Sharon Merrill Associates Founder and Chairman Emerita Sharon F. Merrill was honored today with the F. Gorham Brigham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award at the Boston Business Journal’s 12th Annual CFO of the Year Awards. The prestigious award is presented annually to a Bostonian who has created a meaningful legacy in the local finance profession. Sharon F. Merrill founded investor relations firm Sharon Merrill Associates in 1985 to support the region’s publicly held companies. Since then, the firm has grown to become a leader in the field of investor relations with an international client base of private and public companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises.

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Sharon F. Merrill, the F. Gorham Brigham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient (Photo: Business Wire)

Sharon F. Merrill, the F. Gorham Brigham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient (Photo: Business Wire)

During the course of her career, in addition to founding what remains the largest independent investor relations firm in Boston, Sharon F. Merrill devoted an enormous amount of her time to serving as a mentor and a leader in the Boston financial community. This extended far beyond her team at Sharon Merrill Associates to various financial and professional organizations throughout the city, including the Association for Corporate Growth, The Boston Club, The Commonwealth Institute, Financial Executives International (FEI), National Association of Corporate Directors, National Investor Relations Institute and The Treasurers' Club.

Maureen Wolff, Sharon Merrill Associates CEO, said, “Sharon’s deep and ongoing commitment to mentoring future generations of Boston’s financial leaders has had an indelible effect on Boston’s financial community. During Sharon’s acceptance speech, she said that the words “connection, collaboration and compassion” best describe F. Gorham Brigham Jr., the namesake of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and she noted how Gorham’s story is about how one person can truly make a difference. Sharon certainly has continued the legacy of her late friend and mentor.

“As Sharon dedicated tremendous time and talents to a number of Boston’s financial and professional organizations, she built an investor relations firm that has been instrumental in helping drive value creation at some of the city’s most successful companies. On behalf of all her friends and colleagues at Sharon Merrill Associates, we congratulate Sharon on this well-deserved and fitting honor,” concluded Wolff.

“Being honored with an award named after a man who meant so much to me and to all of us in Boston’s financial community is incredibly humbling,” said Sharon F. Merrill. “Gorham taught us all to make connections and cultivate relationships to build a stronger community, and I have tried to live his values each day of my career. The success and growth of Sharon Merrill Associates is also due to the strong relationships we built over the past 35 years in business. In that time, the firm has established a trusted reputation as investor relations thought leaders and has expanded its areas of expertise into complementary practices such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) communications, executive presentation coaching and private company IR.”

Sharon F. Merrill Biography

Sharon F. Merrill’s four-decade career has been marked by accomplishment and recognition in every facet of investor relations practice. She started Sharon Merrill Associates in 1985 after establishing and managing the investor relations function at Lotus Development Corporation. Prior to that, Sharon served as vice president and managed the investor relations practice at what was then New England’s largest full-service public relations agency. Earlier in her career, she was a securities analyst with The Boston Company, Inc. and held positions with State Street Research & Management Co. Sharon is the recipient of numerous national awards in investor relations and corporate communications and was twice named a finalist in the New England Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

Sharon holds an MBA from the Simmons College Graduate School of Management and an AS degree from Colby Sawyer College. She is a past president and director of the Boston Chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and a past member of the national steering committee of NIRI’s Senior IR Roundtable. Sharon is a past director of the Boston Chapter of Financial Executives International and the New England Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors. She also is a member of the Treasurers’ Club of Boston. Earlier in her career, she created a graduate level course, “Investor and Financial Communications,” one of the only courses of this type in the country at that time, at Simmons College in Boston.

About Sharon Merrill Associates

With an international reputation as a preeminent strategic IR advisory firm, Sharon Merrill partners with IROs and the C-Suite to drive value for both external and internal stakeholders. For more than 35 years, clients have relied on our senior-level counsel and communications expertise to guide them through every challenge – and meet every opportunity. Whether you need to improve your IR program, manage a crisis, develop an ESG program or simply crystallize your story, we deliver measurable results through crisp messaging, effective executive presentation development and training, and high investor engagement. We take a strategic approach to every situation as we leverage sophisticated stakeholder engagement and innovative digital media, social media and branding strategies to help you build enduring and value-creating relationships with the right audiences. Let’s get to work: www.InvestorRelations.com.