Fifteen questions with Kroton Educacional

Carlos Lazar is head of IR at Brazilian education provider Kroton Educacional, which won the grand prix for best overall IR by a large cap at the IR Magazine Awards – Brazil 2013. He also won an individual award for best IRO at a large-cap company.

1. How long have you been in IR? 
I have worked in IR for the last 14 years. I started at IR consulting firms in 2000 and then was part of the IR teams at telecoms company Vivo, utility Energias do Brasil and Banco Daycoval, before assuming the role of IRO at Kroton.

2. What did you do before joining the profession?
Almost my entire career has been based in IR, because as a professional I had only one experience before the IR consultancies – as an analyst for an insurance company.

3. What are your qualifications?
I have a degree in economics with a specialization in finance and business management.

4. How is your IR team set up?
Currently my team has four people (including me) with well-balanced skills. Everybody participates in the IR activities such as meetings, conferences and internal jobs.

5. Do you receive support from any external IR firms?
We use external firms for specific services only, such as webcasting and conference calling.

6. How many roadshows and investor conferences do you take part in each year?
The number of roadshows and investor conferences is increasing year after year. In 2014 we expect to participate in more than 12 events.

7. Do you hold investor days or analyst days?
Yes, we hold one investor day per year called Kroton Day. In 2013 more than 200 people participated in this event.

8. Do you use social media as part of your IR program?
Not at this time. We tried an experiment last year with Twitter, but we preferred to reorganize this strategy and we expect to develop new solutions in 2014.

9. What is the most popular question from investors and analysts right now?
Most of the questions relate to our merger with Anhanguera. Another popular subject is the student intake process that we conduct twice a year.

10. What’s been your biggest challenge over the last year?
I believe there were two: to explain in detail the association agreement signed with Anhanguera, and to better manage the expectations of both buy-side and sell-side analysts.

11. What’s your favorite thing about doing IR?
It’s really great to meet people from different cultures and present Kroton’s competitive advantages and its successful strategy.

12. And your least favorite?
I guess any bureaucratic work is never very exciting to work on, but it is mandatory so we have to do it.

13. What do you enjoy doing outside work?
Family is the priority and considering that I travel a lot to participate in conferences in different parts of the world, I always try to enjoy as much time as possible with the people who await my return: my wife and two kids.

14. How do you feel the role of IR is changing?
I think social media will continue to be a challenge for IR teams; good use of it can be essential to better IR practice in the near future.

15. If you could pass on one IR lesson, what would it be?
Be available for your investors anytime and anywhere.