Sally Ferguson has taken over as global head of IR at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). She replaces David Mawdsley, GSK’s head of IR since 2007, who has been promoted to the role of vice president of global media relations.
Ferguson and Mawdsley will continue to work together in their new roles. ‘The IR and media teams work very closely together to develop GSK’s external communications, and both David and I also sit on the global communications leadership team,’ explains Ferguson.
Ferguson brings to the role almost ten years in the company, four of which were spent working within the IR department.
Prior to her move to the IR team in 2006, Ferguson worked in GSK’s global product strategy department as a business and commercial analyst.
Ferguson says she was attracted to IR because it offers the chance to get an overview of the company strategically and operationally, as well as the opportunity to work closely with senior management, gaining insight into how and why decisions are made.
‘I think there are very few roles in big companies that offer this kind of opportunity and I have learnt a huge amount about the company, as well as about the external world’s view of the company, since joining the team,’ states Ferguson.
In her new role she will report to Phil Thomson, who started as senior vice president of communications this August.
Ferguson says there are some key areas on which GSK’s IR team are focusing at the moment. ‘I am looking at whether there are some investor groups that we could focus on more, such as institutions outside the US and Europe and smaller investors in our core markets,’ she explains.
‘Also, I’m looking at how we can bring a better understanding of shareholders’ perspectives to GSK employees, as we find there is a huge amount of interest from across the employee base in how the company is perceived externally, and why the share price behaves as it does.’
