Intro to an IRO: 2021 Insights

Given the ongoing pandemic, serving as an Investor Relations Officer in 2021 required expertise in multiple areas – shareholder relations, strategy, finance, sustainability, communications, capital markets, ESG and competitive intelligence. Nasdaq’s Intro to an IRO series highlights the IROs who perform this beyond the traditional role and have adapted to the fluid IR space this year.

The IROs

Bill Choi is a Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance at Zscaler, an American cloud-based information security company with customers in 185 countries.

Tina Madon is a Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Focus Financial Partners, a wealth management firm with over $1.3 billion in revenue in 2020. 

Trent Kruse is a Senior Vice President of Investor Relations & Treasury at RiteAid, an American drug store that has risen to one of the largest niche retailers in the country.

Jen Robinson is a Vice President of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, a small biotechnology company that works kinase inhibitor treatments for various cancer diseases.

Adapting to an Evolving Covid World

As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic amid the rise of two variants, investor relations teams have had to constantly reevaluate their strategy. For some organizations, operations had to rapidly shift as business accelerated, even as most employees continued to work from home.  

“Covid has been a significant topic in every investor interaction over the past year. The impact on our strategy has really been more of a reminder that a good Investor Relations team can anticipate key questions and concerns and be prepared to respond in a thoughtful manner,” Kruse said. “We have absolutely dealt with questions around supply chain, labor shortages and general business impact as it relates to COVID. We, as a pharmacy, have also been administering COVID vaccines and testing, which has driven a lot of questions from investors and analysts as well.”

Due to travel restrictions during the pandemic, Focus Financial Partners had to adjust its approach to targeting and investor engagement since the investor relations team wasn’t able to build its targeting by traveling to specific cities.

“We significantly increased our visibility and outreach to the investment community during the pandemic and were highly proactive in our approach. We did this through a combination of investor conference participation, non-deal roadshows and company-specific calls and events,” said Madon. “I anticipate that investor engagement – for us and others – will remain a hybrid of remote and in-person conversations because of the efficiencies gained.”

Similarly, Deciphera Pharmaceuticals leaned into a hybrid approach for its investor engagement.

“It has certainly been an interesting and unusual time. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were more virtual group events. As time went on, there was greater demand for virtual one-on-one meetings. Our team had to think of more individualized, customized approaches to help investors and potential investors,” Robinson said.

For Zscaler, its experience with the cloud proved to be critical as business accelerated.

“We enabled our customers to work securely from home, literally overnight, as quarantine orders went into effect around the globe,” said Choi. “As a cloud-delivered service, we were able to handle a 10x increase in usage of one of our core services. We’ve been able to continue to add significant capacity to our cloud.”

Insights for the Next Generation of IR Leaders

Considering how investor relations role has evolved amid the pandemic, our featured IROs urged the next generation to not only engage with stakeholders and build relationships but also have a strong understanding of the capital markets.

“Investor relations has the word relations in it for a reason. Building and maintaining positive relationships is so critical. Ultimately, you are the conduit from Wall Street to management and vice-versa...building great relationships will allow you to serve that role and be a great advocate for the company you’re representing,” Kruse said. “A few great ways to foster these relationships are by being responsive, knowledgeable and well informed on all aspects of your business. An IRO has to have a deep knowledge and understanding of the entire business to truly deliver value in your investor interactions.”

Kruse also urged investor relations teams not to forget about their internal audience.

“Make sure you are taking the time to educate and inform the associates across your organization. Associates are critical stakeholders, and keeping them up to speed on how the market is viewing the company is of tremendous value,” Kruse added.

Beyond building both internal and external relationships, Madon urged the next generation of IROs to have “a strong corporate finance background and a solid understanding of the capital markets.”

“Investors have an ever-increasing number of choices on where to invest their capital, and equity research resources are stretched more thinly than ever, so the IRO has to play a more active role in explaining the fundamentals and differentiating business characteristics of the companies they work for,” Madon noted.

Deciphera’s Robinson echoed that sentiment, encouraging investor relations teams to be curious about their company and companies in and outside of their company’s industry.

“As an IRO, you can wear many hats, and it’s useful to know different areas of your company. Everyone is a resource! Using all your resources can really help tell a unique, distinct story that can highlight value for investors,” Robinson said. “In addition, looking at other companies can help evolve your practices and provide helpful ideas for telling your own story.”

Benefits of Nasdaq IR Intelligence

For Zscaler’s Choi, Nasdaq IR Intelligence has become a one-stop shop for many of the tools his team uses to run their program daily, including IR Insight for events, personalized emailing, shareholder analysis and ConnectIR for scheduling meetings.

“I have also been using Nasdaq’s targeting service, which allows us to dig into fund-level detail within large buy-side firms and to get insights into who is actually buying and selling. I see tremendous potential to use the service to build the right investor base,” Choi noted. “What’s been great about Nasdaq is that we get a dedicated team that is extremely responsive to our requests and suggestions.”

Similarly, Robinson noted that “as we continue to do more one-on-one investor interactions, it’s been extremely useful to have IR Intelligence provide us specific information on investors as well as analysis on comparative companies so we can better tailor our interactions.”

Meanwhile, at RiteAid, Kruse’s team utilizes equity surveillance at Nasdaq.

“I am continuously impressed with the value of the team’s insights and the proactive nature of their outreach. This partnership enables me to ensure I am well informed on what is driving our shares at any particular moment and develop strategies to work to enhance market perception,” Kruse said.

For Madon, the analytical capabilities of the IR Intelligence tools are a differentiator.

“The interfaces are easy to use, and the flexibility to quickly screen and pull information in a customized format is very helpful,” Madon said. “However, what has been most valuable for me is the team of people at Nasdaq that support me. They are highly knowledgeable, and the team has been consistent throughout my time at Focus. They are thoughtful and proactive, and they have been true partners to me.”

Learn more about Nasdaq IR Intelligence services.

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