Gunhild Grieve, RWE’s award-winning head of IR, has been appointed as the company’s new head of controlling & risk management.
Grieve takes up her new role after more than 11 years in the IR team at RWE. She joined in 2008 as a senior manager of IR and became head of the department in 2016, the same year the company spun off its renewables and power distribution subsidiary innogy.
A high-profile member of the IR community, Grieve has regularly spoken at industry events on topics ranging from M&A to corporate access and women in IR. Highlighting her forward-thinking approach, in 2016 she worked with Portugal’s EDP to set up a new conference for utilities companies.
One of the toughest challenges of her IR career was the repositioning of RWE after the innogy spin-off. The underlying business was poorly understood by investors, but Grieve and her team worked hard to define the equity story and get it out to the market. ‘The share price development speaks for itself,’ she told IR Magazine in 2018.
Over the years, RWE and Grieve have been recognized numerous times at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe. Last year, she and colleague Martin Vahlbrock came third in the category for best IR officer at a large cap, while RWE appeared in the short list for best IR in the utilities sector.
Grieve says she is sad to leave IR having enjoyed being a part of the profession tremendously. ‘Over the last 11 years I was able to accompany RWE in many exciting but sometimes also communicatively challenging situations,’ she says. ‘I was fortunate to have an excellent team behind me and a management that sees the strategic importance in the IR function.
‘I will miss the candid exchange with analysts and investors and the IR family, which was always at hand for open exchanges and feedback on new and specific IR topics. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the new role, which also involves work behind the scenes for our investors by ensuring our investments meet return expectations.’
As Grieve becomes head of controlling & risk management, the current holder of that position, Thomas Denny, is moving the other way to become head of IR. Denny has worked at RWE since 2003 in a variety of roles, including controlling and M&A.
In an internal company memo, Grieve says: ‘After 11 years of capital market communication, I wanted to develop further. In my new role, I am particularly attracted by the analytical and valuation nature of the tasks.’
Commenting on the change, Markus Krebber, CFO of RWE, says: ‘Gunhild Grieve and Thomas Denny have fostered great developments in their areas of responsibility during the last years and made a significant contribution to the set-up and positioning of the new RWE. I am convinced that both will also be successful in their new roles and I look forward to our further co-operation.’
