# Pathfinder

Pathfinder is an Asset Manager based in Minnetonka, New Zealand.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** Minnetonka, New Zealand
- **Region:** Oceania
- **Address:** Level 37, PwC Tower, 15 Customs Street West, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
- **Founded:** 2009
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** pathfinder.kiwi
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/path-fdr

## About

John Berry and Paul Brownsey co-founded Pathfinder Asset Management in 2009, applying their institutional finance backgrounds to a then-nascent proposition: a New Zealand-based manager offering only ethically screened funds. The firm launched its first managed fund in 2010 and expanded to five strategies before entering the retirement-savings market in July 2019 with the Pathfinder KiwiSaver Plan, originally branded CareSaver. Pathfinder is 100% locally owned and operates as a certified B Corp. Pathfinder’s product shelf spans two wrappers. Its KiwiSaver plan has four risk-graded portfolios — Conservative, Balanced, Growth, and High Growth — while its managed-fund range includes Ethical Growth, Ethical Trans-Tasman, Global Responsibility, Global Property, Global Water, and a Green Bond fund. The approach combines negative screening with active tilts toward companies contributing to environmental and social solutions, with a stated ambition to be climate positive. The firm covers equities, real property, and fixed income across New Zealand, Australia, and global markets. Pathfinder lists 18 professionals led by CEO John Berry and CIO David Lewis, with compliance oversight from Mei Fong. The firm operates from a single office in Auckland’s PwC Tower. In 2021, Alavarium acquired Pathfinder to support the KiwiSaver plan’s growth. The acquisition introduced new directors — Shane Edmond and Brett Gamble — without altering the firm’s stated ethical mandate. Pathfinder donates to local charities and co-chairs its Ethics and Investment Committee with Kent Fraser and Anya Satyanand, embedding governance that reports independently of the investment team. Pathfinder’s structure as an acquired boutique within a broader group is rare among dedicated ethical managers in New Zealand. While the Alavarium transaction brought commercial backing, the firm has retained its proprietary ethical screens and branding, operating with a dual-board architecture that separates compliance and ethics oversight from day-to-day investment decisions. That governance layer, combined with a retail-only distribution model through KiwiSaver and direct managed funds, creates a compliance-intensive posture unusual for a sub-$20-person shop.

## Sectors

- Ethical Investing
- KiwiSaver
- Managed Funds
- Real Estate
- Fixed Income
- Equities

## People

- John Berry — Co-Founder, CEO, Member of Ethics & Investment Committee, Director
- Paul Brownsey — Co-Founder
- David Lewis — Chief Investment Officer
- Lily Richards — Chief Marketing and Client Officer
- Mei Fong — Chief Compliance Officer, Director, and Member of Ethics & Investment Committee

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Pathfinder?

Chief Investment Officer David Lewis leads portfolio construction and manager selection, with oversight from the Ethics and Investment Committee co-chaired by Kent Fraser and Anya Satyanand. Co-founder and CEO John Berry sits on that committee. The structure separates day-to-day investment management from the ethical-screening framework, which is governed independently of Lewis’s team.

### How does Pathfinder apply its ethical screens?

Pathfinder uses exclusionary filters to avoid sectors it considers harmful — historically including fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco, and gambling — while tilting toward companies with positive environmental and social characteristics. The firm describes its posture as a dual approach: avoid the bad, invest in the good. Specific screening criteria are detailed in the Product Disclosure Statements updated as of March 2026.

### What investment vehicles does Pathfinder offer?

Pathfinder manages four KiwiSaver funds — Conservative, Balanced, Growth, and High Growth — and six standalone managed funds: Ethical Growth, Ethical Trans-Tasman, Global Responsibility, Global Property, Global Water, and Green Bond. All products carry the firm’s ethical overlay, with the managed-fund range providing more targeted thematic exposure to property, water infrastructure, and green fixed income.

### What is Pathfinder’s relationship to Alavarium?

Alavarium acquired Pathfinder in 2021 to support the growth of the Pathfinder KiwiSaver Plan. Post-acquisition, Pathfinder retained its brand, ethical investment approach, and Auckland-based team. Directors Shane Edmond and Brett Gamble joined the board as part of the transaction. The firm remains 100% locally owned.

## Related profiles

- [Pathena](https://altss.com/profile/pathena)
- [Pathfinder H](https://altss.com/profile/pathfinder-h)

---

Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/pathfinder

Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology