I understand that Fred in IR has a lot of shares,

I understand that Fred in IR has a lot of shares, but I don't understand how he can own shares if he is the IR guy. Isn't that a conflict of interest? Wouldn't t he be able to trade on inside information? Which brings me to my next point- does he actually have access to information the public does not?- or more specifically information which he is not allowed to disclose if asked? If so then that would seem like it would be easy for him to trade on that knowledge. Or maybe he doesn't really have any "material" knowledge-for instance he knows there is a partner in negotiations but he doesn't know what the terms are. Anyone have any thoughts?