David Barr, CFA
David Barr is the CEO of Pender. He is also the Portfolio Manager of several of Pender’s funds.
In 2021 David was honoured to be recognized as Investment Executive’s Mutual Fund Manager of the Year. The Pender Small Cap Opportunities Fund, managed by David, was recognized as a Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards Canada 2021 Winner and named the best Canadian Focused Small/Mid Cap Equity Fund over a ten-year performance period. It had previously won a Lipper Fund Award for Best Canadian Small/Mid Cap Fund over both three and five year performance periods in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The Lipper awards recognize consistently strong, risk-adjusted performance relative to peers. The Pender Small Cap Opportunities Fund also received Fundata’s FundGrade® A+ Award for seven consecutive years from 2012 to 2018. The Pender Value Fund, which David co-manages with Felix Narhi, received Fundata’s FundGrade® A+ Award in 2016 and 2017. These awards recognize funds that have maintained “an exceptional performance rating over the entire previous calendar year”.
David began his investing career in 2000. He initially worked in private equity which gives him a unique background to investing capital. At the end of 2007 he became a partner at PenderFund Capital Management Ltd and was appointed Chief Investment Officer with the objective of launching Pender’s mutual fund business. In April 2016 David was appointed President and CEO of Pender upon the retirement of Kelly Edmison. In July 2021, the role was split, with Carlo Desierto joining Pender as President.
David holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2003 and is an active member of the Vancouver chapter. He is a past President of CFA Vancouver, having also served on its Board of Directors for four years.
David has been interviewed for his opinions on small cap, the technology sector and value investing by the Financial Post, The Globe & Mail, Morningstar and other media. He is a regular guest on BNN Bloomberg. In December 2012 Mr. Barr was recognized as one of British Columbia’s “Top Forty Under 40” business leaders by Business in Vancouver.
Value Investing
David is an advocate of value investing, a strategy to estimate the intrinsic value of a company before looking to invest in that company with a “margin of safety” or a discount to intrinsic value. He believes that investing in a company well below intrinsic value decreases the risk and sets it up for generating long term performance. This approach forms the basis of Pender’s overall investment strategy, which aims to preserve and grow client capital.
Contrarian
In order to execute on his value investing strategy David is a true contrarian. To meet his stringent value investing criteria, he looks for value in unpopular places with a view to reducing risk and finding prices that include a margin-of-safety. He refuses to follow the crowds and is driven to find quality at a discount.
Read David’s articles here.
Listen to David’s podcasts here.
