Susanne Arheit, IR manager at Allianz, was on hand to pick up four awards for her company at the IR Magazine Europe Awards 2012, including the grand prix for best overall IR (large cap) and best IR officer (large cap) for Oliver Schmidt.
After the ceremony had finished, she answered a few questions from IR magazine.
Allianz’s Susanne Arheit accepts the grand prix for best overall IR (large cap) from Andy Kyzyk of OTCQX (right). Awards host Robert Bathurst stands on the left
What makes your IR program stand out?
First of all, we have a great head of investor relations with a great deal of experience ‒ more than 10 years now.
Secondly, the same applies to the team: most of our team members have been with investor relations for a very long time and we have had the chance to build very good relationships.
And last but not least, we regard HR as very important, so Oliver Schmidt has fantastic leadership skills and really manages to motivate the team very well.
Arheit gives a speech after receiving the grand prix
Oliver Schmidt has spent more than 10 years at Allianz. How important is experience and industry knowledge to IR?
Experience is particularly important if you have a very difficult, complex industry to explain to analysts and investors – and insurance is definitely one of those very complex areas.
The other thing is that it’s not only about talking about Allianz, but also talking about the industry [that’s important] and year on year we’ve developed a very good understanding of our competitors as well.
