15 questions with
1. How long have you been in IR? More than 20 years.
2. What did you do before IR? I started out as a political/business reporter for Hearst Newspapers before moving into the field of corporate communications and IR.
3. What are your qualifications? I built up a lot of on-the-job training as part of an investor relations practice at a communications agency and completed outside finance classes and IR certifications to round out my skillset.
4. How is your team set up? We are a core team of three with a fourth team member rotating in from the broader finance organization.
5. How many roadshows and investor conferences do you typically take part in each year? We do one or two roadshows per quarter and 10-12 conferences per year.
6. Do you ever hold investor days or capital markets days? That is certainly the goal, but we have not been able to hold an investor day either this year or last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
7. Do you use social media as part of your IR program? I am responsible for IR, communications and philanthropy at Zimmer Biomet, so my integrated team also oversees social media. We definitely look at how to use it as a strategic tool to reach our investor and analyst audiences.
8. Do you receive support from any external IR firms? Yes. It’s very helpful to have that outside perspective and broader cross-industry view.
9. What is the most popular question from analysts and investors right now? In the near term, it’s all about Covid-19 recovery. Long term, investors always want to really understand growth expectations and the key drivers that will get us there.
10. Is ESG a focal point for investors and, if so, which aspect is most scrutinized? Yes, increasingly so. We’ve had some really productive – and constructive – conversations about sustainability, environmental impact, product quality, diversity and social justice with our investors over the past year.
11. What’s been the biggest challenge of your IR career? I would say navigating the global pandemic and communicating its impact on our team, our business and the broader industry. The last 18 months have been unlike any other time in investor relations.
12. What’s your favorite thing about investor relations? The connection and engagement – with our corporate strategy, with our leaders running the day-to-day business and, ultimately, with the analysts and investors. We touch on all of that every day in IR. It’s challenging, but absolutely rewarding.
13. And your least favorite? I honestly don’t really have a least favorite – I guess that’s a good indication of how much I love my job!
14. What sort of things do you enjoy doing outside work? My favorites are those away from the phone and computer: spending time with my family, travel, skiing, running, cooking, reading.
15. If you could pass on one IR lesson, what would it be? There are a few, but all around the same theme that is so critical to IR: credibility. Be accurate. Be transparent. If you don’t know, it’s OK – even preferable – to say you don’t know.
Keri Mattox, Zimmer Biomet
