Interview #99 : Darcy Morris (Ewing Morris Investment Partners)
Interview #99 : Darcy Morris (Ewing Morris Investment Partners)
Alternative thinking, innovative investing
For this issue we have the pleasure of interviewing Darcy Morris, CEO & Co-Founder of Ewing Morris Investment Partners Ltd.
⚡ Consider becoming a Paid Subscriber to read these interviews in full, and gain access to all the other great content too.
Paid subscribers receive…
24 Stock Pitches newsletter per year (360+ ideas)
Quarterly Fund Manager Letters Round-up newsletter (4 per year)
We have subscribers from all around the world who enjoy consuming our content.
This includes fund managers, analysts, family offices, and other institutions. We have many individual investors and students who enjoy the content too.
If you’ve not done so already we hope you consider becoming a paid subscriber to get all the full benefits (and a shedload of stock ideas too).
Hi Darcy, thanks so much for taking the time out to do this interview.
Can you please tell readers about your background, and how you got involved in investing?
I grew up in a household where hard work and frugality were core values. My father was a lawyer, and my mother was an entrepreneur, which exposed me to both the analytical and creative sides of business. I also played competitive hockey, which instilled in me a strong sense of discipline and a competitive spirit.
At 15, I landed a job on the bond trading floor at Cantor Fitzgerald, UK investment bank. This was in the 90s, a pre-electronic trading era filled with excitement but also a very transactional atmosphere.
After graduating from university with a degree in political science and economics, I was torn between law and finance.
However, my experience at Cantor Fitzgerald had sparked my curiosity — I wanted to understand who was on the other end of the phone making those trades.
Through a series of informational interviews, I discovered the world of the buy-side and sell-side. I was drawn to the idea of being on the buy-side and secured an interview at a well-respected value investing firm in Toronto.
They had a recommended reading list, including classics like Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor and Warren Buffett's shareholder letters. I devoured these books in the lead-up to my interview, and it was a turning point for me.
I realized that stocks weren’t just ticker symbols but represented fractional ownership in real businesses.
Investing offered a perfect blend of my life experiences — a love for reading and writing from my father, an entrepreneurial mindset from my mother, and a competitive edge from hockey.
I got lucky in that first interview; when the CEO asked me about investment books, I was able to impress him by discussing the entire reading list, and that helped me land the job.
Why did you decide to launch your own business, and who do you manage funds on behalf of?
I've always had an entrepreneurial streak, heavily influenced by my mother, who encouraged me to think in ten-year increments—an approach that often leads to achieving goals sooner than expected.
There was a pivotal moment early in my career that set me on the path to founding Ewing Morris. One day, the CEO of my firm invited me to accompany him to a commencement speech he was giving at a Canadian university.
After his speech, a graduate asked if he had any regrets. He candidly shared that while he was proud of his achievements, he sometimes wished he had started his firm earlier. That was a light bulb moment for me.
I had always thought you had to wait until you were 50 to launch your own firm, but here was a mentor, at the peak of his career, telling me that his biggest regret was not starting sooner.
That realization led me to launch Ewing Morris a few days after my 30th birthday. We believed there was room in Canada for a next-generation firm started by relatively young professionals with solid track records.
Most private asset management firms in Canada were founded in the late 80s or early 90s and had grown substantially but were now grappling with succession issues. Our thesis was that many high-net-worth families would diversify with a smaller, younger firm that had a long runway.
We capitalized the firm with enough cash to operate for at least three years, allowing us to waive management fees for early-stage investors who allocated $500,000 or more for one year. We estimated our breakeven AUM at $30 million, which we achieved within our first 12 months.
Today, our AUM is around $900 million, and we've diversified into small-cap value, credit, shareholder activism, and opportunistic real estate.
We primarily manage funds on behalf of Canadian families and high-net-worth investors, as well as foundations and small institutions.
You’ve done a tremendous job of growing your business since 2011.
What do you attribute this success to, and what is the most difficult aspect of operating an investment business?
Our success is rooted in genuinely caring about our clients. From day one, John Ewing and I decided to build an investment firm we would want to be clients of ourselves.
This means delivering strong, consistent returns, communicating openly and candidly—whether the news is good or bad—and aligning our interests with our clients'. A substantial portion of our AUM comes from partners of the firm, which underscores this alignment.
On the investment side, we focus on "doing what others can't or won't." This approach has led us to engage in shareholder activism, with the principals of our firm having served on over a dozen public boards.