Precisely Sentiment, Innes is purely IR. And...he may well fit the role because as a broker, that is what they do to get and keep customers. But, I am beginning to question exactly why he was hired recently.
First of all, Innes is not a policy maker. He is not a decision maker. And everything he does, when facing the public, is controlled and vetted by Les. He as much confirmed this in his reaching out email where he stated that......"Les asked me to reach out to investors...." or words to this effect. He is taking the lead from Les and de facto if not de jure reports to him. Les is now insulated by Innes as LP was insulated by Les.
So I don't believe there will be any meaningful change in information revelations. Without the fuel of information, relations with investors cannot improve because same old won't cut it anymore. The only thing that is meaningful information at this point is when and what top line reveal. If the news is good, you don't need an IR guy. The data essentially should speak for itself. The announcement will be made, assuredly, by LP. Innes is certainly not needed for that. Hence, without any meaningful info to reveal to the hoi polloi retail investor, what is his role? I would say that currently, he is not needed and a poor allocation of limited resources.
Innes, I am certain, did not leave his position at Oppenheimer to work at at deep discount. In order to attract him, I am certain that he is being compensated handsomely with a salary of at least $250K(as rumored and sounds reasonable) plus beaucoup stock options. Personally, I would have opted to hire a CFO. At the very least, NWBO would be able to get its reports out on time. There would be better governance and credibility wrt such a hire.
Right now, it appears that Innes provides questionable value considering that he is getting quite a sizable compensation. In effect, Les continues as a "spokesman" through Innes. The quality of information and transparency will continue as before.
If the top line data is impressive and all endpoints met, then of course, the data speaks for itself. In effect, the revelation of such data acts as its own IR. If the data falls short, no amount of "IR" is going to turn it around. In either case, an extra layer of IR which for all intents and purposes is managed by Les and accordingly, I see questionable value in Innes. Sparse resources can be better allocated to hire a CFO as stated above.
Further, Innes reaching out to retail is shop worn. After introducing himself and serving the "kool aid"(I know because I have already reached out and spoken to him; nice guy but really what else is new?) what else can he say that Les already has said and has in any event written the script for Innes. I don't know about others on this MB but I am tired of the same old. If there isn't a change for transparency(up to now there isn't much if any), then I prefer silence rather than IR which is at least now un-necessary IMHO.
Even if the results at top line are impressive, the share price, without significant buy in by financial institutions, may not rise significantly. Retail is not enough to accomplish significant and sustained share price altitude. Innes needs to reach out to these institutions but he may be significantly hampered because NWBO is a penny stock and not on a major exchange. This may engender impetus to accomplish a risky reverse split which is just what the MMs are looking for--altitude to short, rinse and repeat and back to the pink sheets.
Further, what connections does Innes have? He is not in NY/Wall Street. He is in a relative backwater satellite office. He was a senior director which is not a very senior position at Oppenheimer, not a Vice President. What influence/leverage does he have with the all important financial institutions? He certainly does not appear to be a Wall Street "insider".
These are issues that should be of major concern. Just the hire of Innes for IR is not, in and of itself, of great import. What real incremental value does he add? I have a difficult time trying to understand this. I can understand a CFO. However, NWBO should at least for now choose one or the other considering its resources. If anything, the IR position needs to establish credibility and strong ties with larger institutions. Their interest will propel the stock much more than long suffering retail.
Bottom line, I think at least for now, IR/Innes is a "luxury" that NWBO can ill afford. Just like spending on big booths at ASCO financed in the past by toxic financing and now through the sale of Sawston. And where did all this largesse get us? $0.14 and now $0.27?
JMHO.
