David Nadel

David Nadel is a career international small- and mid-cap equity investor with roughly three decades of experience. He earned a B.A. in political science, *magna cum laude*, from Williams College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, followed by a master's degree (A.M.) in the history of science from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He began his career in 1992 as an analyst on the mergers-and-acquisitions team at Lazard Frères & Co., later becoming an Institutional Investor–ranked equity analyst at Bear Stearns & Co. He also worked at the Hong Kong–based hedge fund Value Partners, giving him early on-the-ground exposure to Asian markets.

Before entering asset management full-time at Royce, Nadel was a senior analyst at Pequot Capital Management (2001–2003) and a senior portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman (2004–2006). He joined Royce & Associates (The Royce Funds) in June/July 2006, initially as an assistant portfolio manager on Royce Micro-Cap Fund and co-manager on a global select strategy alongside veteran manager W. Whitney George. Over a 13-year tenure he rose to Principal and founded and built Royce's international investing practice — an unusual expansion for a firm long known almost exclusively for U.S. small-caps.

At Royce, Nadel was the lead portfolio manager of the Royce International Premier Fund from its 2010 inception and also sole-managed a global small/mid-cap growth strategy. His quality-focused approach earned Morningstar 5-star ratings and top-decile peer rankings, making him one of Royce's most highly regarded managers.

In November 2019, Nadel departed Royce to join Invesco's Global Equities team, where he became lead portfolio manager of the Invesco (Oppenheimer) International Small-Mid Company Fund and Head of International & Global SMID-Caps. He continues to run that strategy today (co-managed with Andrey Belov), evangelizing the case that international small- and mid-caps are under-owned by U.S. investors despite offering higher profitability and stronger competitive positioning than many domestic peers.

• Asset class: Publicly listed equities only — international (ex-U.S.) small- and mid-cap ("SMID") companies. This is a long-only mutual-fund strategy, not private/angel investing.
• Quality-first philosophy: The strategy is built around "Focus on quality" and a "rigorous investment process." Nadel seeks businesses with high returns on capital, strong free-cash-flow generation, and conservative (often net-cash) balance sheets.
• Moats and durability: He favors niche global leaders — companies dominating small, defensible markets — often family-owned or founder-controlled, where management is aligned with long-term value creation.
• Under-owned opportunity set: His stated mission is that international SMID stocks "offer much higher profitability, income, and business clout than U.S. SMIDs, yet are underowned by American investors."
• Concentration & holding period: Runs a focused book (roughly 90–100 names; top-10 ≈ 18% of assets as of mid-2026), with a long-term, low-turnover, growth-at-a-reasonable-quality orientation.
• Geography: Heavy weighting to Western Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia), plus Japan, Canada, and Australia — hunting for global "hidden champions."