IR Magazine has a long history of honoring those men, women and companies around the world that excel at investor relations. In celebration of 30 years of IR Magazine, we selected 30 IR stars that have shone particularly brightly over the past three decades and will be posting one profile each day for 30 days, giving you the gift of an IR advent calendar.
As IR Magazine celebrates 30 years as the global voice of IR, Richard Jones, who heads up IR at Indorama Ventures, is marking the 20th year of his IR career. So what advice does he offer from his two decades in investor relations? ‘Simplicity is the IR key to success,’ he says. ‘My advice is always to lower the cost of thinking: try to make explanations simple and avoid jargon if possible – or at least explain what you mean.’
Jones is not only an IR expert in his own right – most recently serving as a judge for IR Magazine’s South East Asia Awards – but he also actively seeks to improve both Thai IR and investor relations across the region.
In a 2016 guest article for IR Magazine, Jones wrote that many small and mid-cap Thai firms still failed to see the need for an IR officer at all. ‘IR means different things to different people,’ he wrote at the time, and ‘the common denominator is that IR is often seen as a cost center or part of a PR strategy.’
After highlighting a number of issues with Thai IR in his 2016 article, fast forward to 2018 and Jones’ Thai IR peers are among the most-nominated at this year’s South East Asia Awards in Singapore on December 4.
So what other seeds of wisdom does Jones have to share from his 20 years in the profession? In a somewhat Oracle-like style he concludes: ‘Provide not only what an investor asks for but also what it didn’t know it should ask for, in order for it to learn what it needs to know.’
Stay tuned for more IR stars this week and pick up a copy of the winter issue of IR Magazine to see the full list.
A version of this article was published in the winter 2018 issue of IR Magazine – the 30th anniversary issue of the industry’s premier publication.
Garnet Roach
An award-winning journalist, Garnet Roach joined IR Magazine in October 2012, working on both the editorial and research sides of the publication. Prior to entering the world of investor relations, her freelance career covered a broad range of...
