IR Magazine is proud to introduce its new editorial board. It is made up of 12 seasoned investor relations professionals from across the world, each working at companies in different sectors and of varying cap sizes, but with one thing in common: a passion for pursuing excellence in the profession.
Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing you to each of our board members, who will be working alongside IR Magazine to advise our editorial team about emerging trends, themes and issues facing the profession around the world. You may also hear from them on the IR Voice podcast or on our videos and you might read their words in our weekly Editor’s Picks newsletter.
This week, we hear from Lynn Antipas Tyson, executive director of IR at Ford, who brought her experience at PepsiCo and Dell Technologies when she joined the iconic Michigan motor company in 2017. She has shared her wisdom across topics including what she would look for in a successor to lead IR, the need to ‘speak truth to power’ in investor relations and much more.
How would you sum up your approach to IR in three words?
Strategic counsel – value creation. That’s four but IR should be prepared to take risks!
Can you tell us about someone who has been influential or inspirational to your career?
Michael Dell, chair and CEO of Dell Technologies. I led both IR and global communications under his leadership and he was a CEO who epitomized putting his ego into the performance of the business – on behalf of customers – versus daily stock price moves [with the idea that by] providing differentiated value to customers, differentiated value creation would follow.
There was tremendous headroom for investor relations to have an impact, including being part of a highly strategic, integrated communications process/platform that straddled all stakeholders – [with the] ensuing focus on consistency and high impact, on what mattered and drove the business.
What’s the one piece of advice you always share with people joining IR?
You are a senior executive first and an IRO second.
Read more Q&As with members of the IR Magazine editorial board here.
