David Barr is the CEO of Pender. He is also the Portfolio Manager of several of Pender’s funds.
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 CEO of Pender upon the retirement of Kelly Edmison.
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.
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.
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.
Fund Performance In the second quarter, our Fund delivered a strong return of 11.0%[1], marking a significant rebound from the negative performance in the first quarter. The Fund outperformed both the Canadian and US markets, with the S&P/TSX Composite Index gaining 8.5% and the Russell 2000 Index (CAD) rising 2.7%. The muted performance of the […]
Fund Performance In the first quarter of 2025, our Fund declined -11.7%[1], mirroring the performance of US small cap markets as measured by the Russell 2000 Index (CAD), which fell -9.4%. In contrast, the S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 1.5%, and the S&P/TSX Small Cap Index rose 1.0%. This divergence between US and Canadian markets reflects […]
Fund Performance The Pender Value Fund continued to perform well, returning 12.6% in the fourth quarter and bringing 2024 returns to 55.9%[1]. The performance in the quarter outpaced the S&P/TSX Composite Index which gained 3.8%, as well as the S&P/TSX Small Cap Index which gained 0.7%. While broad small caps continued to trail large caps, […]
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