Anja Soderstrom

Sidoti & Co. LLC (S&C) is a registered broker and equity research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of Sidoti Holding Co. LLC and was founded in 1999. S&C provides research exclusively to institutional investors. The firm covers the following sectors: housing, retail, basic industries, technology, business services, capital goods, automotive, computer software, regional banking, telecommunications, entertainment, healthcare and consumer products. Their analysts conduct their own due diligence which includes visiting companies and meeting with operating and financial management. In addition, the firm's analysts focus on fundamentals, particularly cash flow from operations and EPS.

Founded by Dana Telsey in 2008, Telsey Advisory Group LLC (TAG) is an independent equity research and consulting firm focused on the consumer sector, including retail and apparel companies and restaurants. They provide hedge funds, mutual funds, private equity firms and private and public consumer companies the detailed analysis and market context that is necessary to make strategic and investment decisions. TAG covers both US-based and international companies across the consumer landscape, including apparel manufacturers, children and teen retailers, consumer electronics, department stores, discounters, home furnishings, luxury goods, off-price retailers, quick service and specialty restaurants and specialty apparel retailers. Their consulting services include acquisition due diligence, benchmarking, competitive analyses, financial analysis, investor relations functions, market assessments, and valuation.

GMI was formed in April 2000 by a small group of people who recognized the need for a new, easy-to-use tool to monitor corporate governance. Its premise is straightforward: companies that emphasize corporate governance and transparency will, over time, generate superior returns and economic performance and lower their cost of capital. The opposite is also true: companies weak in corporate governance and transparency represent increased investment risks and result in a higher cost of capital. Events of the last few years, including those at Enron, Worldcom, and others, support this thesis, as does a growing body of academic research and financial market surveys. And while the spotlight started with U.S. companies, this is not just a U.S. problem. Similar corporate debacles have occurred recently in Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and The Netherlands, to mention a few. The problem for investors is how to measure governance practices across a large universe of companies, irrespective of domicile, in a cost-efficient way. While companies with weak governance structures and practices are the subjects of newspaper headlines, there are as many companies with outstanding governance policies and disclosure levels that go unrecognized. GMI's ratings hope to correct that. Subscribers to its service receive an independent and dispassionate evaluation of the governance characteristics of each company in its research universe. Its rating model has been developed following extensive research in multiple markets and consultations with institutional investors, corporate officers and directors and governance specialists and is updated annually. Its scoring algorithm has also been tested and validated by outside statistical experts and is patent pending. GMI Ratings for 4,233 companies, including complete coverage of the MSCI World and MSCI EAFE Index, are now available on a subscription basis. Subscriptions include two logins and are based on geographic region, as follows: - North American coverage includes complete coverage for companies in the TSX 60 (Canada), S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600 and Russell 1000 Index. - Industrialized Asia-Pacific includes coverage of the S&P/ASX 100 (Australia and New Zealand), S&P/ASX 200 (Australia and New Zealand), Hang Seng (Hong Kong), Nikkei 225 (Japan) and STI (Singapore) Index. - Industrialized Europe includes a total of 1018 companies, including complete coverage of the following market indices: BEL 20 (Belgium), CAC 40 (France), DAX (Germany), ATHEX 20 (Greece), AEX (Netherlands), IBEX 35 (Spain), OMX (Sweden) SMI (Switzerland), FTSE 350 (UK) and the Dow Jones STOXX 600, plus coverage for additional companies in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Portugal. - Emerging Markets covered by GMI include a total of 555 companies from 22 countries: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand (EM - Asia); Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey (EM - Europe); Egypt, Israel, Morocco and South Africa (EM - Middle East and Africa); and Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru (EM - Latin America). GMI's emerging market coverage includes those MSCI Emerging Market Index companies with a free float market capitalization of at least $1 billion. GMI subscriptions are also available at the country level (e.g. France-only). For smaller investors and analysts who need coverage for a limited range of securities, GMI offers customized portfolio coverage. Customized coverage is based on a minimum of 15 companies and can include any company from any region, market sector or industry that has been rated by GMI. For corporations, advisory firms, security analysts and others whose interests are geared to specific types of businesses rather than geographic region, GMI offers market sector-based subscriptions. Available sectors include: Automobiles & Parts, Banks, Basic Resources, Chemicals, Construction & Materials, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Healthcare, Industrial Goods & Services, Insurance, Media, Oil & Gas, Personal & Household Goods, Real Estate, Retail, Technology, Telecommunications, Travel & Leisure and Utilities. GMI also offers subscriptions for 41 specific industry groups within these sectors. Please contact GMI for a list of available industry groups. All subscribers are able to hone their analysis by using GMI's filtering tools to isolate ratings for all companies within specific industry groups for a selected country, index, region or globally. Subscribers also receive regular updates on corporate governance developments at each company rated by GMI allowing them to track changes, both positive and negative, at GMI-rated companies in a single location.

Founded in 2004, Cowen Securities is an investment banking firm and broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of the Cowen Group. They were formerly known as Dahlman Rose & Co. Cowen Securities provides value-added research, trading and advisory services to clients in the US and abroad. The firm focuses on growth industries that are the direct beneficiaries of global trade, infrastructure development and urbanization. Their research focuses on various distinct verticals within the global natural resources supply chain including: metals/mining, agriculture, chemicals, oil & gas exploration and production, electric utilities and surface transportation. Cowen Securities follows a variety of companies across geographies, market-caps and strategies. The firm employs a top-down approach that focuses on global themes and macro trends within these sectors. They look for drivers that create opportunities for well-positioned companies.

W.R. Hambrecht + Co., Inc. provides security brokerage services. It offers underwriting, corporate advisory, equity research, sales, trading, electronic brokerage and private equity services to technology and emerging growth companies. The firm uses Internet and auction processes to serve investors and issuers. The company was founded in January 1998 by William R. Hambrecht and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Founded in 2002, Maxim Group LLC is a registered broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm provides an array of financial services including: investment banking, equity research, private wealth management, structured products and global institutional equity, fixed-income and derivative sales and trading to a diverse range of corporate clients, institutional investors and high net-worth individuals. Maxim Group's niche is emerging-growth companies in a variety of sectors including healthcare, technology, retail and others. They utilize a fundamental, bottom-up approach to investment recommendations. The firm combines rigorous financial analysis of specific companies and industries with due diligence that includes frequent consults with suppliers, customers, competitors and senior management. The firm focuses on under-covered, small- to-mid-cap companies where valuation levels may be out of sync with fundamental trends. Maxim's coverage universe often represents attractive niche industries where stocks tend to be inefficient. This research coverage fills a void created by the downsized research ranks and shrinking coverage of small- to mid-cap stocks by large investment banks. Maxim Group is a member of FINRA, the MSRB, the SIPC, the ISE, NASDAQ and NYSE Arca.