Head of IR
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Standard Chartered taps IR for new group CFO role
Standard Chartered has named Manus Costello as its new group CFO, having joined the Hong Kong-headquartered, global banking group in 2024. Based in London, Costello had joined the bank as global head of investor relations, bringing with him more than two decades of experience in equity research. He now joins the management team and the board as an executive director, subject to regulatory approval. ‘I am delighted that Manus has agreed to take on the role of group chief financial officer,’ says Bill Winters, group chief executive, announcing Costello’s new role at the firm. ‘Since joining Standard Chartered two years…
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The language of the Street and the lab: What the CFO of Roche looks for from his head of IR
IR alumni from Roche – the 130-year-old Swiss pharmaceutical – include Dr Karl Mahler, Thomas Kudsk Larsen, Nina Goworek and Dr Gerard Tobin. Dr Bruno Eschli, the company’s IR lead for more than four years, delivers an impressive mix of capital markets and science – including an immunology PhD in the lab of Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel and Hans Hengartner. Given this impressive list – and the many more high-IR achievers to come out of the Basel-headquartered firm, what does CFO Dr Alan Hippe look for from his head of IR? As Hippe explains in his profile for The CFO…
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People moves: Jeannie Ong joins Temasek and Tom Waldron moves to Springer Nature
Jeannie Ong, the multiple IR Impact Award winner and South East Asia Awards judging regular, has announced her new position at Temasek, which manages a Singaporean government fund with a portfolio worth S$434 bn ($339 bn). In her new role as operating partner, investor relations, Ong tells IR Impact that she ‘leads initiatives to build capabilities and drive alignment across Temasek’s portfolio companies in the area of investor relations.’ She adds: ‘Super excited to be doing what I love again to raise the bar for IR in Singapore!’ Ong brings more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications, media…
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Mothers of IR: From babies at conferences to the metaphorical ‘sticky floors’ beneath the glass ceiling
If you were at an investor event in May 2022 alongside alternative defense firm Axon, you might have spotted a rather unusual attendee: the softest of blonde hair, pacifier in place and no socks on their feet. This was Andrea James’ third child getting a fast-track induction to IR so that James could continue breastfeeding as she worked a high-profile, Street-facing job. Today, James is finance lead at Oncocyte. But she isn’t just a CFO, nor just an IR Impact Award-winning former head of IR either. On her CV she proudly lists the position of ‘co-founder at Family Inc’. Check…
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‘I under-appreciated the work that went into IR’: What it’s really like to move from the sell side to investor relations
When asked for an example of a time she really leaned into her skills honed on the sell side, Bonita To, director of investor relations at First Quantum Minerals, points to a unique situation: the shutting down of one of the firm’s mines by the Panamanian government in November 2023. ‘The balance sheet became quite distressed and it was very apparent that we would need to take some action in terms of addressing our liquidity constraints – including going to the capital markets,’ she recalls.
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Rather be canoeing the Mekong River than riding the corporate commute? Perhaps it’s time for an IR sabbatical
This time last year Andrea James was spending time with her young family, going to yoga twice a week and generally taking the slow approach to life. Today, she is CFO at Nasdaq-listed Oncocyte, a molecular diagnostics technology company. James explains that when she first decided to take a career break – at the time she was chief communications officer and IR head at alternative defense firm Axon – she didn’t know what she wanted to do next. ‘I needed to get out of the day-to-day of being at a rapid-growth company, in a highly visible role, to find that…
