IR STRATEGY As reported in the article, “Stature and Compensation on the


Rise for IROs” (IR Update, Fall 2022), the salaries of 43% of senior- level IROs are now in the $276,000-$350,000 range, up from 30% in 2019. Similarly, the salaries of 59% of Deputy IROs are now in the $176,000-$225,000 range, up from 41% in 2019. This data was gathered in the 2022 NIRI and Korn Ferry Investor


Relations Career Trends Survey Report, available to NIRI members. “Tese results reinforce the high value of the investor relations


profession and of top IR talent within corporate C-suites,” says Matthew Brusch, CAE, President and CEO of NIRI. Regarding IR budgets, the Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR) 14th


Annual Global IR Survey recently reported, “Following a period of declining budgets and for the first time since the launch of CDR’s IR survey in 2009, 36% of respondents reported an increase in IR budgets versus the previous year.” Te report noted that some of these additional funds are pay-


ing for travel to face-to-face meetings, continuing costs of virtual meetings, and overall inflationary cost increases. Both the NIRI-Korn Ferry survey and the CDR survey also


reported the additional responsibilities that many IROs now have. Each found that more than 60% of IROs also handle areas such


as corporate communications, ESG, competitive intelligence and strategy. “Investor and board focus on ESG has put a spotlight on the


investor relations function during the past few years,” notes Peter McDermott, Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry. “Tis has further cemented the importance of the role of IR for the modern execu- tive team.” “Tis reflects the increasingly integrated nature of corporate


communications and the need to consider multiple stakeholders when delivering updates to the market,” the CDR report noted. Other regulatory and market forces are also in play. Timothy Quast, President of ModernIR, believes, “We are once


again at an inflection point for the IR profession, shaped by yet another regulatory assault on our ecosystem coming from the SEC.” He recalls, “IR was born out of the rise of the buy side and


sell side, with stock pickers orbiting around a deep, diverse and vibrant banking and market-making ecosystem, supported by profitable trading. Today, most prices are set by ‘fast traders’ with no customers


parsing tenths of pennies and owning little or nothing at day’s end, and nine brokers (out of 4,000 overseen by FINRA) execute most institutional customer orders. Machines are gathering financial, consumer, logistics and supply-chain data to inform hedge-fund bets and global macro statistical arbitrage. Machines are executing trades. Machines run investment models. Te disconnect between


1 4 WI N T E R 2 0 2 3 ■ IR UPDAT E


the actions of IROs and the outcomes in the stock market has never been wider.”


Articulating Strategy and the Elevation of IR Amid often-volatile external forces, IROs and IR advisors talk about the increasingly strategic role of IR and how it is elevating the profession. “Over the last couple of years, we have seen a material increase


in the overall level of sophistication among IROs we work with,” says Ryall Stroud, Director of Capital Markets Strategy at Irwin. “In our view, this is due to the changing nature of the role, where IROs are now often required to articulate and guide company strategy and capital allocation decisions vs. communicate and report on information. We have seen IROs acting more as strategic advisors to management and the board, compared to the tactical contributor they may have been in the past.” Lisa Micali, Managing Director at Harbor Access, explains,


“Management along with IR and corporate communications need to reposition themselves for success in a world of slower growth, higher inflation, and more expensive capital. Tat’s a big shift for management who over the last two years has focused on fixing problems like rapidly rising costs for raw materials and labor. Now they need to build organizational resilience in response to change and leverage disruption if they can. Valuation is complex. Tere is no magic wand that can increase share price or market cap.” “I believe the importance of an investor relations department


has been cemented within organizations and on Wall Street,” says Victoria Hyde-Dunn, Vice President, Investor Relations at Infor- matica and a member of the NIRI San Francisco Chapter Board of Directors. “When the pandemic hit, we quickly pivoted from in-person investor meetings and conferences to virtual non-deal roadshows, earnings calls, annual shareholder meetings, investor days and so forth. Given our flexibility and agility, we continued to foster and nurture relationships with work colleagues, analysts and shareholders remotely and across time zones. We didn’t skip a beat managing everyone’s expectations as trusted advisors.” Adam Dahl, Vice President, Business Development at Corbin,


adds, “IROs are wearing many more hats these days (overseeing ESG efforts and corporate communications just to name a couple) and therefore need to understand all aspects of the business. Tey need to clearly communicate the risks and opportunities that have the potential to add or detract valuation within companies and the economy as a whole, and relay that additional information back to the stakeholders, the C-suite and Board of Directors.” “More than ever, IR should be measured by quality of com-


munications and relationships,” says Stephen Virostek, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, 2U, Inc. “Before an IRO can


ni ri .org/ irupdate


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40