Five-time winner of best IRO award to be succeeded by Janet Drysdale
After a long and illustrious career as CN’s head of investor relations, Robert Noorigian will retire in December.
Hired by CEO Paul Tellier in 1996, Noorigian has guided CN to more than 25 honors at the IR Magazine Canada Awards. Noorigian himself has won best IR officer on five different occasions, most recently this year.
In a statement announcing the retirement, CN’s president and CEO Claude Mongeau pays tribute to Noorigian’s work over the last 16 years.
‘Bob has been a trusted partner and adviser to CN leaders since then and to me personally throughout my entire career at CN,’ says Mongeau, who became CEO in 2010 after 10 years as CFO. ‘He has provided CN with valuable guidance regarding our position in international equity markets and deftly managed CN’s relationship with investors.’
Noorigian joined CN soon after the company went public in 1995 on the NYSE. He benefited from an environment where IR was taken very seriously: former CEO Tellier once threatened to fire anyone who failed to run an investor query through Noorigian.
Since the IPO, CN has grown by 17 percent each year and in 2011 hit record annual revenues of C$9 bn ($9.1 bn). In an interview with IR Magazine earlier this year, Noorigian said he believes IR has evolved over the 20 years he has been involved in it from a rotational role to more of a career in itself – a point underlined by his own career path.
Prior to joining CN, Noorigian was director of IR at Southern Pacific Railway and also held various finance and economics roles at US corporations. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree, returning later that decade to earn a master’s in resource economics.
CN also announced that Janet Drysdale, currently director of economics and strategy at the railroad company, will succeed Noorigian as vice president of investor relations on December 1, 2012.
Drysdale, who also joined CN 16 years ago, has worked in a number of sales, marketing and financial planning roles across the company, as well as spending four years working alongside Noorigian in the IR department.
