Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc., a veteran and vocal institutional money manager based in Montreal, has named a new president, marking a significant leadership change as the firm\u2019s two co-founders step back after 40 years.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the firm announced David Despr\u00e9s is taking the reins as co-founder Daniel Brosseau steps back to a senior adviser role. Mr. Brosseau created the firm with Peter Letko in 1987, and Mr. Letko took his own step back in 2024.<\/p>\n
Mr. Despr\u00e9s is a familiar face to employees. He joined the money manager in 2001 and rose to lead the investment team. Most recently, he was executive vice-president.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Mr. Despr\u00e9s characterized the transition as a \u201cplanned and thoughtful process\u201d that started a decade ago with the creation of an independent board of directors. \u201cThis is really the outcome of a ten-year cycle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Despr\u00e9s also stressed that both the Letko and Brosseau families will remain significant shareholders of the privately held firm. Letko Brosseau had $22.5-billion in assets under management as of May.<\/p>\n
The firm was created in 1987 after the two co-founders worked for Canadian National Railway\u2019s pension fund, and they built a reputation for speaking out on matters they felt was of public importance. In 2019, for instance, the firm held 4 per cent of Encana Corp.\u2019s shares \u2013 the company has since been re-named Ovintiv \u2013 and Letko Brosseau publicly fought the company\u2019s relocation to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed move is contrary to Encana\u2019s best interests, and reflects a profound absence of concern for the protection and enhancement of shareholder value,\u201d Letko Brosseau said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n
Decades ago, fund managers routinely spoke out because they held a lot of sway in public markets, but it is much less common today. Letko Brosseau, though, has kept it up.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Mr. Letko and Mr. Brosseau testified before the House of Commons\u2019 standing committee on finance and submitted a 62-page supporting document to its members, arguing that Canadian pension funds should have incentives to make investing more money at home more attractive.<\/p>\n
It was a full-circle moment for the two men, who had argued the opposite two decades before. Canadian pension funds used to invest most of their money at home, because legislation prevented them from investing more than 10 per cent of their assets outside of Canada.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the firm will continue to speak up, Mr. Despr\u00e9s, the new president, said it will continue where appropriate. \u201cThis is really part of our DNA,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are known for doing our in-depth, independent research,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthere is definitely a need in the marketplace for a firm like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing that has changed recently, however, is an expansion of Letko Brosseau\u2019s services to high net-worth clients and advisers. Historically, the firm managed money for institutional investors, but this spring it opened its doors to a broader range of clients, something some of the largest investment managers around the world have also been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was simply to make available our investment strategies to retail advisers,\u201d Mr. Despr\u00e9s said, adding that nothing much changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc., a veteran and vocal institutional money manager based in Montreal, has named a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,2338,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-913027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-montreal","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}