Matt Hall talks about his IR listening tour, how his background will shape his plans at the society and why he may have been driving a 30-ton digger in an alternate career
Having taken the society’s CEO reins from Laura Hayter in October last year, Matt Hall spent his first months in listening mode, keen to hear what the UK’s IR professionals need from the body that represents them, learning about the big issues that are changing investor relations and thinking about how he can shape a society that delivers ‘value and insight’ at every touchpoint.
Prior to taking on his new role, Hall held senior roles at various other representative membership organizations within financial and professional services, including UK Finance, the Chartered Insurance Institute and TheCityUK.
Here, he tells IR Impact about his goals for the Investor Relations Society.
Congratulations on your new role. What have your first months been like?
Joining the society has been a really interesting, positive experience. My background is not in investor relations: I’m not an IR practitioner. I come from the world of membership organizations. But one of the things our chair said to me was that IROs are a very friendly, very open bunch of people. I think it’s the nature of the profession, being at that intersection of communication, financial services and business.
What would you like Investor Relations Society members to know about you as a person?
I’d like to think I’m quite calm and measured in my approach. I don’t like to rush into things. I don’t like to make quick decisions – I like to make the right decisions.
When you lead a membership organization, you’re really a sort of steward or a custodian of that organization. It’s not up to me to decide what the society does. It’s up to me to turn the members’ wants and needs into solid action, advice, guidance and support.
Every time an IRO has any sort of contact or touch point with the society, I want that connection to be high-quality, to bring them value and insight.
How do you go about getting up to speed on a new profession?
I’m always a bit hesitant of the term ‘listening tour,’ because it sounds very grand and impressive. But I do think – and this is a principle that carries across most of life – that whenever you’re approaching something new, you need to listen and learn.
When you arrive in a new role, you’re full of ideas and energy, but you do have to moderate that a little bit and take the time to understand all the different points of view.
I want to look at how we partner with other organizations and stakeholders to really influence some of the big topics our members are grappling with
The more patient you can be in the early stages, the greater the rewards because you’re more likely to make the right decisions – and less likely to make the wrong decisions. So I didn’t really turn down a meeting in those first months: I found time to sit down with anyone who wanted to meet with me because I want to hear those opinions and absorb as much as possible.
What does phase two look like after the listening tour?
If you were to ask me very broadly what my priorities for the society are, I’d point to the fact that within all the different views and opinions, there’s one commonality – and that is how busy IROs are.
With that in mind, I want to make sure that the interactions people have with the society are really seamless, that people can access insight and guidance and support quickly and easily.
As part of that, I’m keen to look at how the society uses technology to facilitate a more modern, accessible membership experience.
Then, I’m looking at how the profession approaches some of the bigger macro issues that will come down the line in the years ahead. We’re already facing some of those big issues – things like London’s attractiveness as a listing environment, for example, or how AI is affecting company valuations as well as how practitioners are using this technology directly.
Those themes are far too big for any one organization to move the needle on. I want to look at how we partner with other organizations and stakeholders to really influence some of the big topics our members are grappling with.
What learnings from previous roles are you bringing to the Investor Relations Society?
I come from the world of membership organizations and trade bodies in financial services. And I’ve worked across very different areas. On the one hand, you have the chartered institutes, which are organizations very focused on professional development, on the raising of professional standards and best practice, on exams and qualification and training.
I’ve also worked for trade associations and representative bodies that promote, influence and advocate on behalf of specific positions of an industry and sector, working with governments, policymakers and regulators to affect change. Most recently, I came from UK Finance, which is a tremendously impactful trade association that deploys a robust evidence base. It has very clear positions to proactively influence policy makers and regulators and the key is being both enterprising and assertive in its approach.
I want the interactions people have with the society to be really seamless
It’s true that UK Finance is a much bigger organization than the Investor Relations Society, but there’s no reason that we can’t apply some of those principles and approaches to our work as well, which I do see happening already at the society.
I like to ask how people end up in IR. How did you end up in the world of membership associations?
I moved to London about 15 years or so ago, having grown up in Rutland in the Midlands. When I came to London, I worked for the Institute of Management Accountants and, candidly, I knew very little about membership organizations before I worked for one.
Something that immediately grabbed me was that you have this direct access into the industry: almost immediately I was meeting some of the most senior people in that sector and getting exposure to some of the big, chunky issues that industry deals with.
It gives you so much exposure to interesting things and interesting issues, with a real diversity of views. You’re not caught in one specific function or role and you get to see people from a very wide spectrum.
What about investor relations? When did you first encounter the profession?
I first became aware of investor relations as a function quite some time ago. I worked for the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and during that time, had quite a lot of exposure to investment banking and corporate brokers. So I would hear a lot about investor relations from those people – most of it positive!
Going back to what I said earlier about IR, it is really interesting to me how the profession sits at the intersection between numbers and words, between communications and finance and business.
That ability to communicate what can sometimes be quite a technical, dry subject matter and turn that into something engaging and exciting that grabs someone’s attention and persuades them to act in a certain way makes it such a fascinating role.
Finally, if you hadn’t gone into membership associations, what career might have appealed?
For my first job – a sort of summer job when I was very young – I was lucky enough to drive an enormous digger in a quarry. Huge tires that were bigger than me on a machine that probably weighed about 30 tons. If that had paid a little more, I would probably still be happily driving a digger around in a quarry. Maybe that’s what I’ll go back to one day when I’m ready to retire.
