Only 1/3rd of CEOs are responsible for Investor Relations?
A reader poll on who owns investor relations produced a surprising result: only a third of companies put it with the CEO. Why IR operations can be delegated but IR ownership cannot.
Ben Williamson
18 July 2024 · 7 min read
I recently asked readers of my newsletter a simple question: "who owns investor relations at your company?" More than 70 people responded, which gave us a great cross section of companies, sectors, sizes, and roles. With the results came two key takeaways that form the basis of this piece.
Who owns IR? And why isn't it the CEO?
Before I asked the question, my assumption was that "CEO/MD" would have taken up at least 70% of the votes, with boards and CFOs taking the balance.
My assumption was also that IR, whether internal or external, would be considered as a "doer" rather than an owner. Their combined representation of just over 20% of responses was therefore a surprise. In addition, the catch-all answer of "other" surprised me with a whopping 15% of votes.
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