The John T. Gorman Foundation's Portfolio

A look at the Maine-based foundation's investment with Fernbridge Capital

August 12, 2025

This week we’ll look at the investment portfolio of the John T. Gorman Foundation, a private family foundation based in Portland, Maine. Established in 1995 by John Thomas “Tom” Gorman – a grandson of outdoors retail icon L.L.Bean – the foundation focuses on improving the lives of disadvantaged Mainers, addressing issues ranging from mental health to poverty and youth development. Gorman passed away in 2010, leaving a “transformational bequest” that significantly expanded the foundation’s endowment and capacity to carry on his legacy.

 

Tom Gorman’s family background is one of Maine’s most storied business legacies. He was the grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean, who founded the L.L.Bean outfitting company in 1912 and turned it into an iconic retail brand. While the Bean family business thrived, Gorman charted his own path in philanthropy rather than commerce. He established the foundation at age 65 to “give back to the community”, focusing especially on those who grew up with less support than he did. One notable example of its impact was in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city: the foundation spent a decade funding programs to reduce childhood lead poisoning, aid in redeveloping distressed housing, and secure federal resources – efforts that helped cut Lewiston’s child lead poisoning rate by more than half.

 

As of the latest tax filings, the John T. Gorman Foundation held roughly $214 million in assets and annually gives more than $10 million towards these causes across Maine. The foundation doesn’t have a full-time investment staff, and filings show they retain Cambridge Associates for investment advice.

 

The foundation’s tax filings reveal a roster of fund managers that includes some well-known names, including Hillhouse and Durable. OWL users received a detailed manager roster in last Friday’s customer newsletter. One notable manager in the Gorman Foundation’s portfolio is Fernbridge Capital, a Los Angeles-based public equity fund.
 

Fernbridge was founded in late 2019 by Brennan Diaz, who named the firm after an old bridge near Ferndale, California – the rural area where his grandfather grew up.  Diaz was previously a portfolio manager at Viking and Junto, where he covered internet, media, and software companies.

Brennan Diaz

Fernbridge's investment approach is to take concentrated long positions, in what Diaz described as “a hedge fund approach to long-only investing”. Fernbridge finished its first year in operation with over $400 million in AUM, and has scaled consistently since then. Fernbridge counts The California Endowment, The Weingart Foundation, and the Illinois State Board of Investment as notable LPs.

Source: OWL; regulatory filings

 

Based on OWL’s global holdings data, Fernbridge has 17 disclosed positions, with the two largest positions accounting for over 40% of the firm’s $1.9 billion AUM. Those positions, PTC and Intuit, have each generated over $100 million in estimated P&L. As a reminder, OWL users can see estimated P&L’s by position for thousands of managers on our platform. If you’re interested in learning more about these analytics, reach out!



Fernbridge’s portfolio tilts towards quality and growth, with OWL’s “Similar Managers” table including groups like Polen Capital, NZS Capital, Foxhaven, and SoMa Equity. Friday’s customer newsletter also included a comparison of estimated returns among this group, where Fernbridge has outperformed in recent years.

 

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Disclaimers

Returns represent the return on invested capital of publicly disclosed long positions, as calculated by OWL. Actual returns may vary based on a number of factors, including (but not limited to) undisclosed positions, short exposure, non-equity holdings, cash holdings, and lagged disclosure of positions.

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