Dear Fellow Shareholders,
Each year, alongside the September 1st annual update of the Grandeur Peak Funds Prospectus, we share a brief overview of what we believe to be the meaningful changes made to the Prospectus.
We are thrilled to welcome our Founder and Chairman, Robert Gardiner, back from his three-year sabbatical. Since returning, Robert has spent the past two months thoughtfully identifying where he can contribute most effectively and working with our leadership team to refine our strategic focus and team structure to place greater emphasis on our global industry expertise while modestly reducing our geographic assignments. We believe this shift will empower our analysts to dive deeper into their research and develop an even stronger understanding of our companies and potential investments.
There are two important changes happening effective September 1, 2025.
1. Changes to the Global Explorer Fund (GPGEX)
Since its launch in 2021, Global Explorer has been a long-list portfolio managed by our geography teams. It has been a sister strategy to Global Reach, designed to invest through a geographic lens and complement the industry emphasis of Global Reach. What we’ve seen in practice is the two funds being more redundant than expected; meanwhile we’ve been missing an opportunity to better scour the smid-cap universe for the high-quality growth companies that set Grandeur Peak apart. As such, we are making three changes to the Global Explorer Fund:
- Re-positioning the focus of the Fund to invest primarily in small-/mid-cap companies going forward (>$1.5 billion market cap at the time of purchase) instead of micro-/small-caps.
- Moving the management of the Fund to our industry teams. Resources are being added to each industry team and they will now thoroughly cover micro- through mid-cap as they manage both Global Reach and Global Explorer. Global Reach will remain a long-list “umbrella” Fund for our micro-/small-cap strategies, while Global Explorer will become a shorter “best-ideas” Fund in the small-/mid-cap space providing industry leadership to our Stalwarts Funds. Geography assignments will remain within our team, but they will no longer be at the Portfolio Manager (PM) level.
- Reducing the Fund management fee from 1.10% to 0.80% and the expense cap from 1.25% to 1.10% to align with our other smid-cap strategies.
2. Portfolio Manager Changes
Robert is more than fully re-engaged at this point. He has met with every member of our firm one-on-one, spent a good amount of time with our leadership team, looked over the portfolios, and begun digging into individual companies. He has carefully chosen where he would like to re-insert himself and how he can be most useful to the team. He is dividing up his efforts into Lead PM roles on Global Opportunities and Global Contrarian, and Guardian PM roles – mostly on our other global strategies, and other mentoring roles. Below is a table outlining the PM changes across all impacted Funds as we re-insert Robert and shift the Global Explorer team. Also of note, Preston Williams is being promoted to an Industry PM. Preston joined us in 2016 and has been focused on the Health Care industry for the past seven years. He received an MBA from Columbia Business School and holds the CFA designation.
PRIOR | NEW | |||
PM | Guardian PM | PM | Guardian PM | |
Global Opportunities | Benjamin Gardiner | Amy Hu Sunderland | Juliette Douglas | Benjamin Gardiner |
Blake Walker | Robert Gardiner | Amy Hu Sunderland | ||
Blake Walker | ||||
International Opportunities | Juliette Douglas | Juliette Douglas | Robert Gardiner | |
Blake Walker | Blake Walker | |||
Global Stalwarts | Brad Barth | Phil Naylor | Brad Barth | Robert Gardiner |
Randy Pearce | Randy Pearce | Phil Naylor | ||
Global Micro Cap | Spencer Hackett | Spencer Hackett | Robert Gardiner | |
Amy Hu Sunderland | Amy Hu Sunderland | |||
Global Contrarian | Blake Walker | Spencer Hackett | Robert Gardiner | Spencer Hackett |
Dane Nielson | ||||
Blake Walker | ||||
Global Reach | Brad Barth | Randy Pearce | Brad Barth | Robert Gardiner |
Liping Cai | Benjamin Gardiner | Amy Hu Sunderland | ||
Juliette Douglas | Tyler Glauser | |||
Benjamin Gardiner | Phil Naylor | |||
Tyler Glauser | Preston Williams | |||
Phil Naylor | ||||
Amy Hu Sunderland | ||||
Global Explorer | Liping Cai | Blake Walker | Brad Barth | Robert Gardiner |
Juliette Douglas | Benjamin Gardiner | Amy Hu Sunderland | ||
Benjamin Gardiner | Tyler Glauser | |||
Spencer Hackett | Phil Naylor | |||
Dane Nielson | Preston Williams | |||
Randy Pearce | ||||
Amy Hu Sunderland | ||||
Conner Whipple | ||||
Emerging Markets Opportunities | Juliette Douglas | Liping Cai | Liping Cai | |
Blake Walker | Juliette Douglas | |||
Blake Walker | ||||
International Stalwarts | Brad Barth | Blake Walker | Brad Barth | Blake Walker |
Randy Pearce | Randy Pearce | |||
US Stalwarts | Brad Barth | Phil Naylor | Brad Barth | Phil Naylor |
Randy Pearce | Randy Pearce |
Tan highlights PMs coming off; Blue highlights PMs being added
New Fund – International Contrarian (GICYX)
You may also notice that the Grandeur Peak International Contrarian Fund (GICYX) is included in the prospectus. The Fund has been filed with the SEC but not launched yet. It is a sister fund to the Global Contrarian Fund. We will notify you when this Fund is ready for launch.
We are excited about the changes and the path ahead. Feel free to reach out anytime with questions. You may also reach our shareholder services team at 855-377-7325(PEAK) and find our latest updates at www.grandeurpeakglobal.com.
Best Regards,
Todd, Jesse, & Amy
Todd Matheny, CAIA®
Head of Client Relations
801.384.0095
Jesse Pricer, CFA®
Exec. Director, Client Relations
801.384.0010
Amy Johnson, CFP®
Sr. Manager, Client Relations
801.384.0044
An investment in Grandeur Peak Funds involves risk, including loss of principal. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus containing this and other information, visit grandeurpeakglobal.com or call 1-855-377-PEAK (7325). Please read it carefully before investing.
CFA® is a trademark owned by CFA Institute. The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation is issued by the CFA Institute. Candidates must meet one of the following prerequisites: undergraduate degree and 4 years of professional experience involving investment decision-making, or 4 years qualified work experience (full time, but not necessarily investment related). Candidates are then required to undertake extensive self-study programs (250 hours of study for each of the 3 levels) and pass examinations for all 3 levels.
Grandeur Peak Funds are distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC). Todd Matheny, Jesse Pricer and Amy Johnson are registered representatives of Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, which is not affiliated with Grandeur Peak Global Advisors or its affiliates.