Harrop and Invesco part ways

Invesco Trimark has announced changes to its global equities team, announcing the departure of vice-president and portfolio manager Bruce Harrop.

“It was mutually agreed between Invesco Trimark and Bruce Harrop that new leadership for Trimark Select Growth Fund and Trimark Global Balanced Fund was in the best interest of investors in the funds,” the company said in a press release.

Aside from this terse mention, the company remains tight-lipped about the reasons for Harrop’s departure.

Harrop joined Invesco in 1999, when it was AIM Trimark, and was a three-time winner of the Canadian Investment Award (CIA) as Best Global Balanced and Asset Allocation Fund.

Prior to joining Invesco, he had been a portfolio manager with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and a senior manager at Deloitte Consulting.

Dana Love, president and portfolio manager at Invesco Trimark, has taken over as lead portfolio manager on the Trimark Select Growth Fund, replacing Harrop. Love will be joined on both funds by Heather Peirce, and the pair will be supported by analysts Kevin Kaminski and Seungchan Lee.

“Investors can expect changes to Trimark Select Growth Fund as the team transitions the portfolio to be a patterned portfolio of Trimark Fund,” the company says in a Q & A document it is sending to advisors. “As at August 27, 13 of the 30 holdings of Trimark Fund are also names in Trimark Select Growth Fund.”

The company says there are no plans at this time to merge these two funds.

Trimark Select Growth Fund consists of about $2.24 billion in assets, according to Morningstar.

Jeff Hyrich and Erin Greenfield have assumed portfolio management responsibilities for the equity portion of Trimark Global Balanced Fund, which had also been managed by Harrop. The highly fixed-income portion of the fund will continue to be managed by Rex Chong, Anthony Imbesi, Gary Lew and Alfred Samson.

The Trimark Global Balanced Fund consists of about $796 million, according to Morningstar.

The company also announced the return of Darren McKiernan, who will serve as vice-president and portfolio manager. He will assume portfolio management responsibilities for Trimark Global Dividend Class.

“The changes that we’ve announced today are part of our ongoing efforts to have the strongest team of investment professionals,” said Graham Anderson, chief investment officer at Invesco Trimark. “We’re pleased to have Darren rejoin our organization and to also recognize the contributions of long-standing members of our current team. We’d like to thank Bruce for his services and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

McKiernan was a senior research analyst for global equities with the company from September 1997 to September 2000. Most recently, he was vice-president at Burgundy Asset Management, co-managing more than $1 billion in assets.

The announced changes will have a trickle-down effect to equity pools and corporate class offerings that are based on the funds involved.

(08/31/09)