MutualFundWire.com: Tom Hancock and Klar Bet On the "Backbone of American Industrial Strength"

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Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Tom Hancock and Klar Bet On the "Backbone of American Industrial Strength"

The folks at a 48-year-old, $70-billion-AUM*, value-focused asset manager in Massachusetts are further expanding their active ETF business.

This morning, Tom Hancock, head of the focused equity team at GMO [profile], and Sam Klar, a portfolio manager on the same team, unveiled the launch of the GMO Domestic Resilience ETF (DRES on the NYSE Arca, Inc.). Boston-based Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC will serve as the new fund's investment advisor.

DRES' inception date is today. The new ETF comes with an expense ratio of 50 basis points. Klar and Hancock serve as the PM team.

Klar describes DRES as "built to identify and own businesses poised to benefit as the U.S. brings manufacturing and other strategic capabilities back home." Hancock adds that the new fund's portfolio offers "concentrated exposure to the backbone of American industrial strength: manufacturing, transportation, energy, automation, and defense."

"By combining GMO's discipline around quality and valuation to find attractive investments with a targeted approach to determine the sectors driving America's new industrial era, the fund seeks to offer exposure that is more fundamentally focused — and more 'U.S.' — than conventional benchmarks," Klar states.

"We believe that significant changes in public policy and corporate strategy are creating a unique investment opportunity tied to the future of the U.S. economy," Hancock states. "This is an opportunity for investors to participate in the next chapter of U.S. growth and resilience."

DRES is an actively managed series of the 2023 ETF Series Trust II. The new ETF's other service providers include:

ACA's Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor;

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as counsel;

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent accounting firm; and

State Street Bank & Trust Company as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, securities lending agent, and transfer agent.