30 IR stars in 30 days: Mikkel Skougaard of MOL

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. 

A former IR professional, and former governance specialist at BlackRock, Mikkel Skougaard of MOL graced the cover of the spring 2017 issue of IR Magazine with his unique viewpoint on the growing convergence of IR and governance and also chaired a panel focusing on sustainable development goals at this year’s Global IR Forum. Now sustainable development senior expert at MOL, he says: ‘Having been on both sides of the table, I have seen investor engagement on ESG matters evolve substantially over the last few years. 

‘I always like to say that ESG engagement (and integration) has been gradually moving from the periphery to the core, and from passive to active. And it has moved from a mostly reactive ‘G’ engagement approach practiced around the time of the shareholder meeting, to a more proactive ESG engagement performed all year round, with an increasing emphasis on the first two letters.’

But there’s more to be done he stresses. ‘We are still far from reaching full ESG potential,’ says Skougaard. ‘Every day you hear how everyone is doing ESG engagement, but despite the significant progress, the reality is that most are merely preaching the merits of ESG engagement (and integration), yet very few practice it the way they should.’

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.