Laurie Clark, CEO of Onyen Corporation, says: “It all started with dinner and excellent wine.”
A conversation between two successful women in Canadian business led to the creation of Onyen – a powerful, affordable, and easy-to-use Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting software designed for the needs of junior and mid-sized resource companies.
Onyen Founder and CEO Laurie Clark, whose previous financial reporting and trading technology endeavors earned her a spot among Canada’s Top 100 Most Power Women in 2017 and 2019, learned how frustrating ESG reporting was when dining with Pelangio Exploration CEO Ingrid Hibbard – renowned for the sale of the Detour Lake gold deposit in Ontario.
The ESG disclosure conversation began a few months earlier when Ani Markova, CFA, met Clark and Hibbard at a director’s workshop. Markova explained asset managers, representing $100 trillion in assets under management (AUM), drove this imperative.
Hibbard challenged Clark to come up with a solution at the dinner. Clark says: “Ingrid dared me” – she said ‘…solve this problem as I don’t want to pay upwards of $100,000 for an ESG report”. And Hibbard went further, “If you build it, I’ll be a customer and investor.”
Clark not only investigated the morass that is ESG for resource companies, but asked Markova, Hibbard, and others to help bring the product to market. Clark also went to her partners at Canchek Corp. (which include past TMX/IIROC regulators and the founders of Dataphile Software Ltd. now known as Broadridge), and armed with a sound business plan, market intelligence, and successes from previous ventures, proved they were on the right side of history with this overdue technology solution for the resource sector. “We basically took a tax reporting system and combined it with a portfolio management system”, explains Clark.
Now in full operation, the companies using the Onyen ESG reporting system are pleased with the results of these smart women’s efforts. Dr. Mark Thorpe, SVP, Corporate Responsibility, INV Metals Inc, says “The industry is motivated to report, but it’s too complicated. With many other priorities, it’s put aside because it takes too long to pull everything together. Onyen gives us an easy way to gather and input the information, and assign the work to your teams. It really helps the mid- to small-cap companies to report straightforwardly; and, it benefits their stakeholders.” He added, “I really like that I’ve got everything in one spot and my team can fill out sections independently, with all the data rolling up to me on my dashboard. And by having the data available to rating agencies, it helps raise corporate ratings, so management and directors can focus on the business.”
Onyen’s success confirms women who focus their energies to solving problems directly benefit the bottom line. Now other women, like investor Vanessa Thomas are involved in the “Onyen movement”, as Hibbard calls it, “for the betterment of the industry as a whole and Planet Earth.”
Toasting the women behind Onyen
Onyen also salutes the men who champion this product and stand firmly behind the women who dare to change the world, one technology solution at a time.
Champions
ONYEN – at a glance:
ESG criteria is a critical way for investors to evaluate companies in which they want to invest.
ONYEN offers resource companies an innovative software solution to: efficiently complete their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting obligations; heighten their ESG profile; be included in institutional funding channels; and access alternative sources of capital.
HEAD OFFICE: First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West, Suite 5700, Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1C7
Communications Contact:
Laurie M Clark, CEO, Tel: +1 778 840 7104 Email: [email protected] Web: https://onyen.comLinkedIn Twitter
Media ContactCompany Name: Onyen CorporationContact Person: Laurie M ClarkEmail: Send EmailPhone: +1 (778) 840-7104Country: CanadaWebsite: https://www.onyen.com/#/home
