Mawer Global Equity Fund Portfolio Manager and Leadership Changes

October 23, 2025

Plan sponsors may wish to consider whether this investment news has any implications for the investment options available within their plans. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada purchases units of the funds listed below, which are established as segregated funds in accordance with the Insurance Companies Act (Canada).

Plan sponsors don’t need to take any immediate action as a result of this update.

In July 2025, Mawer announced that Paul Moroz would be re-assuming the role of Lead Portfolio Manager (PM) on the Mawer Global Equity Fund (the Fund). Moroz replaced Christian Deckart, who had led the strategy since 2021. Moroz was a PM on the Fund from 2012 to 2024, and was Lead PM until September 2021, when he moved to a co-PM role. Moroz had moved off the strategy entirely in March 2024 to focus on building a new private equity strategy at Mawer.

Deckart, a PM on the Fund since 2016 became Lead PM and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Mawer in 2024. In June 2025, Mawer announced that Jim Hall would replace Deckart as CIO to allow Deckart to focus more time on managing the Global Equity strategy. Hall was CIO from 2004 to 2018, at which point he moved on to the role of President of the firm. Deckart also relinquished his role as PM on the Global Small Cap strategy in 2024 to free up his time. While no longer PM on the Fund, Deckart continues to support the Global Equity strategy as it transitions to Moroz’s leadership.

In addition to the above change, David Ragan joined the Global Equity strategy as a co-PM. Ragan has been a PM on the International Equity team since 2010 and has a tenure of over 20 years at Mawer. Co-PM Manar Hassan-Agha has been supporting Deckart on Global Equity since March 2024 and will continue to be a member of the PM team. The PM team  now consists of Moroz, Ragan and Hassan-Agha.

Mawer indicated that the decision to change the leadership of the team came from concerns about how the Global Equity portfolio was being managed. Previously, Global Equity was positioned as a ‘best ideas’ portfolio that leverages stock ideas from both the U.S. and International Equity analyst teams. Prior to 2021, there was high overlap between the Global Equity portfolio holdings and those held in the U.S. Equity and International Equity portfolios. More recently, Mawer began to allow the inclusion of investments in the Fund, which were not held in the U.S. or International equity portfolios. The Global Equity strategy also increasingly avoided higher growth sectors like Information Technology and the portfolio had generally become more risk averse. Cash levels were higher than normal, and in Mawer’s opinion, the Global Equity portfolio became more focused on bearish outcomes. Mawer stated that they made attempts to bring the global equity strategy more in line with the firm’s traditional approach, but when the Fund experienced significant underperformance in 2024 and 2025, Mawer made the lead PM change from Deckart back to Moroz. The Mawer Global Equity fund underperformed its benchmark by 12.7% over the two-year period ending June 30, 2025, on an annualized basis. Over the last ten years ending June 30, 2025, the Fund’s annualized return (10.4%) was closer to its benchmark (11.0%).

Moroz indicated that he intends to manage the portfolio similarly to how he managed it during his first tenure as Lead PM. He expects to increase the Fund’s exposures to higher growth sectors and reduce its cash position. He will also increase the number of holdings. Moroz expects the Fund to be fully transitioned by the end of the third quarter of 2025, with total portfolio turnover of approximately 15%.

Mawer has also announced some executive and board level changes, as summarized below:.

  • The CIO will no longer also be a PM.
  • Bruce Geddes, formerly President at PH&N, has assumed the role of CEO.
  • Added three new external Advisory Directors to its Board.

GRS Investment Solutions team view

We met with Mawer and Paul Moroz in July 2025. We have confidence in Paul Moroz and David Ragan and believe that this change is best for the Global Equity strategy. We believe the team is energized under Moroz’s leadership.

We have concerns about the lack of oversight that allowed the Fund to deviate from Mawer’s traditional approach and was only corrected after a period of significant underperformance. The changes seem reactive, and Mawer had just announced in June 2025 that Deckart’s CIO role would transition back to Hall, before pivoting to removing Deckart as PM in July 2025.

We support the separation of the CIO and PM roles and believe it will result in better risk management and more accountability. We also believe the additions of Bruce Geddes and external advisory Board members will improve governance.

We have concerns about the long-term motivation of individuals like Moroz and Hall in returning to previous roles out of necessity. Moroz indicated that he was excited to return and expects to be in the role alongside Ragan for the foreseeable future. Similarly, Hall expects to be CIO for at least three years.

We have placed Mawer Global Equity Fund On Watch. We’ll continue to monitor Mawer and the Global Equity strategy as the leadership, PM team and portfolio transition.

Questions?

Please contact your Sun Life Group Retirement Services representative*.

*In Quebec, registered as a Group annuity plans advisor.