate to use those relationships – and we hope they’ll cover us in the future. The more they can understand our story and I can get it out there, the better.
Laurie Thomas, Standard Uranium
