Travel is a passion for Lynette Gould, Director of Investor Relations at Goldcorp Inc., with Greece and Italy tied for her all-time favorite destinations. She recently returned from a self-guided bike tour of Tuscany, with side trips to Rome, Florence, and Pompeii. “I like to get exercise on vacation because I’m going to be eating and drinking a lot,” she laughs.

Gould’s wanderlust comes in handy because planning arduous trips is part of what she does professionally. Goldcorp, which is followed by 25 sell-side analysts and numerous institutional investors in Canada and the U.S., has nearly a dozen gold mines in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina.

Of particular interest is the company’s Ontario-based Red Lake mine, which is one of the highest-grade gold mines in the world, with an average grade of over two ounces of gold per tonne. There, site visitors don full protective gear and see gold waiting to be excavated. She finds underground mines fascinating because visitors travel over a kilometre below the earth’s surface before reaching a site that resembles “a little city.”

Arranging tours to remote mine sites for up to 50 investors isn’t easy, especially for someone as detail-oriented as Gould. “I really like things to go off without a hitch,” she says. To reach one of Goldcorp’s Argentinian mines, for instance, she chartered a plane from Buenos Aires and then arranged transportation to the mine site. “I’m always proud when I successfully get everybody out of the mines safely and back on a plane,” she says.

The Path to IR

Gould began her career at GrowthWorks, a labour-sponsored venture capital company in Vancouver. She analyzed business plans for companies in all industries except two restricted ones: real estate and mining. She finds it mildly ironic that she is now working in one of the industries with which she had no direct experience.

Even though her present career is one she never imagined pursuing, IR fulfills the requirements that she’d outlined for herself at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she graduated with a business administration degree. Gould knew she wanted to be in finance, but she didn’t see portfolio management or accounting as the career path she wanted. Before entering the IR field, she earned her CFA designation in what she describes as “one of the hardest courses of my life.”

For Gould, becoming an IRO made perfect professional sense. “I looked at the job description and it fit what I love in a job,” she says. “IR has a finance component but you also get to work with senior executives.” Gould’s background in venture capital prepared her to review business plans and liquidation scenarios, but it was also exceptional training in the “personal skills” needed for dealing with executive management teams, investors and analysts.

Learning the Ropes

Gould’s IR career began at Seaspan Ship Management Ltd. Five years ago she saw her current job posted on a CIRI employment site. She was impressed by the openness and transparency of CEO Chuck Jeannes and Jeff Wilhoit, Vice President, Investor Relations.

As part of an IR team of two, Gould and Wilhoit take a tag-team approach, each “doing a bit of everything,” she explains. “I draft press releases, and then he’ll take over. He’s the writer and so he does the next copy before it goes to the executives.” From there, she makes sure the releases are distributed by the newswires.

For Gould, the hallmarks of an effective IRO are “transparency, respect, openness, and listening to what your investors and analysts are asking.” She strives to respond to Goldcorp’s analysts and investors within an hour of receiving a call. “Analysts get questions from investors and it’s our job in investor relations to get back to them as soon as possible, and our investors need a timely response as well, as they are making buy and sell decisions every day.”

Three years ago, Gould joined the executive of the BC Chapter of CIRI and has gained invaluable practical advice from the experience. “If I want outside input, I can call up someone at a different company and say: ‘Who are you guys using for your targeting software?’ I think CIRI is a great place to network with people within investor relations.”