Tyra Tutor is the senior vice president of Investor Relations and Business Development coordinator for The MPS Group, headquartered in Jacksonville at the Modis building. She has been with the company since 1997 and her position involves a combination of investor relations with public relations and marketing. She received her master’s degree in accounting from the University of Florida.
Prior to this job?
“I worked for five years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Jacksonville. The MPS Group was my largest client so I was familiar with them since 1991 when I worked for them as a tax professional.”
What does your job entail?
“If you just look at the investor relations part, it’s evolved into today me being the primary spokesperson to what I call Wall Street, meaning potential share holders, analysts that cover staffing stock, and potential analysts. I speak to them and help prepare for presentations and meetings with shareholders and potential shareholders. There is a regulation that puts boundaries on what companies can and can’t say to a potential investor, and I’m in charge of making sure we adhere to the regulations.”
When did you start doing public relations?
“2001. I was given the responsibility of our public relations and marketing department, and that has some similarities to investor relations in that you are telling an audience who you are. In investor relations I’m telling potential shareholders who we are and what we’re about; in marketing, we’re telling potential clients who we are and what we’re about. So it certainly seemed like a reasonable fit to be able to do both, but with the investor relations responsibilities, I have access to the CEO and the CFO in my daily activities and having that knowledge over marketing helps, I believe sometimes provide insight as we’re preparing marketing materials.”
Background in public relations?
“As an accountant we did have a few courses on it in college, probably more marketing than PR. Anytime I try to give college students advice, I tell them to try to do accounting because accountants can do marketing, but if you get a marketing degree, you probably can’t do accounting. Public relations is not as correlated as marketing, but I’m glad that I’m able to have the opportunity to speak to the media about what I know we’re allowed to tell Wall Street and kind of put that all together. When it comes to directly talking to media, sometimes we do hire a firm because it’s nice to have the experts helping us versus trying to do that on our own.”
What do you like best about your job?
“Probably the people I work with. I believe I have a unique position in having access to Wall Street analysts and shareholders. I enjoy MPS Group itself. It’s a great company to work for, but I definitely like the marketing side of it, too. It’s fun trying to think of how we can sell ourselves to our customers.”
What do you like the least about your job?
“When the stock goes down and I start getting the phone calls from the shareholders asking me why the stock is going down. Those are the days that I don’t look forward to.”
Organizations
“The Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). I’m on the board of the Chamber and on the board and head of the finance committee for the Otis Smith Kids Foundation. I’m also the finance head for my church, the Jacksonville Beach Church of Christ.”
Personal
She was born in Nashville, attended high school in Lake City and was graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting.
She and her husband Mark, a former golf professional who now sells real estate, live in Ponte Vedra with their two daughters. She is a certified diver and an avid snow skier. She says she loves John Grisham books “when I have time to read them.” Favorite restaurants include Sneakers at the Beach and Roy’s Restaurant.