Company

Who We Are

Download our company overview

Pender was founded in 2003 and is an independent, employee-owned investment firm located in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Our goal is to protect and grow wealth for our investors over time. We have a talented investment team of expert analysts, security selectors and independent thinkers who actively manage our suite of differentiated investment funds, exploiting inefficient parts of the investing universe to achieve our goal.

  • We believe that small and nimble funds, such as ours, can be opportunistic, accessing unique investment opportunities that are potentially rewarding for investors.
  • We believe that funds with concentrated portfolios of value‐based investments have the potential to generate superior long‐term, risk‐adjusted returns.
  • We believe that managers who have their own financial interests aligned with those of investors in the fund show greater conviction in their investment process and act with heightened vigilance of both risks and opportunities.
  • We believe that a diverse and inclusive team drives more rounded conversations, leading to better decision making for our funds.

The Pender Edge – What factors give us an advantage?

Brief History

2003Pender was established in Vancouver, British Columbia. Used a value-based investment approach to manage our venture capital fund, the Pender Growth Fund Inc.
2009Used our experience in venture capital as a springboard to launch into mutual funds with the inception of the Pender Small Cap Opportunities Fund and the Pender Corporate Bond Fund.
2010Expanded our mutual fund business with the launch of the Pender Strategic Growth & Income Fund. Provided additional liquidity to unitholders with the restructuring of  Pender Growth Fund Inc which began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PTF.
2011Clients entrusted us with over $100 million invested in Pender’s funds.
2012Held our first Pender Investment Ideas Conference.
2013Felix Narhi joined Pender and the investment partnership between Felix and David Barr began. Launched the Pender US All Cap Equity Fund (renamed the Pender Global Focused Fund in June 2021) and the Pender Value Fund.
2015Brought all formerly sub-advised funds in-house to be managed “The Pender Way”. Geoff Castle joined Pender to manage the Pender Corporate Bond Fund. 
2016Transition in leadership as Kelly Edmison became Chairman and David Barr became President & CEO.
2017Returned to our roots with the addition of Maria Pacella as SVP, Private Equity. Moved from regional to national distribution – all funds became available to investors in all Provinces and Territories of Canada.
2018Launched the Pender Technology Inflection Fund 1 Limited Partnership and made our first investment. Gina Jones joined Pender as CFO. Clients entrusted us with over $1 billion invested in Pender’s funds.
2019The 10-year anniversary of the mutual fund business. Held our first due diligence event. By this point, clients had entrusted us with over $1.5 billion invested in Pender’s funds.  We assumed management of the Working Opportunity Fund and transitioned five funds from Vertex One Asset Management to Pender.  
2020Launched the Pender Bond Universe Fund and the Pender Small-Mid Cap Dividend Fund.
2021

Geoff Scott joined Pender as Senior Vice President, Investments and Carlo Desierto joined Pender as President (David Barr remains CEO). Launched the Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund. Pender Growth Fund Inc. completes the acquisition of Working Opportunity Fund.

2022

Launched the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund.