After the morning coffee break, Neil Stewart chatted with two panelists, Debbie Nathan and Vladimir Zaluhsky, on the subject of professional development. Clearly, IROs care about their future as much as any other professionals but it’s a field with huge variety, in terms of where people come from, what they need to know for their role, and where they move on to.
For her part, Nathan has been principal consultant of the IR and communications practice at London recruitment firm EMR since November 2014. Before that she acquired an accountancy qualification while working at Barclays as a financial analyst, spent two years as an IR analyst with Barclays, then moved to Close Brothers where she was the investor relations manager for five years.
Zaluhsky, head of IR at Severstal in Russia since 2010, has had a very different career path – so far, at least. It has included four years as communications director at a Scandinavian private equity firm in Moscow, three years as deputy head of communications at NYSE-listed Russian mining firm Mechel and two years at a Russian PR agency.
So do they think their backgrounds are typical for IROs, if there is such a thing? Nathan says her biggest surprise since moving into recruitment has been how much backgrounds have changed. ‘I didn’t set out to go into investor relations but there are lots of other people [like me] with accounting and financial qualifications,’ she says.
More recently, however, she says she’s seen far more backgrounds in capital markets – and in research and equity sales, in particular. Indeed, 50 percent of new candidates at EMR now have a capital markets background. Zaluhsky said the situation was the same in Russia and both attributed the change in large part to uncertainty in the banking sector and a ‘mass exodus from banks affecting supply and demand.’
Think tank delegates provided further examples of the varied career paths of IROs, as well as the different corporate approaches to staffing IR departments. One, who has been with his company for 12 years, has only recently moved into IR.
‘My predecessor followed a similar route and is now managing a separate business unit in the group,’ he explained. ‘The style [at my company] is to have some people who are in different roles spending time in IR, while also having people who are long-term IROs. I think it works well having people in IR with experience of other areas of the company.’
Changing sides
Another delegate moved from the sell side to IR 18 months ago, having covered the company that is now her employer. Her background was seen as an advantage in terms of understanding the firm’s needs and Stewart asked whether this had proved to be the case. ‘It’s definitely useful to know what analysts are looking for and what they want to talk about,’ she said. ‘And I understand the importance of keeping dialogue open with both the buy side and the sell side.’
What about when you want a new job, still in IR? One option for job seekers is LinkedIn, which Nathan says she uses ‘day in, day out’. It’s a useful tool not just for finding positions and people to fill them; it’s also a good way to identify people who might provide a reference for a candidate, before making an offer.
Another think tank delegate, an ex-banker turned IRO, has used LinkedIn for recruitment. ‘I certainly take it seriously,’ he said. ‘We’ve found it useful for recruiting for the team.’ But he also had a tip for anyone looking for a new job: ‘Have a third party look at your LinkedIn profile. It’s probably wise.’
