Six months into your new position, has the job lived up to your expectations?
It has been an exciting six months at Iron Mountain and the job has far exceeded my expectations. I continue to be impressed by the strong company culture and how fellow employees embrace the core values of the organization.
Initially, I was worried about the transition from a smaller and more narrowly focused company to a large-cap global firm with more complexity and multiple product sets. But while Iron Mountain’s reach is expansive, with a presence in approximately 50 countries across six continents, it really feels like a family, and that has helped me settle in well.
At first – and given my experience at CoreSite – I was attracted to the position based on Iron Mountain’s recent growth in the data center space following a number of targeted acquisitions. I have been able to leverage a lot of existing relationships in the investment community, and I have had the opportunity to build relationships with a new set of analysts and investors.
Additionally, the challenge of getting up to speed on the core records and information management industry was very appealing to me, and that has proven to be very rewarding.
What does your typical day look like?
Over the years, I have learned that a typical day doesn’t really exist in investor relations. Often, the day is dictated by what is going on in your peer group or related industry news, as well as internal events that arise. That’s what keeps it interesting!
That said, investor outreach and interaction take up a good portion of my day, both when I’m in the office and when I’m on the road for non-deal roadshows and sell-side/industry conferences.
Iron Mountain has a very active investor relations program, which is great in terms of building relationships and being new in a role. Outside of investor engagement, earnings preparation takes up a big chunk of time, along with continually working to ensure our message is resonating externally with investor-facing materials, including our IR presentations, the proxy and the annual report.
What elements of your career background do you think have helped you most in this job so far?
I began my career with eight years on the sell side, which I believe has been very beneficial in a number of ways, particularly as it relates to the analytical aspects of the IR function. Plus my more than 12 years of progressive IR experience across different industries and sizes of organization has helped me navigate the transition well.
What has been the biggest challenge in the role so far? And what has been your highlight?
As I expected, the biggest challenge when joining a new organization and learning a new industry is educating yourself on the company, its peers, and industry trends and dynamics. Above and beyond that, the crucial thing is understanding where in the organization you need to go to find data and for access to critical information.
The highlight so far has been the amazing support of the senior management team in empowering me to take a fresh look at our messaging and IR materials to see where we can streamline and simplify in order to elevate the message.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of IR Magazine
