Polaris Capital Management stays true to its roots while preparing for new leadership. It maintains an Average Parent rating.
Bernie Horn founded Polaris Capital Management in 1995; he continues to lead it actively and still owns most of the firm. All its strategies ply the cautious, rigorous approach it has used to run global and international portfolios for three decades. Investing is the core of its corporate culture, with half the firm’s 20 employees in the research department.
Horn remains the CEO but is preparing the firm for his eventual exit. He always planned for another investor to take over and picked portfolio manager Jason Crawshaw as his named successor in 2023. Crawshaw already holds many top leadership duties. Moreover, other second-generation leaders are emerging as longtime executives Kathy Jacobs and CFO Roberto Ramirez have departed. Crawshaw now leans on chief compliance officer Erin Gibson and chief technology officer Andry Sutanto as top lieutenants.
Portfolio managers Horn, Crawshaw, Sumanta Biswas, and Bin Xiao manage USD 5.4 billion in assets. That’s well down from the USD 16 billion managed in 2021. Significant outflows have followed lackluster returns; both the global value and foreign value strategies land in the bottom quartile of their Morningstar Categories over the five years ended February 2026. Given the firm’s conservative style and demanding valuation work, that standing is unsurprising given the strong global equity market. Still, clients surely desire proof that the firm retains its edge before Horn retires.
United States