It has been more than a year since British multinational consumer healthcare company Haleon demerged from pharmaceutical giant GSK.
Since then, Haleon has listed on the London Stock Exchange and established its own identity as a consumer brand, stepping out of GSK’s shadow.
IR Magazine sat down with Sonya Ghobrial, head of investor relations at the consumer health company, to discuss the process of creating an IR team from scratch as well as the challenges of Haleon becoming its own entity.
‘It’s been a journey,’ she says. ‘I think I would say don’t underestimate the transformation from being part of a bigger entity to suddenly being a stand-alone firm. The other big difference for us was that we came out of GSK, which was covered by pharmaceutical sector analysts, so moving to the consumer sector into household personal goods was an education.’
While acknowledging the challenges associated with setting up an IR team at Haleon, Ghobrial says it’s been very rewarding and an ‘amazing experience’.
‘I think the challenge has probably been around education and building things from scratch. But the strength has been the phenomenal team members: I am incredibly lucky to have them and we wouldn’t be where we are now without them,’ she adds.
The full interview is available to listen to on The Ticker podcast.
