Each month we track changes to the management teams of actively managed, equity-oriented funds and ETFs. That excludes index funds and most fixed income funds. The index fund exclusion is pretty straightforward: in a passive fund, the managers are interchangeable cogs whose presence or absence is almost always inconsequential to the fund’s performance.

Similarly, most bond fund managers have a very limited ability to add value. For instance, over the past ten years, the top-performing Core Bond fund in the Lipper universe outperformed its peers by just 1% per year with a virtually identical Sharpe ratio (0.98 for the top returning fund, 0.97 for the top returning the average fund). The best global income and flexible income managers outperformed by 3.5 and 2.4%, respectively, which is comparable to the margin between the best large-core equity fund managers and the pack.

This month, we noted 55 funds with changes in their management teams. The 700-pound gorilla is the decision by Grandeur Peaks Global founder Robert Gardiner to embark on a three-year sabbatical. Given the consistent and distinctive excellence of the Grandeur Peak family, along with its combination of shareholder sensitivity and consistent growth, Mr. Gardiner’s absence is necessarily news. He directly and intelligently addresses the decision, and his reason for confidence in it, in his annual chairman’s letter:

I will be taking a three-year sabbatical from Grandeur Peak to serve as a mission president with my wife, Susie, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will continue to work full time at Grandeur Peak until that date, and then will remain Chairman of the Board and attend quarterly board meetings during my three-year sabbatical. I expect to return full-time to Grandeur Peak in July of 2025, and hope to return to the roles of analyst, mentor, and Guardian Portfolio Manager on several of our global funds. I started in the money management business at the age of 16. After nearly forty years of trying to help people improve their financial future, Susie and I decided, when presented with this request from our church leaders, that serving as a mission president would be a wonderful adventure and provide another great opportunity to give back, as I personally have been given so much. As you may remember, I served as a missionary in France for two years as a 19-year-old young man, and found it to be a challenging and wonderfully rewarding experience. My church/religion has been a central and important part of my entire life. Susie and I believe we can spread a message of hope and peace, tolerance and love. The chance to oversee, nurture and love a hundred or more missionaries is a great responsibility and something we are excited to undertake. Working with young people is a real passion of ours. I have been blessed by so many mentors in my life and I love playing this role for future generations. During my three-year sabbatical, I will remain engaged in the strategic direction of the firm through quarterly board meetings, but I will be doing no meaningful research to help our investment team. I also intend to remain one of the largest individual shareholders in the Funds.

Careful readers might note Mr. Gardiner’s confidence in returning in 2025, but also the new roles he delineates: “analyst, mentor, and Guardian Portfolio Manager.” That is, no longer the day-to-day guy. There’s more to life than making or managing money. We wish Mr. Gardiner well on his upcoming adventure, even as we turn a slightly anxious eye to our Grandeur Peak holdings.

The letter, by the way, is well worth reading for its reflections on the markets – our and China’s – as well as discussions of the firm’s commitment to growth and diversity.

Quite separately, Larry Puglia’s impending retirement continues to send out ripples, away from the T. Rowe Price funds that he’s so skillfully managed and out into the universe of funds for which he (and Price) serve as the sub-advisor.