My CIR Journey - Ailsa Renton
Tell us a little about your background – what were you doing before you moved into IR?
I’ve been in corporate communications for 10 years at Edelman and Hanover Communications respectively, dipping in and out of financial communications throughout. Hanover has always offered financial communications in some way or another, however in 2023 we saw more businesses consolidating their briefs and budgets so we found ourselves supporting clients with more and more IR and decided to formalise that offer. As we saw it, one of the steps to formalising our financial communications offer was by training the team with the CIR and the Chartered Financial Analyst qualifications as appropriate.
Why did you decide to study for the Certificate in IR?
It came down to confidence to be honest. As our offering and practise has grown, so has the level of support we’ve been able to offer our clients…and quite quickly you find yourself in a room of senior executives and lawyers debating the right course of action. While we had confidence in our experience and counsel, the CIR was able to offer us the very latest in industry discussion around likely regulation and disclosure rules, for example.
We deliberated over which certificates to sign up for and felt that the CIR was well-rounded, well-networked and offered an effective programme that covered all bases while being possible to study in only a couple of months.
How did you find the process of studying for the Certificate in IR?
I really enjoyed it, more than I’d expected to. It’s hard to justify studying when it detracts from your day-today activity, however the study guide and the recommended in-person training was very manageable in only a couple of months. It was a real plus being able to attend the in-person sessions for some of the ‘drier’ subject matter and for that I’m ever thankful. Now when I think of market conduct and formal reporting obligations, I’m reminded of the examples shared by the IR Society or by the in-house teams in the room, rather than a sea of acronyms that have the very real potential of merging into one very unhealthy and forgettable alphabet soup.
Has the knowledge gained from the CIR been useful in your day-to-day job?
As a business, we have advised on a number of transactions and financial communications strategies for FTSE firms and start-up businesses alike, so while the CIR wasn’t necessary to grow that practice, it offered us the confidence, the network and the latest developments on all things investor relations from MiFID II to ESG benchmarking. It’s meant I’ve strengthened relationships, found my areas of interest and developed those areas of interest into individual offers at Hanover. I no longer wash over the financial regulation updates in the press, but I’m interested in the discussion and am continually looking to upskill in those areas. I’ve since joined the IR Society as a member as it offers a useful breadth of training, events and webinars to keep up-to-speed on latest developments in IR.
What would you say to anyone who was thinking of studying for the Certificate in IR?
If you have an interest in IR or financial communications, go for it. While IR is only a small part of my job as a corporate communications specialist, the fact that you can study for the CIR quite quickly makes it worthwhile. It provides you with a well-rounded offer at whatever level you are in IR from which to either develop your IR interests or specialise. We had some really experienced IR professionals in the room and everyone learnt something … often IR is full of templates and ‘do this, it worked last time’ and the CIR is a useful exercise in thinking for yourself and developing your confidence.