Paul Manley, senior vice president of IR at Nasdaq-listed Usio, a Texas-headquartered fintech offering payment solutions, took on the role in August 2022. He joined Usio from WRAP Technologies, a company focused on public safety tech, where he had led the IR program since May 2020. Before WRAP, he held institutional sales roles at firms including Ladenburg Thalmann, Northland Capital Markets, Stifel Nicolaus and Dougherty & Company.
Why did you choose a career in the IR industry?
Prior to my career in IR, I was on the sell side for more than 20 years. For a lot of people, whether you’re in sales, working in banking or research, this is a very common professional career path. The experience of working with public companies and the relationships I established on the sell side are huge assets for me as I work with USIO. I really enjoy working closely with my senior management to tell the USIO story, maintain current shareholder relationships and try to expand new ones!
What are the some of the things you want to achieve in your role at Usio?
Get the stock a lot higher, that’s the bottom line. We need to tell our story to the right investors and have those investors buy the stock and move it higher. I am also working to get more institutional investors to look at and eventually buy our stock.
We are still on the smaller side and that can be a hurdle for some but [we’re] not your typical small-cap company. We have real customers and revenue! And I’m working hard to expand our sell-side coverage from investment banks. As we continue to grow and execute, both of these things will happen.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Depending on what time of year it is, I’m always scheduling calls and trying to find new investors from my Rolodex that I’ve had for more than 20 years. I’m always talking with prospective investors – and current ones – to make sure they’re up to speed on our business.
I also work directly with my CEO to attend conferences, go on non-deal roadshows and host investors at our headquarters in San Antonio, as well as annual roadshows to meet investors.
We also busy right now, too, as we will be reporting our fourth quarter and year-end numbers in March. I work with my team on the press releases and the script for the call and also follow-up calls with our top shareholders.
What’s the best part of your job?
I would say working with members of my management team. They are all very smart people and, more importantly, good people who I really like. Furthermore, I enjoy talking with the sell side. These portfolio managers and analysts are very smart and challenge me each time I talk with them about USIO.
Finally, I love being a part of a growing company. The sell side was great but now I’m intimately involved with a company. To be a part and see the inner workings of a company is very exciting for me. I am very blessed to be a part of USIO and am very excited for our future.
