IR Magazine top 100 2013

US 2013
INVESTOR
Winning companies, winning IR strategies
PERCEPTION STUDY
Foreword
IR Magazine commissioned Mary Maude Research to carry out an investor
perception study among portfolio managers and analysts to identify the
companies that are currently the leading exponents of investor relations
in the US.
The study also questioned respondents on their views about the introduction
of say-on-pay voting and whether this had affected companies’ approach to
executive pay. It further asked for views on how cash-rich companies should
spend their reserves.
This report and the IR Magazine Awards are part of a continuing series of
studies and events organized by IR Magazine in Asia, Brazil, Canada and Europe.
We would like to thank all the members of the US investment community who
kindly gave their time to speak to us.
Katharine White
Katie McCorkindale
Sharon Duce
Kellie Batchelor
Mary Maude Research
London
January 2013

2 IR MAGAZINE INVESTOR PERCEPTION STUDY – US 2013
INTRODUCTION
There is no single definition of good investor relations. Among the
companies in this IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – US 2013,
including the 100 that analysts and investors ranked as the best
in the US, there are different sized IR teams, different goals and
different strategies. In fact, there are as many types of good IR
as there are companies, with investor relations programs tailored
to unique businesses, strategies, market caps, managements,
current and future shareholders and economic conditions. Getting
that fit right is no easy feat. The companies in the US Top 100
profiled in these pages have got it right.
That Covidien got it right and achieved the top position three
years in a row is remarkable. Its IR team, led by Cole Lannum,
is not – by a long shot – the largest, nor is Covidien, a medical
device maker, the best known, most widely covered or most widely
owned company in the survey. Like most other companies in the
Top 100, Covidien’s IR excels in responsiveness, transparency, access and company
and industry knowledge. So what is its secret ingredient? It may come down to
excellent customer service. Covidien has a level of attentiveness to its clients –
analysts and investors – that makes IR at many companies look like school lunch
compared with dinner at Le Bernardin.
Other companies are also to be praised for
consistently strong performance from year to year.
Danaher, Honeywell, Broadcom and Qualcomm
are in the top 10 for the second year in a row,
while Express Scripts, Wyndham Worldwide,
Limited Brands, Ryder System and Jack in
the Box have held steady in the Top 100.
Those that have gone from good to even better
deserve just as much – if not more – credit. FedEx
went from 30th place last year to seventh in 2013,
Cisco from 20th to ninth. Most impressive of all
are the companies that jumped even further in the
rankings. NextEra Energy comes in at number five
after not even appearing in the entire list of 324
ranked companies last year. Calpine and Walt
Disney, among others, appear in the Top 100 after
a steep climb from much lower down the 2012 list.
It’s exactly these kinds of examples we wanted
to track when we conceived of the Top 100 and
introduced it in last year’s investor perception
study. These IR programs are models of excellence
and consistent improvement whether or not they
win any awards. Last year we also restructured
this report and began featuring profiles of the Top
100 companies, including names of key executives,
comments from analysts and investors in the
Good IR = better performance
Neil Stewart on the who
and why of this year’s top
performers
GOING UP O
Top climbers in this year’s US Top 100
Rise Company
2013
rank
2012
rank
+268 Calpine 36 =304
+222
The Walt Disney
Company
=58 =280
+202 US Airways Group 85 =287
+200 LinkedIn =33 233
+193 Monsanto =48 =241
+177 eBay =89 =266
+167 Illinois Tool Works 37 =204
+159 Informatica =92 =251
+147 Pfizer 57 =204
+132 Kansas City Southern 13 =145
+132 Kinder Morgan =87 =219
+131 SPX 73 =204

???????????
3IR MAGAZINE INVESTOR PERCEPTION STUDY – US 2013
INTRODUCTION
survey, and interviews with winning firms.
All this builds on a foundation 18 years in the
making, beginning with our first US awards in 1996.
Every year we ask analysts and investors to name
the companies they believe are the best in different
areas of IR. The judging is open to any publicly
traded company in the US, with no entry process or
fee. For 2013, Fox Insight invited more than 23,000
investment professionals to participate in an
electronic survey, then Mary Maude Research,
which also does our awards surveys in Asia, Canada
and Europe, carried out more than 300 phone
interviews, adding up to participation by nearly 700
investors and analysts. More information about the
methodology can be found on page 106.
I was asked recently by a radio host whether
good IR results in better stock market performance;
I said you can’t assume cause and effect but there
is definitely a correlation. In other words, successful
companies often have good IR programs, but that’s
no wonder – they do a lot of things well, which is
why they’re successful. On the other hand, we
regularly see companies under a lot of pressure
getting high praise for their IR, like Intel, which
lost around 20 percent of its value in the last year
but was nominated in eight categories this year
and crowned the winner in four of them.
In fact, in the nearly 12 months since the
2012 awards ceremony, last year’s US Top 100
companies, weighted by total score, returned 14.3
percent compared with 11.5 percent for the S&P
500 and the Dow’s 10.8 percent. It would be nice to
believe good IR delivered that bump, and no doubt
transparency and trust are factors. Again, however,
let’s not put the cart before the horse. It could be
that companies enjoying good performance can be
more proactive and do more investor marketing than poorly performing companies
preoccupied with reacting to analyst concerns and shareholder beefs. So it’s not
surprising that last year’s Top 100 outpaced the broader market. Still, good luck to
this year’s Top 100 in doing the same. They deserve it.
Neil Stewart
Editorial & research director, IR Magazine
New entrants to the US Top 100
Company 2013 rank
NextEra Energy 5
Skyworks Solutions =28
Teradata =31
Alaska Air Group =33
Southern Company 40
Catamaran =45
Sherwin-Williams =48
ViroPharma =48
Ashland 53
IHS 55
Oshkosh Corporation 61
Rockwell Automation =67
Micron Technology =76
The Hain Celestial Group =76
ConocoPhillips =82
Maxim Integrated Products =82
Old National Bancorp =89
CME Group =92
Reynolds American =92
Eastman Chemical =97
FirstEnergy =97

IR MAGAZINE US TOP 100
2013
rank
2012
rank
Change Company
No of
awards
No of
short
lists
Points
1 1 Y Covidien ✪ ✪ ✪ 8 359
2 7 O Intel ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ 8 344
3 2 T Danaher ✪ ✪ 7 278
4 4 Y Honeywell ✪ 3 229
5 – + NextEra Energy ✪ 2 208
6 11 O JPMorgan Chase & Co ✪ ✪ ✪ 4 206
7 30 O FedEx ✪ ✪ 2 196
8 10 O Broadcom ✪ ✪ 4 186
9 20 O Cisco Systems 1 183
10 3 T Qualcomm 2 179
11 31 O 3M 1 167
12 19 O Texas Instruments 166
13 =145 O Kansas City Southern 3 164
=14 =53 O Baxter International 1 160
=14 15 O Express Scripts ✪ 4 160
16 12 T Wyndham Worldwide ✪ ✪ 4 159
17 29 O Anadarko Petroleum ✪ 2 152
18 59 O Caterpillar 1 151
19 6 T The Coca-Cola Company ✪ 2 149
20 22 O Limited Brands ✪ 3 147
21 =42 O Medtronic 1 143
22 13 T General Electric 1 140
23 =109 O Gilead Sciences 136
24 =57 O Delta Air Lines 1 135
25 =145 O Noble Corp ✪ 3 133
=26 =67 O United Parcel Service 1 129
=26 =65 O Yum! Brands 1 129
=28 – + Skyworks Solutions 1 124
=28 5 T United Technologies 1 124
30 =51 O PNC Financial Services 1 123
=31 16 T Johnson & Johnson ✪ 1 121
=31 – + Teradata 1 121
=33 – + Alaska Air Group 1 120
=33 233 O LinkedIn ✪ 1 120
=33 =27 T McDonald’s 1 120
36 =304 O Calpine 2 119
37 =204 O Illinois Tool Works 118
38 =38 Y Ryder System 2 116
39 48 O Dover Corp 114
40 – + Southern Company 1 113
41 =103 O MasterCard 2 112
O rank up T rank down Y same + new ✪ number of awards

???????????
2013
rank
2012
rank
Change Company
No of
awards
No of
short
lists
Points
42 =42 Y Starbucks 1 107
43 83 O Cummins 106
44 118 O Bristol-Myers Squibb 1 105
=45 – + Catamaran 1 102
=45 =159 O Marriott International 102
=45 =79 O Union Paciﬁc 102
=48 =241 O Monsanto ✪ 1 101
=48 – + Sherwin-Williams 101
=50 =150 O Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide 100
=50 – + ViroPharma ✪ ✪ 3 100
52 =91 O Agilent Technologies 1 98
53 – + Ashland 1 95
54 =106 O Noble Energy 1 94
55 – + IHS 1 93
56 9 T Allergan 92
57 =204 O Pﬁzer 91
=58 =106 O Perrigo Company 1 89
=58 =280 O The Walt Disney Company 89
60 =27 T Watson Pharmaceuticals 88
61 – + Oshkosh Corporation 87
=62 =88 O Citigroup 86
=62 =91 O HJ Heinz 1 86
=62 =84 O US Bancorp 86
=65 =51 T Cepheid 85
=65 =75 O Jack in the Box 2 85
=67 =137 O American Express 84
=67 – + Rockwell Automation 84
=69 =75 O BB&T 83
=69 =86 O Costco Wholesale 1 83
=69 =60 T Mattel 1 83
=69 63 T Time Warner Cable 83
73 =204 O SPX 82
=74 64 T AT&T 81
=74 =60 T Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold ✪ 1 81
=76 =79 O Edwards Lifesciences 78
=76 – + Micron Technology 1 78
=76 =194 O The Allstate Corp 78
=76 – + The Hain Celestial Group 1 78
=80 =53 T Bank of America 77
=80 =84 O CareFusion 1 77
=82 – + ConocoPhillips 1 76

CONTENTS
Editor Candice de Monts-Petit |
Chief copy editor Kathleen Hennessy |
Contributors Samuel Bakowski, Garnet
Roach | Founding editor Janet Dignan
| Research manager Lloyd Bevan | Art & design
Mariel Tabora Foulds | Printed by Premier
Corporate Mail, The I O Centre Seymour Street,
Royal Arsenal, London SE18 6SS, UK
The report
7 US IR: the original – and still the best?
Janet Dignan investigates whether the rest of
the world has caught up with IR in the States
9 Cash-rich companies and say on pay
What should companies do with spare cash?
And just how do investors feel about the
say-on-pay issue?
12 Winners and short-listed companies 2013
Breakdown of this year’s awards
The rankings
15 The US Top 100
Proﬁles of the highest-ranking companies in the US
98 The challengers
Award-winning companies outside the US Top 100
104 Cross-border achievement
Winners of the awards for best investor relations in the
US market by a non-US company
The research
106 Research process
– Survey methodology
– Respondents
– Questionnaire
109 Ranked companies’ points breakdown
117 Index of companies
2013
rank
2012
rank
Change Company
No of
awards
No of
short
lists
Points
=82 – + Maxim Integrated Products ✪ 1 76
=82 =44 T Mettler-Toledo International 1 76
85 =287 O US Airways Group 3 75
86 =159 O Johnson Controls 74
=87 =49 T IBM 73
=87 =219 O Kinder Morgan 1 73
=89 =266 O eBay 1 72
=89 – + Old National Bancorp 1 72
=89 =96 O United Continental 72
=92 8 T Apple 71
=92 – + CME Group 71
=92 =46 T Enterprise Products Partners 71
=92 =251 O Informatica 71
=92 – + Reynolds American 71
=97 – + Eastman Chemical 1 70
=97 =204 O Exelon 70
=97 – + FirstEnergy 70
=97 18 T Halliburton 70
=97 =88 T Thermo Fisher Scientiﬁc 70

BEST PRACTICE
US IR: the original – and still the best?
Investor relations originated in the US. Janet Dignan investigates whether the rest of the world
has caught up yet
Young contenders
So is US IR still the best? Our research around
the world is deliberately restricted to surveying
investment communities about the companies
in their own country or region; that way, IR
departments in companies focused on their
domestic markets have an equal chance
against their more internationally oriented
peers. On the face of it, then, we’re in no
position to judge whether the US still
outperforms others in terms of IR.
But there are some possible indicators.
Here’s one: telephone researchers for the
US awards, interviewing US analysts and
investors, have reported lately that more
and more respondents now name what are
actually non-US companies in answer to their
questions. Companies like ABB and Roche, for
instance, are proffered as American companies
with the best IR in the US. In other words,
investors and analysts are not only forgetting
that these are European firms, but they’re
also naming them as the best in the US. This
definitely seems like some sort of indication
of changing comparative IR strength.
Separately, the IR Magazine global IRO
survey of 2012 threw up some interesting
findings about IR practice around the globe.
These findings, many of which were published
at the end of last year in the IR Magazine Global
Practice Report 2012, show some clear diver-
gences in approach to IR structure from region
to region. The survey looked at IR budgets,
outsourcing, staffing, salaries and much more
besides. Overall, external spending had risen
more in the past 12 months in North America
than it had in Asia or Europe, and in absolute
terms it was also significantly higher than in
the rest of the world. But this has to be set
against the relative IR team sizes.
In broad terms, US firms tend to have
smaller in-house teams and bigger budgets for
external expenditure. So in the US, the average
in-house IR team in 2012 comprised 2.8 IROs;
in Germany – where, as we’ve seen, IR hardly
G
o back 50 or 60 years and investor relations as we now
know it simply did not exist. There may have been a few
people in the US officially charged with shareholder
communications, or investor relations, but these were
really publicists, more like press agents than today’s financially
knowledgeable and strategic IR professionals. The gradual
development of IR that began in the American corporate world
in 1953 – when General Electric chairman Ralph Cordiner is said
to have established the first IR department and coined the term
investor relations – has since been replicated, albeit over dra-
matically shorter periods, almost everywhere else in the world.
The most extreme examples include countries and jurisdictions
where stock exchanges and capitalist systems didn’t even exist
until pretty recently, like China. But it’s easy to forget that many
continental European countries, and not just those formerly
behind the Iron Curtain, were wary of equity markets until recent
decades. French and German stock markets were tiny in proportion
to the size of their countries’ GDP right up until the 1980s. That
was because if German or French companies wanted capital they
typically went to their banks, whereas in the so-called Anglo-
Saxon countries, they went to shareholders, via public equity
markets. So in Germany, in particular, the banks were major
holders of listed companies: in 1989, for instance, Deutsche
Bank, Dresdner and Commerzbank owned an aggregate 40
percent of the total share capital of all German listed companies.
This was hardly an environment where investor relations
activity was necessary; nor did it justify commitment of significant
resources. Indeed, in 1989, in an article in IR Magazine (then
called Investor Relations), we discussed the fact that even German
blue chips like Allianz, Daimler-Benz and Siemens were not in
the habit of holding investor presentations or allowing access to
senior management by members of the investment community.
As an Allianz spokesperson at the company’s headquarters in
Munich told our reporter at the time: ‘Our CFO would never
consider talking to a portfolio manager.’
How things change. Last year, Allianz won the grand prix for
best overall IR by a large-cap company at the IR Magazine Awards
– Europe, as well as the awards for best IRO at a large cap, best
IR in Germany and best IR in the insurance sector. The insurance
giant now has an IR team of 11 and is ranked first in the IR
Magazine Euro Top 100 2012. Daimler is ranked joint 41st in
the 2012 Top 100, was short-listed for the award for best IR in
the automobiles & parts sector and has an IR staff of eight.
Siemens, also short-listed for best IR in its sector, ranks joint
54th in the 2012 Euro Top 100 and has an IR staff of five.

BEST PRACTICE
got going until 20 years ago – the average is 3.5. The average for
Europe as a whole dropped from 3.5 in 2011 to 3.4 last year, much
smaller than the reduction of half an IRO between the two years
in the US (from 3.3 to 2.8). Asia boasts the biggest teams of all,
at an average of 4.3 in 2011, but fell by as much as the US last
year, down to 3.8. As noted, the bigger team sizes overseas are
balanced by smaller external spending budgets, to a greater or
lesser extent. The average US budget for external IR spending was
$570,000 in 2012, against $561,000 in Europe and $285,000 in Asia.
Which approach?
But all this begs the question we are trying to address here:
which approach produces the best output? Is it better to have
a strong in-house team that can not only answer investors’
and analysts’ questions as required but also run the IR pages
of the website, the social media activity, the conference calls,
the roadshows, the one-on-one meetings, the targeting and ID
activities, and so on? Or is it better to have a small corporate team
handling the aspects of IR that really have to be done in-house,
outsourcing the rest to service providers whose lifeblood depends
on maintaining up-to-the-minute best practice standards?
Members of the investment community undoubtedly value
the ready availability of IROs; they say so in answer to our surveys
and comment on the size of larger teams in favorable tones.
On this basis, it’s an easy assumption that the best IR is being
provided by those big teams in Asia and continental Europe. That,
however, would be far too simplistic an approach: the caliber of
the individuals has a role to play; it’s not just about the headcount.
Indeed, other crucial factors include the seniority of the IR
personnel, their access to management, their knowledge of the
company and its industry sector, their ability to answer questions
as quickly and accurately as senior management, and so on.
Moreover, a team comprising top-quality IROs presupposes the
commitment of the management team to openness, transparency
and honesty with the investment community. No company that
has a half-hearted approach to building trust with its investors
and other stakeholders will ever boast an award-winning team.
Our investor perception studies produce verdicts on the best
teams; they make no attempt to draw conclusions across borders.
Anecdotally, however, US-based IROs who have had the same role
in Europe or Asia – in some cases with the same company – often
comment on the difference between members of the US and their
home investment communities. They say US portfolio managers
and analysts are more demanding than those at home, which
means the IROs have to up their own game. That must surely
suggest a higher standard of investor relations in the States.
Until we research this issue directly, however, any claims
about the relative quality of IR activity across borders cannot
be substantiated. But wherever it ranks in the world, this
report certainly identiﬁes which people at which companies
are producing the highest IR standards here in the US.
Budget
US
$570,000 $561,000
$285,000
Europe Asia
US Germany
Noofpeopleinteam
Asia
2.8
3.5
3.8
Spendandoverall%ofbudget
$211,000 $168,000
(30%)
$69,000
(24%)
US Europe Asia
(37%)
Source: IR Magazine global IRO survey 2012
Average IR team size
Average IR team budgets
Average external IR spend

RESEARCH
have a wide variety of requirements in terms of
returns: some want a steady stable income,
others want the chance of making a fast buck,
accepting the concomitant higher risks.
All else being equal, however, how would
the majority prefer the companies they’re
invested in to spend any spare cash? Do they
want cash in the form of dividends? A buyback
program? Or would they prefer the company to
invest in growing the business, perhaps
through organic growth or an acquisition?
In this year’s US investor perception survey,
respondents were asked for their views on how
cash-rich companies should spend their
reserves and were given a list of four options.
Most (93 percent) of those questioned answered
readily, but 7 percent (3 percent buy side and 4
percent sell side) commented that none of the
companies they cover actually have any spare
cash, so the question is irrelevant.
A
ll companies have to try to give investors what they want
in terms of return on investment or – perhaps more
appropriately – ﬁnd the kind of investors that want what
an investment in that particular stock will provide. Even
taking short-sellers and their ilk out of the equation, investors
Cash-rich companies
Buy side Sell side
Return to shareholders as dividends
Return to shareholders in buybacks
R&D/organic growth
Make acquisitions
All the above (depending on company)
Keep the cash
36%
18%
13%
8%
18%
4%
20% 21%
16%
18% 17%
4%
Spending options 2013
$‘I am happy for companies
to do any of these things
providing they can give me the
reasons. If not, then just give us
the money back in dividends’
BUY SIDE
‘A very well-thought-out acquisition
plan is best for a good return’
SELL SIDE
‘If it’s a growth
company then acquisitions
or internal investment are
the best options; for a value
company, dividends or
buybacks are better’
SELL SIDE
‘Raising dividends, because
I like money you can spend and
so do my clients, especially with
bond yields so low today’
BUY SIDE
HOW DO YOU THINK
CASH-RICH COMPANIES
SHOULD SPEND THEIR
RESERVES?
‘It depends on the company, of course, but increasingly dividends and share
buybacks are good because of the slower-growth environment with few good investment
opportunities. So if cash is building up they ought to give it to shareholders’
BUY SIDE
‘Organic growth should be the
primary use of the money and if they can’t
ﬁnd a way to do this, then pay dividends –
but never do pointless acquisitions’
SELL SIDE
‘You have to trust companies
to know best how to allocate their
capital. Obviously they should reinvest,
if they can get a good return, and make
acquisitions when necessary’
BUY SIDE

RESEARCH
The responses show a pretty clear prefer-
ence for companies to return cash to share-
holders either in the form of dividends or via
share buybacks. In 2012 these top two options
were reversed and were much stronger, with
41 percent overall preferring buybacks and 39
percent plumping for increased dividends.
Sensibly enough, many respondents note
that there is no one-size-fits-all solution;
on the contrary, what’s appropriate for one
company or sector won’t be for another. And
around 10 percent of respondents think it
HOW HAVE VIEWS
CHANGED?
The investment community’s views overall haven’t changed hugely on this issue over the past 12 months. Indeed, when asked
directly, nearly three quarters of buy-side respondents (73 percent) and more than a third of sell-siders (37 percent) say their
views have not changed. A further 20 percent of sell-side respondents say they are not sure whether their view has changed.
‘We are not big fans of
share buybacks. We prefer
organic growth or dividends
and this view hasn’t changed
in at least four years’
BUY SIDE
‘Our view hasn’t
changed apart from the
2008 blip, when I would have
advised companies to sit on the
cash. I would just like them
to continue growing’
SELL SIDE
‘I haven’t changed my view much on this. Maybe
last year I was more excited by dividends and now I want
to see the scope for takeovers as I want more growth’
BUY SIDE
‘On balance, I think I am
more interested in dividends
than I was last year’
BUY SIDE
‘As debt has declined I have
become keener on acquisitions’
SELL SIDE
would be unwise for companies to do anything with their spare
cash until the new tax regulations are in place.
On page 9 are some of the specific comments made by
members of the investment community in response to this
question. Of the 4 percent who want companies to sit on their
cash, nearly all say this is because of a deep caution about
the future. ‘We are still in an exceptionally volatile period and
companies should keep their hands on the cash until Europe
sorts itself out,’ says one sell-side analyst, whose views were
typical. Some are sector-specific in their thinking, such as this
IT analyst: ‘The IT sector has been up and down for a while and
I am not keen for people to dip into their reserves.’
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RESEARCH
No change, would like to see change
No change, not interested in change
No change, never mentioned
Change, more communicative/transparent
Change, more defensive
Don’t know/can’t tell
35%
18%
12%
8%
12%
15%
Say-on-pay
on this issue, providing only basic disclosure
and then seeking, if not to bury it, at least to
obscure it from plain view.
Of the remaining 32 percent of respondents,
12 percent say companies have become more
communicative, 8 percent say they have
become more defensive and 12 percent are
unsure either way. Even among those who
credit companies with greater transparency,
there is guarded skepticism. As one buy-side
investor states: ‘It’s different from company to
company and overall the communication has
become better, but some companies continue
to find vehicles to compensate executives.’
That this investor has found companies to
be more communicative about executive pay
may be due, in part, to his own approach.
Turning the Wall Street rule on its head, he
continues: ‘From our point of view, if a com-
pany won’t discuss the issue, we won’t invest.’
With say-on-pay votes now a firm fixture in the proxy calendar,
IR Magazine’s investor perception survey asked 200 US investors
and analysts what impact they found these votes were having
upon the approach of companies toward executive remuneration
– and there is little difference in the experiences of the buy side
and the sell side on this issue.
More than two thirds of respondents (68 percent) say there
has been no change in companies’ approach to executive pay.
This number can be broken down further, into 18 percent who
say the issue is not mentioned at all in discussions, 15 percent
who say the issue is mentioned but is of no interest to them, and
the remaining 35 percent who are interested in executive pay
discussions but have seen no change in corporate approach.
Where executive pay is not mentioned, respondents put this
down to companies assuming the ‘Wall Street rule’, whereby if
an investor is unhappy with management decisions, it simply
sells its stock. This is seen by some as an approach not suited
to eliciting best management practice. As one sell-side analyst
puts it: ‘There are some horrendous chief executives in my space
where the stock has fallen and people sell. It would be useful if
there were more investor activists.’
Aside from those respondents who genuinely have no interest
in the subject at all, application of the Wall Street rule is the main
reason for respondents not wishing to discuss executive pay. One
buy-side respondent identifies the difference in interest between
short-term and longer-term investors: ‘This is not an issue for
the average hedge fund or portfolio manager but only for pension
funds with a long-term interest. Other investors would just sell.’
The most dissatisfied respondents on this issue are those who
are interested in discussing executive pay, but have seen little
perceptible change in the corporate approach to it. Respondents
here complain of having to ‘drag’ information out of companies,
and argue that there is more information ‘in the newspapers than
from the companies themselves.’ The general view among these
respondents is that companies do the minimum for compliance
Say on pay
Respondents were asked how satisfied they are generally
with the information they receive from IR professionals on
say on pay. For almost two thirds of respondents (65 percent)
this is simply not an issue. The 35 percent who do express an
opinion are divided, with 17 percent stating clear satisfaction
and 6 percent expressing clear dissatisfaction. The remaining
12 percent are either entirely neutral or express mild
satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
Say-on-pay information

US AWARDS 2013: WINNERS AND RUNNERS-UP
GRAND PRIX FOR BEST OVERALL INVESTOR
RELATIONS PROGRAM – LARGE CAP chart p17
1 Covidien
2 Intel
3 Danaher
4 Honeywell
GRAND PRIX FOR BEXT OVERALL INVESTOR
RELATIONS PROGRAM – MID-CAP chart p31
1 Broadcom
2 Kansas City Southern
3 Wyndham Worldwide
4 Limited Brands
GRAND PRIX FOR BEXT OVERALL INVESTOR
RELATIONS PROGRAM – SMALL CAP chart p65
1 ViroPharma
2 Jack in the Box
3 US Airways Group
4 Old National Bancorp
BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – LARGE CAP chart p17
1 Covidien ................................... Coleman Lannum
2 Intel..................................................... Mark Henninger
3 Anadarko Petroleum........................... John Colglazier
4 Express Scripts .........................................David Myers
BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – MID-CAP chart p48
1 Noble Corp................................. Jeffrey Chastain
2 Kansas City Southern ...Bill Galligan & Ashley Thorne
3 Broadcom..............................................Chris Zegarelli
4 Limited Brands .......................................Amie Preston
BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – SMALL CAP chart p65
1 ViroPharma................. Bob Doody & Will Roberts
2 US Airways Group ................................Daniel Cravens
3 Jack in the Box......................................Carol DiRaimo
BEST IR BY A CEO OR CHAIRMAN
– LARGE CAP chart p28
1 JPMorgan Chase & Co ..................... Jamie Dimon
2 Covidien...................................................José Almeida
3 Danaher ............................................... Lawrence Culp
4 The Coca-Cola Company......................... Muhtar Kent
– MID-CAP chart p56
1 Calpine................................................Jack Fusco
2 Cardinal Health.................................... George Barrett
=3 Perrigo Company .....................................Joseph Papa
=3 Wyndham Worldwide ........................Stephen Holmes
– SMALL CAP chart p100
1 Pebblebrook Hotel Trust.......................Jon Bortz
=2 Cyberonics ..............................................Daniel Moore
=2 On Assignment......................................Peter Dameris
BEST IR BY A CFO – LARGE CAP chart p25
1 Honeywell...................................David Anderson
2 NextEra Energy..................................Moray Dewhurst
3 United Technologies .................................. Greg Hayes
4 Intel.............................................................Stacy Smith
BEST IR BY A CFO – MID-CAP chart p41
1 Wyndham Worldwide ................Thomas Conforti
2 CareFusion.......................................... James Hinrichs
3 Mettler-Toledo International ............ William Donnelly
4 Waste Connections ........................Worthing Jackman
BEST IR BY A CFO – SMALL CAP chart p98
1 Cyberonics ................................ Gregory Browne
2 GATX Corp ............................................... Robert Lyons
3 American Axle & Manufacturing ..... Michael Simonte
4 US Airways Group .......................................Derek Kerr
BEST FINANCIAL REPORTING chart p21
1 Intel
2 Danaher
3 Covidien
4 Alaska Air Group
BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY
FOR INVESTOR RELATIONS chart p23
1 Danaher
2 Google
3 Intel
4 Covidien

BEST INVESTMENT COMMUNITY
MEETINGS chart p21
1 Intel
2 MasterCard
3 JPMorgan Chase & Co
=4 Broadcom
=4 Qualcomm
BEST CORPORATE GOVERNANCE chart p20
1 Intel
2 Danaher
3 Express Scripts
=4 Ryder System
=4 Target
MOST PROGRESS IN INVESTOR
RELATIONS chart p87
1 Maxim Integrated Products
=2 LinkedIn
=2 Noble Corp
4 Life Technologies
BEST SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICE chart p30
1 FedEx
2 Covidien
3 Walmart
BEST INVESTOR RELATIONS
DURING A CORPORATE TRANSACTION chart p39
1 Express Scripts
– Acquisition of Medco Health Solutions,
completed April 2012
2 Danaher
– Acquisition of IRIS International, announced
September 2012
3 Genesee & Wyoming
– Acquisition of RailAmerica, completed October 2012
4 Covidien
– Several acquisitions including MindFrame and
Oridion Systems
BEST CRISIS MANAGEMENT chart p28
– Massive trading losses in May 2012
2 Chevron
– Large ﬁre at oil reﬁnery in August 2012
3 St Jude Medical
– Recall of Riata products in November 2011
BEST INVESTOR RELATIONS FOR AN IPO chart p102
1 ServiceNow
2 Globus Medical
3 Forum Energy
4 Workday
BEST INVESTOR RELATIONS BY AN ASIA-
PACIFIC COMPANY IN THE US MARKET chart p105
1 Silicon Motion ...........................................Taiwan
2 Alumina .......................................................... Australia
=3 China Telecom......................................................China
=3 Toyota Motor Corporation................................... Japan
BEST INVESTOR RELATIONS BY A EUROPEAN
COMPANY IN THE US MARKET chart p104
1 Roche Holding...................................Switzerland
2 ARM Holdings .......................................................... UK
3 ABB ............................................................Switzerland
4 SAP ................................................................. Germany
BEST INVESTOR RELATIONS BY A LATIN
AMERICAN COMPANY IN THE US MARKETchart p105
1 BM&F Bovespa............................................Brazil
2 CETIP Brasil........................................................ Brazil
3 TIM Participações ............................................... Brazil

OIL & GAS
1 Anadarko Petroleum
2 Noble Corp
3 Noble Energy
4 ConocoPhillips
PHARMACEUTICALS & BIOTECH
1 Johnson & Johnson
2 Bristol-Myers Squibb
3 ViroPharma
4 Agilent Technologies
RETAIL
1 Limited Brands
2 Costco Wholesale
3 The Kroger Company
4 Ascena Retail Group
TECHNOLOGY (LARGE CAP)
1 Intel
2 Honeywell
3 Cisco Systems
4 Qualcomm
TECHNOLOGY (SMALL & MID-CAP)
1 Broadcom
2 Skyworks Solutions
3 Teradata
4 Micron Technology
TRANSPORT
1 FedEx
2 Kansas City Southern
3 Delta Air Lines
4 United Parcel Service
UTILITIES
1 NextEra Energy
2 Calpine
3 Southern Company
4 Kinder Morgan
CHEMICALS
1 Monsanto
2 Ashland
3 Eastman Chemical Company
4 EI du Pont de Nemours and Company
CONSUMER & BUSINESS SERVICES
1 LinkedIn
2 Ryder System
3 IHS
4 eBay
CONSUMER GOODS
1 The Coca-Cola Company
2 HJ Heinz Company
3 Mattel
4 The Hain Celestial Group
DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIALS
1 Danaher
2 3M
3 Caterpillar
4 General Electric
FINANCE & INSURANCE
2 PNC Financial Services
3 MasterCard
4 Catamaran
HEALTHCARE
1 Covidien
=2 Baxter International
=2 Express Scripts
4 Medtronic
LEISURE & MEDIA
1 Wyndham Worldwide
2 Yum! Brands
3 McDonald’s
4 Starbucks
METALS & MINING
1 Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
2 Martin Marietta Materials
3 United States Steel
4 Cliffs Natural Resources
Sector awards

‘Some former members of the IR team have expressed the opinion that
if I ever needed someone to come back into IR, they would do it in a heartbeat’
COLEMAN LANNUM, HEAD OF IR, COVIDIEN (RANK 1)
WINNER OF BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – LARGE CAP (SEE PAGE 16)
‘I exceeded 100,000 miles of travel last year with one airline; that’s my
best way of measuring the amount of time I’ve spent traveling. It was a global
effort, not just the US but also extensively western Europe, and it paid off.
Our ownership in Europe increased almost 30 percent, and that’s a nice
compliment from the standpoint of the effort’
JEFF CHASTAIN, VICE PRESIDENT OF IR, NOBLE CORP (RANK 25)
WINNER OF BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – MID-CAP (SEE PAGE 47)
‘If you called the biggest bear analysts we’ve ever had, who might
have been bearish for as long as I’ve known them, they would probably
tell you we’re the nicest guys they’ve ever dealt with’
ROBERT DOODY, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF IR, VIROPHARMA (RANK =48)
WINNER OF BEST IR PROFESSIONAL – SMALL CAP (SEE PAGE 64)
‘I believe social media are a bit of a hydra-headed monster. It’s very easy to
disseminate things on social media but a lot harder to refute them. If you engage
in social media, you can get sucked into a sort of a vortex, which could consume
a lot of time and effort, so we stick to our regular channels and I make it an
absolute practice of not talking on message boards or anything like that’
GREGORY BROWNE, CFO, CYBERONICS, (RANK =104)
WINNER OF BEST IR BY A CFO – SMALL CAP (SEE PAGE 98)
‘Jon Bortz attends a lot of non-deal roadshows, because we found
the initiative of just being out there to be out there, speaking to investors
outside the context of a deal or equity raising, is generally well met’
RAYMOND MARTZ, CFO, PEBBLEBROOK HOTEL TRUST (RANK =140)
CEO JON BORTZ WINS BEST IR BY A CEO OR CHAIRMAN – SMALL CAP (SEE PAGE 100)
TOP100
US2013

US TOP 100
at the Ireland-incorporated, Massachusetts-headquartered
company, working alongside an administrative assistant and
a senior director of IR. The latter role, which is a rotating three-
year position, has proved very popular within the firm.
‘In an organization of our size – more than 40,000 employees
worldwide – IR is very much a black box, a mystery for a lot of
people,’ Lannum explains. ‘Once people get into it, however, they
find a fascination, a level of fun and certainly a huge learning
curve.’ He says IR allows you to see much more of the battlefield
M
edical equipment supplier Covidien
was once more in the spotlight at
the ceremony for the IR Magazine
Awards – US, topping the charts
for the third year in a row, displaying an
impressive eight nominations and winning
three prizes, including the grand prix for
best overall investor relations program in
the large-cap company category.
Cole Lannum, the company’s head of
investor relations of seven years and recipient
of three consecutive accolades for best IR
professional, runs a three-person department
Playing by old school rules
‘Inner knowledge and intimacy of what the
company is actually doing is paramount’
1 Covidien
AWARD WINNER (see below) | BEST IN SECTOR (see p67)
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Healthcare
CEO José Almeida
CFO Charles Dockendorff
Head of IR Coleman Lannum
IR team Todd Carpenter, Ann Broughton
IR team size Three
IR awards
Grand prix for best overall investor relations program – large cap
Best IR professional – large cap
Best in sector – healthcare
Contact information www.covidien.com cole.lannum@covidien.com +1 508 452 4343
2012 ranking 1
Investor/analyst feedback
‘With its consistency and helpful approach, Covidien has led the way in IR for some time’ – sell side
‘Covidien has the best corporate access and fantastic disclosure. And the IRO is responsive and knowledgeable’ – sell side
‘Cole Lannum has an amazingly comprehensive investor relations program, with his executives readily available at
conferences and roadshows’ – online survey
‘Cole Lannum is the best investor relations officer in our covered universe! He is extremely responsive, no matter what time
of day’ – online survey
‘The most responsive company with the best investor meetings – no one understands investor relations better than Cole
Lannum’ – online survey

US TOP 100
than almost any other job at the company outside the very senior
leadership team. ‘Some former members of the IR team have
expressed the opinion that if I ever needed someone to come
back into IR, they would do it in a heartbeat,’ Lannum adds.
This past year, the department has had its hands full with
the spin-off of Covidien’s pharmaceuticals division, which was
announced at the end of 2011. As a result, investors and analysts
have been inquiring massively about the transaction’s development.
‘Questions over the last six months have been primarily around
the spin-off,’ Lannum confirms. ‘Not all the information is out
there yet but it will be by the time the company spin-off actually
happens.’ In addition, the team has been building a proper IR
function for the new entity. ‘A dedicated IRO has just come on
board to take over the reins at the newly spun-off company,’
Lannum adds. ‘He’s someone I’ve known for a long time and
I think he’s going to do an excellent job.’
Covidien’s shares are 80 percent held by US institutional
investors, so the IR team regularly travels domestically to attend
non-deal roadshows and investor conferences. Another relatively
large portion of shareholders are based in Canada and Europe.
Covidien
Coleman Lannum
Intel
Mark Henninger
Anadarko Petroleum
John Colglazier
Express Scripts
David Myers
Danaher
Matt McGrew
Baxter International
Mary Kay Ladone
Cisco Systems
Marilyn Mora
General Electric
Trevor Schauenberg
Yum! Brands
Timothy Jerzyk
Honeywell
Elena Doom
Texas Instruments
Ron Slaymaker
NextEra Energy
Julie Holmes
45
42
40
36
36
33
32
31
31
30
53
111
Best IR professional
– large cap
‘Twenty percent of our trips are to Europe and,
within those, typically 90 percent will be to the
UK and Ireland and 10 percent elsewhere,’
details Lannum. ‘We are a bit of a unique
company. Because we are domiciled in Europe,
it allows investors that may have a mandate
of having to invest only in non-US equities to
still be allowed to invest in us.’
The team hasn’t done any significant
meetings in Asia, apart from the occasional
teleconference during a senior management
trip to local operations. There is a plan to
increase the outreach to investors in the region
‘We do not do ad hoc meetings
because of the huge demand, which
is not manageable’
‘Once people get into IR, they find a fascination, a
level of fun and certainly a huge learning curve’
Covidien
Intel
Danaher
Honeywell
NextEra Energy
JPMorgan Chase & Co
FedEx
Cisco Systems
Qualcomm
3M
Texas Instruments
Express Scripts
Anadarko Petroleum
Caterpillar
278
229
208
206
196
183
179
167
166
160
160
152
151
344
359
Grand prix for best overall investor
relations program – large cap

US TOP 100
Knowledge is power
Having worked on the buy side for 20 years, Lannum recalls the
most frustrating thing at that time was dealing with IR people
who had no proper knowledge of their company’s business. ‘To
my mind that is a death knell,’ he says. ‘Inner knowledge of and
intimacy with what the company’s actually doing are paramount.
Because of that, investors appreciate getting a quick simple
answer rather than having to wait a week or even two hours to
get the information they requested. Far too many companies
don’t appreciate that when the opening bell rings at 9.30 am,
people are trading your shares, period. The world goes on
whether they have heard back from you or not.’
In order to monitor its responsiveness and how quickly it gets
back to a request, the team has introduced – and consistently
beaten – internally generated benchmarks. ‘Every single question
we get, we try to respond to at least 25 percent within five minutes,
half of them within an hour and 95 percent within 24 hours,’
highlights Lannum.
But this high performance in responsiveness is not due to the
deployment of a high-tech strategy for IR. ‘I’m kind of old school
on these kinds of things,’ says Lannum. While Covidien’s IR team
does participate in the social media IR scene through its dedicated
Twitter account, Lannum doesn’t believe this type of outreach is
worth spending significant time and resources on. ‘I don’t think
most people in the investment community really care – I’ve never
had a single investor bring it up,’ he says. ‘On the other hand,
social media are a very big deal for a lot of IR consultants who
want to sell people this concept that if you aren’t on Twitter or
Facebook, you’re missing the opportunity of a lifetime…’
The prospect of an IR app is met by Lannum with the same
lack of enthusiasm. ‘We could put together a really slick IR app,
but would it solve the problem more than when I send out a blast
email to people?’ he asks. ‘So far the answer to that question has
been a resounding no.’
When defining his role and strategic responsibilities, Lannum
likes to describe himself as a teacher. ‘I think it’s a pretty good
analogy: if you think of all public information being the textbook,
schools still need good teachers,’ he points out. ‘To the outside
world, I help people understand Covidien better, using information
that is already in the public domain. And internally, I see my role
as being not only the voice of the shareholder, but also to help
senior management understand the consequences of making
decisions, and how the financial world might interpret them.’
in the near future, although Lannum would
not define this as proper targeting. ‘I’m not a
big fan of the term ‘investor targeting’, which
is more relevant for smaller companies,’ he
declares. ‘We’re fortunate to be a very large
company and people know who we are.
Investors make their own decisions: our job is
to educate them and then get out of their way.’
As part of its program, the IR department
hosts an annual day-long investor event, and
to manage its time efficiently it schedules all
roadshows and marketing events six to 12
months in advance – the firm’s way of ‘locking
them in. We don’t do ad hoc meetings because
of the huge demand, which is not manageable,’
explains Lannum. ‘When our CEO, CFO or one
of the presidents of our businesses attend IR
events, they get to see a lot of the investment
community and vice versa. At other times,
however, it’s my job to let them do their
primary job of running the company.’
Lannum highly values the proximity he
enjoys with Covidien’s C-suite. ‘My office is
right next door to our chief medical officer,
who is right next door to our chief executive,
so we’re in each other’s face all the time,’
he says. ‘When something comes up that is
relevant, we pride ourselves on the fact that
we jump on it fairly quickly.’
In order to monitor its responsiveness, the
team has introduced – and consistently beaten –
internally generated benchmarks
Coleman Lannum
Head of IR, Covidien

US TOP 100
Interview with Mark Henninger, IR director
Your company is short-listed for an impressive eight awards
this year. That’s five more than in 2012. What have you been
doing differently?
At Intel there are values we emphasize in the practice of IR. First
among those would be simply treating investors with respect. I
recognize that this sounds basic, but in a business that’s based
in large part on the debate of an idea or a thesis, it would be easy
to get position-locked or get stuck in a ‘back and forth’. What we
try to emphasize as a team and in our relationships with investors
is that we are trying to share Intel’s point of view on a particular
Plenty to report
topic or in answering a question. We under-
stand there will at times be skepticism, and
we hope, over the course of the conversation,
that we respect the investor’s point of view and
we’re able to communicate ours successfully.
Regarding the other values, I think we’ll
resonate with a lot of other IR professionals.
Being credible is critically important: we spend
a lot of time making sure we are well briefed
on the strategy and the business, and equally
as importantly on industry trends. It’s also vital
to be accessible, both in good times and –
2 Intel
Listing information
Large cap
NASDAQ
Technology
CEO Paul Otellini
CFO Stacy Smith
Head of IR Mark Henninger
IR team Dolores Baum, Reuben Gallegos, Natalia Kanevsky, Gary Willihnganz, Tiffany Chu
IR team size Six
IR awards
Best corporate governance
Best financial reporting
Best investment community meetings
Best in sector – technology (large cap)
Contact information www.intc.com mark.h.henninger@intel.com +1 408 653 9944
2012 ranking 7
‘This company shines in my sector for its responsiveness and accessibility. No others come close in terms of IR’ – buy side
‘Intel knows how to present materials so that they are easy to analyze. It goes through each business line and gives us an
overview of what is and what isn’t profitable, and there’s a high degree of transparency’ – buy side
‘Intel is an excellent company – it calls you back even if you have a sell recommendation on it and the enormous IR team is
impressively knowledgeable’ – sell side
‘Intel maintains a strong IR program. It may not always be right, but it does a great job communicating its thought processes
and plans’ – online survey
‘Reuben Gallegos is awesome to work with as he knows his material perfectly and is a great people person’ – online survey

US TOP 100
part of our strategy, and that help with investors in a positive way.
We’ve got people who are relatively senior, generally with years of
industry experience, either in engineering, sales and marketing
or finance. They’re not necessarily long-term IR professionals,
but they’re credible spokespeople across a broad range of topics,
because they’ve worked in the business units and the factories.
Generally does your team travel a lot, and where to?
Both our IR team and our executives spend quite a lot of time out
on the field, and when we’re in the major cities of the world we
try to carve out some time to meet with current shareholders as
well as those that are just interested in understanding the story or
the industry better. We spend a lot of time in places like New York,
but we also have a dedicated program for Asia and Europe and we
spend time in both of these regions over the course of the year.
What is the most popular question you get asked by investors
and analysts?
Technology is always in a state of change, so questions around
the evolution of the PC industry are top of mind for the investors
we talk with.
Has there ever been an occasion when a meeting with investors
or analysts has influenced or helped shape your strategy?
We make a point of regularly seeking out and listening to investor
feedback and pouring that back into the company. More than any-
thing else, it informs us on how we communicate with the Street,
with investors. We can tell from the feedback, for example, where
the strategy is resonating and where the skepticism remains,
which allows us to adjust how we communicate and tell the story.
How would you describe your tech strategy? Which do you
spend more time on: videoconferencing, website, webcasts,
IR apps or social media? And on which do you plan to spend
more time or resources?
I don’t think we necessarily feel any pressure to use those
technologies but, because we are in the industry, we have access
to them so we’ve begun to experiment with social media, for
example. It is not yet clear what the return on investment is on
technology like that, but we’ve dipped our toe in the water. We’ve
done it cautiously in recognition of the compliance concerns
around our communications field.
Videoconferencing is something we’d like to do more of, and
my suspicion is that more and more buy-side and sell-side shops
have in-house teleconferencing capabilities; I could see that
becoming a bigger part of our stable of IR tools. If an organization
doesn’t have in-house teleconferencing, it requires the investor to
get up from his or her desk, and move to a different location, and
that consumes time. Given that we have access to the technology,
and just in the spirit of exercising best practices, we want to make
sure we test out these capabilities, and then evaluate whether
more importantly – to be there for investors
when times are challenging; and to be
proactive, reaching out regularly over the
course of the year, making sure investors
know we’re available to them. If we know
the question can’t immediately be answered
or a call immediately be taken, we need to
be really disciplined about following up. No
one of these values is particularly ground-
breaking but practicing all of them regularly
enhances the relationship with investors and
enhances the reputation of any IR shop.
How is your team set up?
The background of our team is one of the
things that help our practice of IR. We are
a group of six people including me and an
administrative assistant. More than the number,
however, it’s really the profiles of the people
we hire for the IR team that constitute a big
Intel
Danaher
Express Scripts
Ryder System
Target
FedEx
McDonald's
Texas Instruments
27
24
24
18
18
18
33
45
Best corporate governance
Mark Henninger
IR director, Intel

US TOP 100
M&A. I was in Hong Kong in the sales and
marketing group for about three years. My
predecessor Kevin Sellers who headed IR just
before me offered me the position as I was
moving back to the US, and that’s how I got
into IR in the first place. When Kevin rotated
into a new position in the marketing organiza-
tion, I moved into the leadership role in IR.
they work for us. If not, there’s no shame in stopping their use
and moving on to something else.
Could you detail your investor base? Have you benefited from
having foreign investors?
It’s reasonably well rounded across the range of retail investors,
institutional investors and by geography: we’re fairly broadly held
in Europe and Asia, at least for a US-listed company. And we do
put effort into making ourselves available to investors in Europe.
We have an individual on the team whose core responsibility is
being on the ground in Europe, which primarily means in London,
but also in major cities in continental Europe, at least two or three
times a year. I don’t know that we have discovered foreign inves-
tors to have longer-term views, but we certainly think it’s valuable
to have a diverse investor base across style and geography.
How important is senior management to your success, and
what makes its approach to IR special?
It’s a critical part of our IR outreach program. We’re fortunate that
the leadership team at Intel sees its stewardship of the relationship
with our owners as an important part of its job. And while we have
a competent senior IR team with a broad range of experiences,
there is no substitute for that investor-to-executive interaction,
so we try to be a good steward of that relationship as well.
Both the CEO and CFO do a combination of investor conferences
– typically at an investor conference we would do a keynote
speech and perhaps small group meetings or one-on-ones – and
roadshows over the course of the year, as travel and time permits.
But I think, just as importantly, it’s the CEO’s broader team – the
business unit heads, the manufacturing heads – who round out
the strategy and add incremental color to the story. We get time
from those executives, too, and our sense is that investors really
appreciate that breadth of exposure to the leadership team.
What are the biggest IR challenges you have faced in the
current economic environment?
At any difficult time – and I suspect this is true of any company –
business is challenging and interaction isn’t as easy as it might
be when things are going very well. I think, however, that it is at
those very times that it’s most important for IR practitioners to be
available to owners and potential owners, and to demonstrate to
the investment community that they’re not shying away from the
questions they may have. Perhaps some of those questions you
can’t answer entirely satisfactorily, but it’s critical to demonstrate
that you’re there, and that you’re working with the investor to
try to answer his or her questions. This really helps to nurture
long-term relationships.
How did you get into IR?
I joined Intel out of graduate school and rotated through a variety
of positions across manufacturing, the business units and even
Intel
Danaher
Covidien
Alaska Air Group
Cisco Systems
Costco Wholesale
Medtronic
Qualcomm
Time Warner Cable
3M
35
30
27
27
26
24
24
23
36
40
Best financial reporting
Intel
MasterCard
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Broadcom
Qualcomm
General Electric
Limited Brands
Starbucks
Calpine
FedEx
Wyndham Worldwide
3M
36
33
33
30
30
29
28
27
26
25
45
48
Best investment community meetings

US TOP 100
cal diagnostic research equipment, succeeding in a tight bidding
contest involving two private equity consortiums. Then last year
Danaher sold Apex Tool to Bain Capital in a $1.6 bn deal, and
bought Navman Wireless, a provider of advanced fleet and asset
management technology.
The investor relations team is led by Matt McGrew, a former
KPMG consultant who joined the firm nine years ago to serve
in the internal audit department. Insight into the different busi-
nesses at the company – which include test and measurement,
environmental, dental, life sciences and diagnostics & industrial
technologies – has been very helpful to McGrew in his IR role.
‘Danaher’s IR officer is always keen to help you understand the
company better,’ confirms one sell-side analyst, while another
comments that ‘Danaher is happy to put you in touch with
divisional heads and holds excellent meetings.’
Danaher reported record results for 2012’s fourth quarter,
posting $630.4 mn in earnings, a 12.5 percent year-on-year
increase in diluted net earnings per share. The company’s
D
anaher, with its third-place position in
the US Top 100 this year, is becoming
a regular in our top rankings. The
Washington, DC-headquartered
company has displayed an impressive number
of nominations in the last three years, with
three short lists in 2011, eight last year and
seven this year. This is also the first time the
company takes home the award for best use
of technology for investor relations, and the
second time it has won the sector award for
diversified industrials.
The company, which won the award for
best investor relations during a corporate
transaction last year, is known for its active
history of acquisitions and its dynamic business
expansions. In 2011 it acquired Beckman
Coulter, one of the biggest names in biomedi-
3 Danaher
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Diversified industrials
CEO Lawrence Culp
CFO Daniel Comas
Head of IR Matt McGrew
IR team Meghan Britt, John Bedford, Erin Vaughn
IR team size Four
IR awards
Best use of technology for investor relations
Best in sector – diversified industrials
Contact information www.danaher.com investor.relations@danaher.com +1 202 828 0850
2012 ranking 2
‘Danaher exudes a corporate commitment to IR best practice. This is especially evident during transactions, when it makes a
huge effort to keep us posted about all the ramifications’ – independent analyst
‘Danaher’s IR team knows the company and industry, soup to nuts!’ – online survey
‘It gives a clear and concise breakdown of the businesses’ – online survey
Holding steady

US TOP 100
full-year revenues for were $18.3 bn compared with $16.1 bn for
the previous year.
Commenting on these achievements in a company press
release, chief executive Lawrence Culp says: ‘We were pleased by
the strong finish to 2012, which was broad-based across most of
our businesses. The team’s application of the Danaher business
system led to a solid year of earnings growth, year-over-year core
margin expansion and outstanding cash flow performance,
including a record $3.0 bn of free cash flow generation. While
cognizant of the current macroeconomic challenges, we will
continue our focus on gaining market share and remaining active
on the acquisition front in 2013.’
It seems that for NYSE-listed Danaher, the only way is up: its
stock – one of the 10 top-performing US stocks of the last 30 years
– has risen by 8 percent since the beginning of 2013 alone.
Danaher
Google
Intel
Covidien
Qualcomm
3M
FedEx
28
27
21
20
20
30
42
Best use of technology
for investor relations
4 Honeywell
AWARD WINNER (see below)
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Diversified industrials
CEO David Cote
CFO David Anderson
Head of IR Elena Doom
IR team Katie Xu, Kyle Rollins, Adam Kressel
IR team size Four
IR awards Best IR by a CFO – large cap
Contact information www.honeywell.com elena.doom@honeywell.com +1 973 455 2222
2012 ranking 4
‘There’s an excellent IR set-up at Honeywell. It recently held a number of meetings to demystify the different businesses. We
met all the relevant management and operational staff’ – sell side
‘The most impressive aspect of Honeywell’s IR is the access to all levels of management and operational staff’– sell side
‘The IR team at Honeywell is always professional and well informed’ – sell side
‘Honeywell’s CFO, David Anderson, explains the business better than any other CFO in the industry’ – online survey

US TOP 100
S
hort-listed for the third year in a row,
and winner of the best IR by a CFO
award for large caps in 2012, Honey-
well’s David Anderson snatches the
top prize again this year, while his company
maintains its enviable position of fourth in the
US top 10. This is a performance all the more
impressive when you consider that Honeywell
was unranked just three years ago.
The firm’s IR department, led by Elena Doom, has grown again
over the past year, having already welcomed the arrival of a junior
analyst in 2011. ‘We wanted to get better at benchmarking, both
in terms of who we compete with for capital and in our end
markets,’ Doom explains.
Building upon that, the company added a global resource to
the team in 2012, in the form of a director based in Shanghai in
order to support IR in the firm’s high-growth regions. ‘China,
India and the Middle East are part of our next eight high-growth
A taste of Honeywell
During your time as CFO, what are you
most proud of?
The transformation story of Honeywell, really
building the power of the One Honeywell
performance culture, the significant work
that’s been done in terms of the quality of
the portfolio, and the acquisition process
and discipline that goes into that.
We have also made a number of divesti-
tures over this timeframe, which have been
very significant in terms of improving the
quality, growth characteristics and margin
David Anderson, CFO, Honeywell
characteristics of the company. I’m proud, too, of the seed-
planting investments and the growth that will continue and
accelerate in terms of capturing business in our high-growth
regions. We survived, and actually became a better company,
through the economic downturn of 2008-2009. And in 2010, 2011
and 2012 cumulatively, we set new records for Honeywell in
terms of our organic growth, our margin rate expansion, our
working capital returns and our free cash flow delivery. So it’s
been a very solid performance.
One of the things we’ve become better at as an IR department
– and certainly a skill that has been honed during my time with
Honeywell – is the ability to communicate critical, complex
information in a concise and to-the-point format. It sounds
obvious, but when you really start to look at the various
communications out there, it’s amazing how varied they
are in terms of clarity and insight.
In your view, how does debt IR differ from equity IR?
Our investor relations department focuses on equity investors.
The treasury department has responsibility for managing credit
rating agency relationships and our debtors, who are really
fairly low maintenance.
If your IR team could ask you for one of the following, which
do you think it would be: a larger IR budget, a bigger IR team
or greater access to you and the CEO?
Greater access is the most common refrain, but I would point
out that it’s not just for C-suite executives. One of the things
we’ve developed here is a strong commitment to IR across all
senior leaders at Honeywell. For example, we’ve built credibility
on the Street by showcasing subject matter experts paired with
the deep and talented management bench that lies beneath the
C-suite, including our business unit presidents. What’s emerged
is a stronger partnership and commitment to investor relations,
and a shared responsibility across those dozen business lines
and across all geographies.

US TOP 100
ago,’ Doom confirms. As an example, in early
2010 when there was a lot of uncertainty
about general economic recovery, Honeywell
published five-year targets for its sales and
segment margin rates, at both business unit
and company levels.
‘We continue to hold ourselves accountable
for those estimates that are obviously now
dated, and we are actually one year away from
achieving those targets,’ Doom points out.
‘One of the great things about the IR role is
having the opportunity to get investors inter-
ested in the long-term opportunities for the
company, which are always more strategic.’
Whether it involves doing competitive
benchmarking, analyzing where the company
is within the economic cycle or assessing how
a cycle has been different from the previous
ones, Doom enjoys ‘taking the outside view
back into the company to provide food for
thought and then discussing some of the more
difficult questions internally. That’s part of the
culture that both our chief executive and CFO
are promoting: being committed to excellence
in everything we do and making sure we’re not
just talking our own talk.
‘There’s a very genuine, candid, plain-
speaking style to the approach our CEO and
CFO take, which I believe serves the investment
community very well and is a main strategic
competitive advantage for us.’
regions, which are historically under-penetrated from both
sales & marketing and product perspectives,’ Doom reveals.
China in particular has been a focal point for both the
company and its investors this past year. ‘The China question
was continuous throughout the course of 2012,’ confirms Doom.
‘There was a lot of trepidation around the government change
and what was happening in the region from a growth perspective.’
The interest level from US-based shareholders for information
on market dynamics in China has been so great that the IR team
organized 14 investor meetings with local management in the
region last year. ‘In 2013, we’re planning to host a multi-city,
week-long China-based investor event, and then add to that
another event in one of our eight high-growth regions, following
the same format,’ Doom adds.
Currently, participants in these events are mostly US investors,
but Doom believes her team is building the capabilities to target
a more local investor base in the future. ‘We’ve overhauled our
website, online and print media, and are now translating our
earnings releases and publishing those in Mandarin, to help
attract more of that global shareholder base,’ she details.
Doom believes the key success factor of her IR program has
been to raise the visibility of lower-level senior leaders in the
organization. ‘The commitment to IR made by our C-suite and
the three levels below it is a huge differentiator for us and our
program,’ she says, adding that bringing out lower-level senior
leaders to speak with investors is undeniably a resource commit-
ment that doesn’t come without risk, and requires a lot of prepa-
ration – most senior leaders have been media-trained. ‘But the
advantage is that in addition to serving an IR purpose, it also
allows those leaders to get a sense of how the external world is
viewing the relevance and the importance of their contribution.’
Looking forward to 2013, Doom discerns a number of major
macro issues the company will be facing. ‘We’re certainly looking
at debates around defense, with roughly 8 percent of our sales
coming from the US defense budget,’ she explains. To tackle
those types of debate, the company hosts quarterly investor
days, which are typically webcast. ‘We showcase our talent and
management breadth within those businesses that are really of
issue or concern,’ she adds.
External speakers are called in to participate as well. ‘It’s
not just analysts and investors hearing our perspective from us,’
Doom stresses. ‘We try to give them some way to validate that
perspective.’ In the case of defense, the company brings in its
government relations experts who sit in Washington, DC, and ‘
are having those conversations on the Hill every day. At other
events, we invite key customers to come in and speak about their
experience of doing business with Honeywell,’ she highlights.
This effort in objectivity is much appreciated by investors,
as is the high level of consistency maintained by the company’s
messaging. ‘We continuously look for opportunities to hold
ourselves accountable for what we said two, three or four years
Honeywell
David Anderson
NextEra Energy
Moray Dewhurst
United Technologies
Greg Hayes
Intel
Stacy Smith
Danaher
Daniel Comas
Costco Wholesale
Richard Galanti
Robert Hombach
Qualcomm
William Keitel
Goldman Sachs
David Viniar
National-Oilwell Varco
Clay Williams
40
32
30
26
24
24
21
21
44
54
Best IR by a CFO – large cap

US TOP 100
I
t has been a sterling debut for NextEra
Energy in the US Top 100: the company
ranks at number five in 2013 and collects
the best in sector award for utilities, while
chief financial officer Moray Dewhurst is
runner-up for the best IR by a CFO award.
NextEra’s small IR department, which
benefits from a strong management team,
has drawn heavy praise from respondents in
this year’s research. As one sell-side analyst
says: ‘You can always get hold of the IR guys
at NextEra and the senior management is
pretty accessible, too. The financial and
operating metrics disclosure is also good.’
The IR team is complemented by the
hands-on approach to investor relations taken
by CEO James Robo and Dewhurst, whose
influence enables the messaging to be strong.
The commitment displayed to IR by manage-
ment at the North American clean energy
company wins plaudits from the investment
community, which is amply demonstrated by
the investor feedback. As one sell-side respon-
dent comments: ‘Great investor relations team! Very knowledge-
able and responsive!’
Keeping shareholders up to date and informed with how the
business is evolving is vital to engaging and maintaining strong
investor relations. NextEra Energy’s website drew particular
praise from effusive respondents in this year’s research, with
one sell-side respondent describing it as ‘outstanding.’
The company generated strong results in 2012. ‘NextEra Energy
delivered a very strong quarter to finish the year as we executed on
the largest capital investment program in the company’s history,’
says Robo; the company had consolidated revenues of approxi-
mately $14.3 bn, more than 42,000 megawatts of generating
capacity and nearly 15,000 employees in 26 states and Canada as
of year-end 2012. Its earnings were $433 mn for the fourth quarter
of 2012, compared with $395 mn in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Also in the fourth quarter, the company issued a request for
proposals to build a third major natural gas pipeline to serve
Florida’s growing hunger for natural gas power. The two major
pipelines currently serving the state are near capacity, and a third
pipeline would help secure the continued reliability and security
of this fuel source. Proposals will be evaluated in the second
quarter of 2013, with construction to be completed in 2017,
subject to relevant regulatory approvals.
5 NextEra Energy
BEST IN SECTOR (see p69)
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Utilities
CEO James Robo
CFO Moray Dewhurst
Head of IR Julie Holmes
IR team Kristi Johnson, Casey Tomasiak, Jason Gaynor
IR team size Four
IR awards Best in sector – utilities
Contact information www.nexteraenergy.com investors@nexteraenergy.com +1 561 694 4697
2012 ranking –
‘NextEra has a super management team whose knowledge of the business is strong. And its IR team is responsive and
provides good incremental updates’ – sell side
‘NextEra has good meetings with a great mix of people’ – buy side
... see page 85 for more
Next steps to success

US TOP 100
reassure investors and analysts, earning
praise along the way for their hard work.
‘Jamie Dimon is doing a
good job in a bad time,’
says one buy-sider.
Another points out that
‘JPMorgan was very
upfront about the trading
blunders. Jamie Dimon
held his hands up and
immediately took
responsibility for making amends by meeting
investors and facing up to the issues.’
Indeed, the financial group is no stranger
A
fter dropping out of the US top 10 rankings last year,
JPMorgan is back with a number six ranking and three
new wins, including the
best crisis management
award, after a highly publicized
rogue trading incident.
After just a short time heading
up the firm’s IR department, Sarah
Youngwood – who had been at the
company for 14 years before taking
over the investor relations reins –
certainly had her work cut out for her handling last year’s $6 bn
‘London Whale’ scandal. But a joint effort by Youngwood, her
eight-strong IR team and chief executive Jamie Dimon helped
Cool head in a crisis
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Financial services
CEO Jamie Dimon
CFO Marianne Lake
Head of IR Sarah Youngwood
IR team Douglas Levy, Kathy Hu, Karuna Chhabra, Angela Luongo, Santi Wong, Cindy True, Negin Navab
IR team size Eight
IR awards
Best IR by a CEO or chairman – large cap
Best crisis management
Best in sector – finance & insurance
Contact information www.jpmorganchase.com sarah.m.youngwood@jpmorgan.com +1 212 270 7325
2012 ranking 11
‘We needed hand-holding this year and JPMorgan came up trumps’ – buy side
‘The IR team at JPMorgan is mindful of investors’ needs and, as it is a large team, is able to stay in contact’ – buy side
‘After the rogue trader incident, Jamie Dimon did a good job of crisis management. He was straightforward about what had
happened and what to do as a result’ – buy side
‘He may be less popular than he once was but Jamie Dimon continues to be a clear and candid leader’ – buy side
The outlook for 2013 appears a little
brighter for the bank, with its 2012
revenues putting it at the top of the
investment banking pile

US TOP 100
to managing a negative situation: it also won
IR Magazine’s best crisis management award
in 2011 for its handling of improper mortgage
foreclosures, an issue that affected the big
banks throughout 2010.
So far, the outlook for 2013 appears a little
brighter for the bank, as research reveals that
its $24.1 bn in revenue last year puts it at the
top of the investment banking pile, beating
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Jamie Dimon
Covidien
José Almeida
Danaher
Lawrence Culp
The Coca-Cola Company
Muhtar Kent
Honeywell
Dave Cote
Southern Company
Thomas Fanning
3M
Inge Thulin
Cisco Systems
John Chambers
36
33
30
24
21
21
61
66
Best IR by a CEO or
chairman – large cap
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Massive trading losses in May 2012
Chevron
Large fire at oil refinery in August 2012
St Jude Medical
Recall of Riata products in November 2011
Halliburton
Profit warning due to rising raw materials costs, July 2012
Walmart
Bribery allegations at subsidiary in Mexico
20
18
15
21
365
Best crisis management
Goldman Sachs into second place and Bank of America Merrill
Lynch, Citi and Deutsche Bank into joint third, according to
industry analysts Coalition.
The banking giant also avoided a proxy battle at this year’s
shareholder meeting in May after the SEC ruled that proposals
by the AFL-CIO labor union for a vote on whether to break up the
‘too big to fail’ bank were ‘vague and indeﬁnite’ and did not need
to be included in the proxy statement.
Despite the bumps – or perhaps because of them –
JPMorgan’s IR team has had to work hard and, under
Youngwood’s stewardship, the program has clearly gained
ground over the last year, not only winning the best crisis
management award but also taking back the crown for best
IR by a CEO or chairman in the large-cap category and winning
the best in its sector award for the third year running.
12
11
6
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
Top US award winners, 2009-2013 2013 ranking
JP Morgan Chase & Co
Covidien
Wells Fargo
Broadcom
Danaher
FedEx
General Electric
Intel
Life Time Fitness
Wyndham Worldwide
6
1
–
8
3
7
22
2
–
16

US TOP 100
‘We’ve also been renewing a lot of our aircraft
fleet, comprising more than 600 planes.’
The newer additions to the fleet are not
only less costly to operate but also up to 40
percent more fuel-efficient than the older
ones – a Boeing 777 freighter can reportedly
fly from FedEx’s headquarters in Memphis,
Tennessee to China without having to stop for
refueling in Anchorage, Alaska – and produce
fewer emissions, contributing to the company’s
efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
T
his year’s IR Magazine Awards – US ceremony saw
the introduction of a new accolade distinguishing
the company with the best performance in corporate
responsibility. The first winner of the best sustainability
practice award is FedEx, which also takes home the sector
award for transport for the second consecutive year.
The global delivery service, which runs a popular corporate
citizenship blog, has certainly been active on the sustainability
front, as well as communicating about it. ‘We put out a rather
detailed sustainability report,’ says Mickey Foster, a former NIRI
chairman and FedEx’s vice president of IR for the past seven years.
7 FedEx
Listing information
Large cap
NYSE
Transport & logistics
CEO Frederick Smith
CFO Alan Graf
Head of IR Mickey Foster
IR team Elizabeth Allen, Stephen Hughes, Jeffrey Smith, Natalie Heard
IR team size Five
IR awards
Best sustainability practice
Best in sector – transport
Contact information www.fedex.com erallen@fedex.com +1 901 818 7200
2012 ranking 30
‘There is a prompt response to all questions, however tricky, from the IR team at FedEx. There is also a willingness to
communicate with investors at conferences’ – buy side
‘FedEx provides detailed spreadsheets, and the IR people I’m routinely in touch with always know the answers to my questions
and are very open’ – independent analyst
‘I speak to Stephen Hughes at FedEx – he is all you need; he knows a lot’ – sell side
‘FedEx has a very experienced IR team whose aim is to help us to better understand the business. Its quarterly earnings
conference calls are great, as the firm includes many different executives to answer questions’ – online survey
‘FedEx does a good conference call and provides access to a wide range of executives, not just the CEO and CFO, so you get
better information. But I would like to see more disclosure in the financials’ – sell side
Sustained effort

US TOP 100
been taking questions from StockTwits on our quarterly
conference calls,’ Foster highlights. ‘We always try to be the
best in class and use state-of-the-art technology. For example,
we like for our website to have the latest bells and whistles.’
Webcasts of analyst days are cutting-edge, with HD-quality
recording and slides synchronized with their related speaker.
‘We’ve also developed mobile apps where you can download some
of the investor relations website on mobile devices,’ Foster adds.
When meeting with investors, he finds questions usually relate
to the company’s operations and financials, and very rarely to
corporate governance. ‘It’s a separate department at investment
firms that vote the proxy and deal with governance,’ he explains.
‘Typically, we don’t deal with them except once a year before the
annual shareholders meeting. Some institutions do let the
portfolio managers weigh in heavily on how to vote.’
Last October, FedEx announced a $1.7 bn profit improvement
program that will be rolled out over the next three years. ‘Analysts
and investors have been mainly inquiring about how we’re going
to implement it and when we’re going to see the results,’ reveals
Foster. FedEx stocks and profits were hit during the recession –
‘along with everyone else’ – and Foster believes getting institu-
tions interested in growth again is probably one of the biggest
challenges he has faced, particularly profitable growth in earnings
and cash flows. ‘It was a challenge to convince people that things
were going to get better,’ he adds.
from aircraft by 20 percent by 2020.
The IR team itself has more than one
occasion to board an airplane, with four
members regularly traveling – individually – to
different assigned geographical zones to meet
with investors. ‘We visit every major financial
center once a year,’ details Foster. ‘This past
year we went to Korea and Brazil for the first
time, and will probably go to Qatar within the
next six months.
‘We have a very good team of IR profession-
als who have been together for many years.
Elizabeth Allen has been here for 17 years,
Steve Hughes for 15 and Jeff Smith for 13.
From a strategic standpoint, we are mostly
financially oriented: five out of our six team
members have MBAs and two of the four who
visit investors have the CFA designation.’
This breadth of experience at the company,
along with its sound financial expertise,
allows the IR team to handle the majority of
investor meetings, the involvement of senior
management in the IR program being limited
to the quarterly conference calls and the
analyst days. ‘Most of us have been here for
such a long time that we know what we’re
talking about,’ notes Foster.
The team also includes a dedicated social
media expert. ‘For the past year or so, we’ve
FedEx
Covidien
Walmart
Delta Air Lines
Ecolab
IHS
Ryder System
15
14
12
12
12
17
25
Best sustainability practice
‘We have a very good team of IR
professionals who have been
together for many years’
Foster believes getting institutions interested
in growth again is probably one of the biggest
challenges he has faced
The FedEx IR team (left to right): Steve Hughes,
Elizabeth Allen, Mickey Foster, Jeff Smith

US TOP 100
8 Broadcom
Listing information
Mid-cap
NASDAQ
Technology
CEO Scott McGregor
CFO Eric Brandt
Head of IR Chris Zegarelli
IR team Patrick Milton, Nicholas Aberle, Mindi Waggoner
IR team size Four
IR awards
Grand prix for best overall investor relations program – mid-cap
Best in sector – technology (small & mid-cap)
Contact information www.broadcom.com czegarel@broadcom.com +1 949 926 7567
2012 ranking 10
‘In addition to insightful meetings, Broadcom has good disclosure in its reporting, timely updates and a consistent, clear
message’ – sell side
‘The best analyst and investor days in the sector are held by Broadcom, when it provides comprehensive data on all aspects
of the company’ – buy side
‘Broadcom continues to improve its corporate governance and planning. Its IR people do a good job of communicating
strategy’ – online survey
The IR team attends several trade shows
throughout the year, such as the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona. The company
booth is opened up to investors, who can
walk through the different demos and discuss
them with a broad range of management team
members. ‘That way, investors get a very good
sense of what we’ve been doing and what
we’re focused on that year,’ explains Zegarelli.
‘We pride ourselves on treating our
investors with a high level of respect; we
treat them as well as we do our customers.
We like to share with our investors how we
think about corporate development and how
we think about the industry.’
Broadcom has completed roughly 50
B
roadcom had a big breakthrough at the IR Magazine
Awards – US in 2012, when the company skyrocketed
from its previous year’s ranking of 39th to 10th place and
won its ﬁrst three awards. This year, the NASDAQ-listed
semiconductor manufacturer has sustained a remarkable
performance, moving up two spots in the US Top 100 to eighth,
scoring four short lists and winning the mid-cap categories in
the grand prix for best overall investor relations program and
best in sector – technology awards.
‘Our core IR tenets remain intact,’ says head of IR Chris
Zegarelli. ‘We have a very committed management team that
takes IR very seriously. Our bench goes rather deep in terms of the
executives who are ready, willing and able to meet with investors
on a regular basis.’ At Broadcom, investor interactions also go
beyond just the CEO and CFO, with the heads of the various
businesses regularly getting out on the road. ‘We always receive
good feedback on the quality of our analyst day,’ Zegarelli adds.
A broad and deep program

US TOP 100
acquisitions over the years, and when the
company announced the acquisition of fabless
semiconductor company NetLogic last year –
the largest in its corporate history – share-
holders weren’t taken by surprise. ‘Investors
know we’re focused from a growth standpoint,
so when announcements are made they know
it is part of the road map we’ve laid out in
terms of priorities we’ve set.’
The IR team is very thorough in collecting
investor feedback and passing it on to senior
management. ‘The management team will
put together a multi-year plan to address
issues we hear from a majority of our holders,’
highlights Zegarelli. A few years ago, some
investors flagged that the company’s financial
statements were lacking a certain segment of reporting. ‘So
we’ve recently made a great stretch on the level of transparency
in our financial disclosure,’ Zegarelli continues. ‘We’ve also seen
the stock-based compensation rate of our staff come down,
following comments from investors that we were running above
the rate of some of our peers.’
In order to get a consistent interaction with a broader range
of investors, the IR team has made greater efforts this past year
to have a more balanced approach to the regions it visits and the
types of investors it meets. ‘We try to make sure we’re meeting
with similar people and telling our story as our peers are telling
theirs to the same target audience,’ stresses Zegarelli.
A low double-digit percentage of Broadcom’s shares are
held overseas, and the IR team has been doing slightly more
international travel lately. But Zegarelli is conscious that targeting
international investors requires a substantial investment. ‘Given
the broader macro backdrop, it’s hard to get too aggressive on
European or Asian marketing,’ he notes. ‘We would need to
spend a lot more time in cities like London in order to build
the appropriate types of relationships and get people more
comfortable with our story.’
When meeting with investors, Zegarelli finds one big challenge
is reminding them that performance is best measured on a
relative basis. ‘It’s hard to look at absolute performance,’ he
explains. ‘We go to considerable effort in a transparent fashion to
track how our peers are doing, how our industry is performing,
and then putting our results within that context. Broadcom is a
growth story, first and foremost, but keeping focused on the
relative metrics is something we strive for.’
The question of growth is also at the center of Zegarelli’s
strategic responsibilities. ‘As a tech company, especially through
the late 1990s, there was a special focus on top-line growth
versus earnings growth,’ he explains. ‘I’ve been reinforcing the
message internally that investors do care about us consistently
delivering growth in earnings.’
The IR team conducts the analysis of the correlation
between earnings expectations, stock price and perceptions of
the company. ‘By doing this, we are playing a key role in strategic
conversations, focusing investments where they really need to
happen and making sure the top line is growing faster than
operating expenses,’ Zegarelli adds.
He is well versed in strategic planning. Having started his
career at the World Bank in Moscow and graduating from business
school in Michigan, Zegarelli spent 10 years working for other
semiconductor heavyweights on the financial and operational side
of things. He joined Broadcom in 2007, and rotated into the IR
department two years ago. His view on investor relations is that it
is part of a broader skill set for a well-rounded finance profes-
sional. ‘IR has been a great way to build my relationships internally
and to learn the rest of the business as well as how to continually
improve the IR function we have,’ he concludes.
Broadcom
Kansas City Southern
Wyndham Worldwide
Limited Brands
Delta Air Lines
Noble Corp
Skyworks Solutions
Teradata
Alaska Air Group
LinkedIn
Calpine
Ryder System
Dover Corp
Cummins
Catamaran
Marriott International
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Sherwin-Williams
159
147
135
133
124
121
120
120
119
116
114
106
102
102
101
100
164
186
Grand prix for best overall investor
relations program – mid-cap

US TOP 100
9 Cisco Systems
Listing information
Large cap
NASDAQ
Technology
CEO John Chambers
CFO Frank Calderoni
Head of IR Melissa Selcher
IR team
Marilyn Mora, Marty Palka, Carol Villazon, Matt Hardwick, Penelope Bruce, John Choi, Edelita
Tichepco, Brian Dema, Merab Wossen
IR team size 10
Contact information www.cisco.com johnchoi@cisco.com +1 408 526 4000
2012 ranking 20
‘You get an astonishingly speedy response to email requests from Cisco’ – sell side
‘I can only vote for Cisco, because it’s the one company in the sector that has really effective IR. If only others would follow’ –
sell side
‘It may not always answer our questions, but the IR team at Cisco is always willing to engage in dialogue’ – buy side
Interview with Melissa Selcher, senior director of investor
relations
In your view, what speciﬁc reasons may have contributed
to your company being short-listed for the best in sector –
technology award in the large-cap category this year?
We’ve done a really good job of listening to and seeking feedback
from investors and analysts, and I think this really distinguishes
Cisco, from our CEO John Chambers right down through the
ranks. Since our investor base has been shifting, we’ve been
ensuring our story really connects with what our investors are
looking for. We have an active CEO and CFO, but we’ve made a very
consistent effort to get our presidents and also our engineering
leadership in front of investors on a more regular basis. We’ve
also continually tried to strengthen our connection with the
leadership team, making sure we’re at the table for decision
making with the CEO and CFO, which makes us more effective
when we’re communicating with investors and seeking their input.
How is your team set up?
We’re a relatively large team, with members based in the US and
a senior member based in Singapore in charge of our internation-
All systems go
Melissa Selcher, senior director
of IR, Cisco Systems

US TOP 100
How would you describe your tech strategy? Which do you
spend more time on: videoconferencing, website, webcasts,
IR apps or social media?
We feel very fortunate to have our technology; it’s such an asset to
us in terms of being able to connect eye to eye with our investors
no matter where they are, and we use it very aggressively. After
every earnings call, with our CEO and CFO we do face-to-face
meetings over TelePresence. I think that’s extremely powerful.
We’re also doing more virtual roadshows, as a lot of our investors
and analysts have the technology as well.
On a given call, we can have a sell-side analyst hosting us
from his or her TelePresence system, maybe in New York, and
we can have investors calling in from LA, Boston or wherever
they are. Social media is something we definitely monitor and
we partner very closely with our social media PR team. I wouldn’t
say we’ve found a silver bullet yet but we’re focused on figuring
out what makes sense.
Could you detail your investor base?
About two years ago we adopted a new financial model. Prior
to this, we had a long-term growth target of 12 percent to 17
percent. Our new model has a top-line growth target of 5 percent
to 7 percent, growing our bottom line factor then our top line.
We’ve also issued a dividend within the last few years, so the
combination of both has made us an interesting target for a new
set of value investors. We also continue to focus on our non-US
ownership and we’ve seen good progress there as well. We’re
currently about 73 percent institutionally owned, of which 60
percent is US, 13 percent non-US.
How important is senior management to your success
and what makes the IR approach taken by Cisco’s senior
management special?
Our senior management is extremely respectful of what we do
and our partnership with it is critical. We actually sit right next
to the chief executive and CFO, so our interactions are at least
daily, if not several times a day. More broadly, we’re involved in
the business and the decision making: we’re at the table, which
makes us more effective both internally and externally. Our
management team is pretty special in terms of how cognizant
it is of that and how often it calls us in.
Is corporate governance a popular topic, and what do you
think investors appreciate about Cisco’s approach to it?
We are extremely proactive in our strategy relating to corporate
governance. We look at it as a year-long focus. I have a very senior
and accomplished leader who is focused on corporate governance
year-round. As a result I don’t know that we have seen any
significant change in investors’ desire to discuss the issue, but
we do get recognition and appreciation for being as proactive
and on top of it as we are.
al program. The way we’re structured is
that we each own a portfolio of buy-side and
sell-side relationships, and we divide up the
rest of the tasks, with people owning discrete
pieces of the IR job: targeting, earnings
process, M&A transactions, competitive
intelligence and operations & reporting.
Have you done more traveling this year,
and where to?
We definitely travel a lot, and again we’re a
fairly large team so the nice thing is that it’s
divided fairly evenly and therefore not overly
taxing on any one team member. Having a
team based in Asia obviously helps, but we
also have very good video technology in our
TelePresence systems, which connect us
face to face with investors globally.
For example, twice a year, our CEO gets
on TelePresence with a group of investors in
Europe so they can sit eye to eye with him for
an hour and ask him questions. This is very
effective, as it doesn’t require him to travel,
which would be a lot more difficult.
What is the most popular question you get
asked by investors or analysts?
The question is always asked in a lot of differ-
ent ways because the dynamics are different,
but it essentially comes down to how Cisco
is going to lead into the future. We’ve been a
leader in our market for so many years but
because there are always new transitions, new
technologies and new competitors, investors
want to know how Cisco is going to sustain its
leadership. That’s the same question we’ve
received here for a decade.
What do you think the investment community
cares most about when it comes to IR?
People want access to the information they
need and they want to feel like the answer they
get from IR is the same answer they would
get if they were talking to the CEO or chief
financial officer. They also want to know that
their voice and opinion matter to us. I think it
really boils down to this: they want to know the
answers you’re giving them and the feedback
they’re giving you are being communicated
to the CEO and CFO the same way it would if
they were having the conversation directly.

IR Magazine top 100 2013

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