Mark Mobius, long considered an emerging markets guru, will retire from Templeton investments at the end of this month, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.

Mobius joined Templeton in 1987 to launch one of the first funds dedicated to emerging markets, the article says, adding that “his star rose during an ensuing bull market.” He became what the article describes as one of the best known “evangelists for investing in Asia and Latin America and, later, Africa and other ‘frontier’ markets.”

Over the past 15 years, Mobius has overseen the Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, which has returned 16.2% annualized, the article reports, “roughly 4 percentage points above the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, according to Morningstar.”

Last year, Mobius received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Global Investor Magazine, and serves as a member of the Economic Advisory board on the International Finance Corp. In 2012, he published “The Little Book of Emerging Markets,” in which he explained why investing in the asset class is a good idea: “Because that’s where the growth is.”