Vanguard Brings in Wellington to International Explorer Fund

A news release said Wellington joins Schroder Investment Management North America Inc., which has advised the $2-billion international small-capitalization fund since its inception in 1996.

Overseeing Wellington’s portion of the fund will be a four-person investment team led by Simon H. Thomas, who has worked on the firm’s international small-cap equity team since joining Wellington in 2002, the announcement said.

The team uses a bottom-up investment process to identify stocks whose prices do not reflect their long-term growth potential or are priced at a discount to their true value.

Wellington currently advises nearly $180 billion across 16 Vanguard mutual funds among its more than $530 billion in assets under management, according to the news release.

“Vanguard is committed to the multimanager structure, as it can provide greater diversification at the fund level to temper sector and stock risk, and at the fund management level to mitigate manager risk,” said Vanguard Chairman and CEO Bill McNabb, in the announcement. “We will continue to seek advisors who bring experience and expertise to new mandates or whose approach complements the investment teams of existing funds.”