FCLTGlobal is pleased to announce the appointment of Ariel Fromer Babcock, CFA, as the new Head of Research. Babcock will assume the leadership of Research after being a Director on FCLTGlobal’s research team since 2017.   

Babcock has led FCLTGlobal’s work on governance, innovation and engagement with a particular focus on how investment behavior can shift toward the long term via effective corporate strategy and investor communications. Her work on the detrimental effects of quarterly earnings per share guidance, Moving Beyond Quarterly Guidance: A Relic of the Past, has quickly become a seminal report in FCLTGlobal’s anthology, encapsulating the negative impact of the quarterly corporate mindset on long-term value creation.

A follow-up report, 2019’s Driving the Conversation: Long-term roadmaps for long-term success, makes the case for corporate roadmaps, a company’s clear long-term strategy and a substitute for short-term oriented planning. Ariel’s most recent work examines the role of a company’s board of directors, and identifies proven steps boards can take if they aim to be long-term leaders with a farsighted vision of corporate success.

In 2019, the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the largest professional investor relations association in the world, recognized Babcock as part of its inaugural class of its “40 Under 40” program that recognizes those who “have made noticeable contributions to their companies, communities, the IR profession, and to NIRI”.

“Ariel’s depth of experience and leadership of the organization since the early days have positioned her to be our next Head of Research, driving the agenda towards rewiring capital markets for sustainable growth.” said Sarah Keohane Williamson, FCLTGlobal’s CEO. “We are very excited to welcome her in this new role as a leader of the discussion on the growth of long-term investing and the role institutional investors can play in shaping the future of capital markets.”

Babcock is an equity investment professional with over a decade of experience in the financial industry. After starting her career as a trader and research analyst at a long-short financial sector focused hedge fund, she moved on to managing value focused mutual funds at both American Independence Financial Services and Calamos Investments. More recently Babcock worked with clean energy company Tecogen Inc. as Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications.

Ariel holds a BA in Economics and Environmental Studies from Tufts University, is a CFA charterholder, and is an active member of CFA Society Boston where she is a Financial Literacy Alliance Leader.