The finance chief's role was singled out in one category -- Best IR by a CFO -- for which the large-cap winner was William Wheeler of MetLife, with Werner Enterprises' John Steele taking the mid-cap honors, and Victoria Reich of United Stationers claiming the small-cap prize.

The CFO was deeply involved, of course, in work recognized in a host of other categories: not only Overall Best IR, but also Best Financial Reporting (winner, JPMorgan ), Earnings Calls (Covidien ), and Best M&A IR (Oracle.)

Through the evening, though, two things struck me about these awards:

* How winners were chosen. Not by a panel of editors, the technique employed most often in my business-magazine experience, but through a survey of 850 fund managers and research analysts that was conducted by the publication's research division. Not to put down business journalists (Who am I to do that, after all?) but going "outside" did seem to provide an extra element of legitimacy.

* The courage of the companies stepping up in the Crisis Management category. Yep, there were some of the big names from 2010's headlines: mining's Massey Energy and banking's BofA and JPMorgan again (the winner), along with Anadarko Pete. More power to you guys for having the IR chutzpah to dig into your crises, along with your handling of them, and put your work up for review in a fund-manager survey.