Randal L. Oliver, chairman and chief investment officer of Hesperian Capital Management, will retire from the company at the end of August.

Alex Sasso, chief executive officer of Hesperian, will assume the chairman's duties and Craig Millar, vice president and portfolio manager, will be appointed chief investment officer.

Before establishing Hesperian in 1995, Oliver led the Western Canadian operations for Mu-Cana Investment Counselling, a subsidiary of Mutual Life of Canada.

Previously, Oliver held investment industry leadership roles with Mutual Life and Mercantile Bank. He has also been involved in the local community, having served as both a governor and board chair of the Glenbow Alberta Institute and as a director of the Calgary Foundation.

Oliver founded Hesperian based on the investment philosophy of providing consistent investment performance in niche markets. Hesperian identifies undervalued equities with growth potential before the market recognises their value. The funds usually include less than 35 names.

"For the past 40 years, Randy has personified creativity, passion and drive in the investment industry. With this spirit, he founded Hesperian in 1995 and grew the company to 28 employees and over $500 million in assets under management," Sasso says. "Randy is an amazing leader and mentor, which makes his departure a point of sadness with me; however, given the strong leadership team he has built around Hesperian's disciplined investment methodology, we are well set up to continue his legacy."

"I've been so fortunate to spend more than four decades of my life working in a dynamic and challenging industry," says Oliver. "I'm at the stage in my life where I want to concentrate more on my family and other personal projects. As a company, we've spent the last year preparing for my succession and I feel that the time is right to make the transition. I have the utmost confidence in the ability of Alex and the senior management team to continue on with Hesperian's mission of providing well designed investment solutions for inefficient markets."