Part of a new series of articles profiling the world’s top-ranking IR teams
Global Top 50 winner: best IR by senior management
Global Top 50 rank: 8
US Top 100 rank in 2015: 4
IR Magazine Awards won in 2015: 2
IR team size: 2
Randy Burkhalter, veteran head of IR at Enterprise Products Partners, assesses how well his IR team has done based on the feedback he receives from the investment community. ‘After doing IR for more than 20 years, including 13 with Enterprise, I measure my success based primarily on feedback from investors, analysts and management – as well as compensation,’ he says.
And what does he think the investor community appreciates about his approach to IR? ‘Our objectives have always been to be transparent to investors, as responsive as possible – always returning calls within 24 hours – and knowledgeable about company commercial operations, industry initiatives and peer announcements,’ he said when talking to IR Magazine for the Investor Perception Study – US 2015.
Enterprise’s two-strong IR team is also very active. In January 2015 alone, Burkhalter attended three investor conferences, involving 150 investor one-on-ones. Most of these meetings and conferences were hosted by Burkhalter and then-CFO Randy Fowler, though now-retired CEO Michael Creel attended five or six conferences and the senior vice president of fundamentals and strategy, Tony Chovanec, also participated.
At the US energy firm, it’s not just the IR team that performed well in 2015: the NYSE-listed company’s senior management won not once but twice at IR Magazine Awards events over the year. At the start of 2015, Creel took home the award for best IR by a CEO at the US Awards, followed by another nod for the company’s senior management with the gong for best IR by senior management at GIRF in November.
Last year saw much change among Enterprise’s top management, however. AJ Teague, Enterprise’s former chief operating officer, was named as Creel’s successor, while Fowler was promoted to the newly created position of chief administrative officer in April 2015, with Bryan Bulawa moving into the CFO role.
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...
