Ingrid Goldberg is the Director of Investor Relations at Abiomed, based in Danvers, Massachusetts. Ingrid has been with Abiomed for three years. Prior to joining the company, Ingrid was a Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, NY. During her 9 year tenure at the bank, Ingrid held positions in the Capital Markets and on both the Convertible Bond Sales and Trading teams. Ingrid holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
What do you see as your top priorities and biggest challenges?
As Director of IR, my top priorities are to target investors, facilitate meetings and then educate. Once the meeting is set, my ultimate goal and the way that I want to be perceived by my audience is as an approachable and valuable source of information. These days I feel as though many investors cover a wide array of not only stocks, but often sectors. This means analysts are likely to have different backgrounds - they can be generalists or they can be long-time sector specialists. I take on the responsibility of understanding their needs to make sure that I am both transparent and encourage comfortable dialogue. I want to break down topics so that investors of all backgrounds and time constraints can understand our key messages. For me, it’s all about informing so that investors can make timely decisions.
As far as challenges, it’s getting in front of the right investors at each fund given each company's story and stage. Institutional investors can have multiple columns of investment pods as defined by investment strategy, which means many portfolio managers or analysts may be interested in a story at any given time. This can make it challenging for the IRO to reach the appropriate individuals. As a solution, I often leverage the relationships of the sell-side and speak to both publishing research analysts as well as the salespeople and corporate access groups. I also do some extensive fund targeting, similar to what a bank would do prior to an IPO or equity offering. The trick here is nailing down the correct comps so that the information is relevant.
How long have you been in your role and how have you seen the role evolve in the past couple of years?
I have been in my role for nearly three years. It is a bit difficult to generalize how the role of an IRO has changed, but at our company, my role has evolved with our growth into a larger cap company. Growth naturally leads to new investor groups and so I work to understand and prepare for the ever-changing expectations and decision making mechanisms of potential new investors. As we continue to grow, it is important for our CEO and CFO to focus as much as possible on running our business. This means that now more than ever, I must step-up to know our strategy inside and out and become a company expert.
How do you feel that the IRO role can best engage the investment community?
If I had to choose two things, I think an IRO needs to be responsive and proactive. With each opportunity I think through, A) What an investor needs, and B) How I can make their lives easier when providing the information. For responsiveness – it is important to remember that the street moves incredibly quickly, so a long lag in feedback is not optimal. For proactivity – this requires client outreach. As one example, I send clinical and/or recap emails a couple of times per quarter, limiting content to key information. I do not want to bombard investors’ inboxes so I aim to keep the information clear and concise. Additionally, I ask a lot of questions myself and solicit feedback - what would you like to see? What do you think could be clearer with our story? Again, this is part of being proactive. Successful engagement comes down to the relationship and this requires that we understand the opinions, requests, and sometimes the gaps for the investment community and also the role we, the IRO, play in effectively disseminating the material.
What is one important initiative that you’ve championed or experience that you’ve had as an IRO?
Some of most meaningful programs and initiatives that I have organized are Company-hosted investor events. Alongside our many conferences, non-deal roadshows and company bus tours, during my tenure I have organized a large Investor Day and smaller Investor Breakfasts. These events can be highly effective, because they serve as a great opportunity to "let investors in." At these events I aim for other members of the management team to present for the majority the session, which lets investors see the strength of the entire team and also feel our company’s culture for themselves.
When you think about culture, can you talk about something that culturally sets Abiomed apart from other companies in the space?
Absolutely. I’m very fortunate that I work for a healthcare company like Abiomed where our entire mission revolves around putting patients first. Our mantra of “Patients First” is something to which every person at the company, regardless of their role, feels extremely connected. Our patient stories are just exceptional. We treat a wide range of patients from those in their 80’s, to their 60’s, to a first-time heart attack, to a new mother with post-partum or peri-partum heart failure, to a child with a virus. We know our patients’ stories and outcomes. What’s incredibly special about our culture is the fact that we are reminded every day why we are here and why we work so hard at what we do. Our management team does an exceptional job of enabling us to personally meet the patients and families whose lives we have touched, and I think that shines through when speaking with investors. Whenever possible, work for a company where you feel passionate about the mission, because it will only encourage you to become more curious and therefore knowledgeable about your business.
What resources do you rely on to stay up to date on the capital markets?
I focus on the highest value resources. I leverage the Nasdaq platform for fund information and have just started using the new Nasdaq targeting platform, which I like very much! I use FactSet for my day-to-day trading information and research and there is a smaller company called Virtua that helps me with consensus estimates and peer comparisons. I also speak with our sell-side research relationships quite often and in some cases connect with a sell-side sales person and/or trader or specialist committed to our sector. I find that the sell-side can be extremely valuable for both market color as well as when thinking through investor targeting. For instance, both the research analyst and the sector trader have incredible expertise and a holistic view of the space. Additionally, when targeting a specific fund, the sales people are those that usually have the valuable relationships and often the day-to-day interaction. When thinking about the sources that I use each day or week, it’s really about getting into the news flow, focusing on the highest value, and maximizing your resources.
What advice would you have for the next generation of an IRO?
Be responsive, be approachable, and know your business. All of the above builds credibility and trust. Without credibility and the ability to go deep on all facets of your business, the above dos and don'ts simply won't matter.
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