MutualFundWire.com: Grandeur Aims for Higher Peaks With New Additions

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Friday, July 13, 2012

Grandeur Aims for Higher Peaks With New Additions

Grandeur Peak Global Advisors [profile] has recently made seven new additions. The hiring of seven summer interns to their team on June 29 has the firm's management team with high hopes that this will lead to "something special."

These seven interns — five in research, one in operations and one in business development — all have lived in foreign countries such as Korea, Brazil, Ukraine and Spain, experiences that CEO Robert Gardiner believes will enhance Grandeur Peak's summer internship program for the future.

Not only do these interns speak several languages, they are also enrolled in renowned universities such as Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and Cornell University. These seven, chosen from as many as 50 applicants, were brought in to assist in template-making, building earnings models and studying competitors in addition to their specific roles.

"To be good at global investing, we knew we needed a broad and seasoned team of investors. We invested in a great team well before we had revenues; and to their credit, each member of our team invested in Grandeur Peak … to be part of creating something special," said Gardiner.

Grandeur Peak currently employs six full-time analysts who travel the globe to appeal to investors, reaching out to almost 900 companies in the last year.

The global equity shop celebrated its one-year anniversary on July 1.

Company Press Release
Grandeur Peak adds 7 interns

Interns will support the firm’s extensive due diligence of global small/micro cap companies
Salt Lake City, Utah (June 29, 2012) – Grandeur Peak Global Advisors, advisor to the Grandeur Peak Funds, has added seven summer interns to their full-time team of nine. Of the seven interns, five are in research, one is in operations, and the other is in business development.

Grandeur Peak reaches its one-year anniversary on July 1st. The firm, whose founding partners came from Wasatch Advisors last summer, was aggressive in assembling a six-person team of skilled investors. CEO Robert Gardiner noted “we were committed from day one to building Grandeur Peak the right way. To be good at global investing we knew we needed a broad and seasoned team of investors. We invested in a great team well before we had revenues; and to their credit, each member of our team invested in Grandeur Peak by taking a significant cut in pay to be part of creating something special.”

The addition of 7 interns this summer is a sign of the early success of the firm and the demands of doing bottom-up fundamental global investing well. The five research interns are assisting the analysts in collecting company information, building earnings models, and studying competitors. Said Chief Investment Officer, Blake Walker, “there are over 30,000 companies in our universe, so there is a lot of screening and due diligence involved in narrowing this list down to what we believe are the best 1-2% of the small and micro cap companies across the globe. Our team has been travelling extensively and has directly touched almost 900 companies in the last year. Having research associates & interns to help us with our thorough due diligence on these companies is a great benefit.”

The Grandeur Peak interns bring with them global experience of their own, having lived in Korea, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, Austria, Ukraine, and Spain. Said firm president Eric Huefner, “Robert Gardiner and I began working at Wasatch Advisors as young kids over 30 years ago. We love the idea of bringing in interns with different experiences and then potentially building a longer relationship with the best young talent. We expect this summer’s internship program will evolve into a year-round program going forward.”