Kevin Smith

Cowen & Co. LLC is a SEC-registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 2004 and is a subsidiary of Cowen Holdings, Inc., ultimately owned by The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TSE: TD) in Canada. Cowen & Co. offers industry-focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Their institutional sales and trading business serves both equity and fixed-income clients. Sales and trading execution platform is structured around the following key verticals: (1) healthcare (2) technology, telecommunications and media (TMT) (3) REITs and financials (4) aerospace and defense (5) consumer and (6) alternative energy.

Wedbush Securities, Inc. is a full-service investment bank and brokerage firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm was founded in 1955 as Wedbush Morgan Securities, Inc. They are a subsidiary of Wedbush Financial Services LLC, which is owned by Wedbush, Inc. Wedbush Securities provides a wide range of securities brokerage, wealth management, and investment banking services to private and institutional clients. Their research focuses on providing coverage of small and mid-sized companies in the following industries: (1) consumer products and services (2) technology (3) entertainment and media (4) life sciences and (5) industrial growth and clean technology.

Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (Broker) (CGMI-Broker) is the broker/dealer division of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., an investment bank headquartered in New York City with additional offices across the US. The firm was founded in 2004 and is a subsidiary of Citigroup Financial Products, Inc., ultimately held by Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C). CGMI-Broker covers all market capitalizations of the major global indices and provides macro and quantitative analysis of global markets and sector trends. Their core focus of the group is to help investing clients make informed decisions by providing value-added, independent, insightful analysis.

T3 Trading Group LLC operates as a securities brokerage dealer. The firm specializes in technical analysis to develop trading strategies. The company was founded by Sean Hendelman, Scott Redler, Marc Sperling, Nadav Sapeika and Evan Lazarus and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Southern Methodist University is a private university near the center of Dallas, SMU offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs through seven schools in the humanities and sciences, business, the performing, visual, and communication arts, engineering, education and human development, law, and theology.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (GS&Co.) is a securities brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1927, the firm is a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS). GS&Co. provides services to help hedge funds manage risk, monitor portfolios, maintain liquidity and build their businesses. They offer clients access to global equity and derivatives markets, as well as foreign exchange, commodities, European Lefts, rates and credit across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The firm proactively monitors capital markets, searching for pockets of liquidity and news that may require changes to those strategies. Integration with the Goldman Sachs network gives clients access to the firm's sectored block trades and their insights into price discovery. Their electronic trading program provides clients with tools to manage their trades from pre-trade analytics to post-trade analysis.

Nikko Asset Management Americas, Inc. (Nikko AMA) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1981 and is a subsidiary of Nikko AM Americas Holding Co., Inc., ultimately held by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Inc. (TYO: 8309) in Japan. Nikko AMA provides investment advisory services to institutional investors, such as corporations, pension funds, trust banks, charitable organizations, government agencies and funds, supranational organizations, as well as pooled investment vehicles that includes Japanese Investment Trusts and Nikko AMA group affiliates.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants provides vocational education in accounting. The company provides services to the accounting community, regulatory bodies, and other organizations. It also operates in Jersey City, Washington, and Lewisville. It was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in New York City, NY.

Nomura Securities International, Inc. (NSI) is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1969. The firm is a division of Nomura Holding America, Inc. and their ultimate parent is Nomura Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMR, TYO: 8604, AMS: 8604). NSI provides securities brokerage services, as well as asset management, domestic retail, global markets, global investment banking and global merchant banking services. The firm's fixed-income business consists of bond sales and trading, origination and product supply for securitization deals and real estate-focused asset finance operations (in cooperation with Investment Banking). In the equity markets, NSI offers sales and trading of domestic and foreign stocks on a global basis, primarily for institutional investors.

Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker) (Baird-Broker) is the broker-dealer division of Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc., an investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm was founded in 1919 and is ultimately owned by Baird Financial Group, Inc. Baird-Broker offers a full suite of comprehensive trading services for institutional clients.

Morgan Keegan & Co. LLC is a broker/dealer headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm was founded in 1969 and is a subsidiary of Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF). Morgan Keegan & Co. provides securities brokerage services to various types of clients.

Founded in 1958, Merrill Lynch Piece Fenner & Smith, Inc. is an SEC registered broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of BAC North America Holding Co. and their ultimate parent is Bank of America Corp. (NYSE BAC).

Founded in 1962, Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF) is a diversified holding company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm provides services to individuals, corporations and municipalities through their wholly-owned subsidiaries: Raymond James & Associates, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James Ltd. Raymond James operates through eight segments: Private Client Group (PCG); Capital Markets; Asset Management; Raymond James Bank (RJ Bank); Emerging Markets; Securities Lending; Proprietary Capital; and Other. The Private Client Group segment provides securities transaction and financial planning services to client accounts through the branch office systems of the company's subsidiaries. The Capital Markets segment's activities consist primarily of equity and fixed income products and services. The Asset Management segment provides asset management services for individual investment portfolios and mutual funds. The RJ Bank segment provides corporate, residential and consumer loans, as well as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insured deposit accounts, to clients of the company's broker-dealer subsidiaries and to the general public. The Emerging Markets segment operates securities brokerage, investment banking, asset management and equity research businesses. The Securities Lending segment conducts its business through the borrowing and lending of securities from and to other broker-dealers, financial institutions and other counterparties. The Proprietary Capital segment consists of the company's principal capital and private equity activities, including various direct and third-party private equity and merchant banking investments. Raymond James' capital markets reach within the financial institutions segment focuses on community and regional banks and thrifts including equity research, sales, trading and investment banking resources and services. Raymond James is one of the largest research organizations in the brokerage industry and serves institutional investors domestically and abroad. The firm's capital markets activities are based on insightful, timely and comprehensive equity research. They publish research on over 1,000 companies in their core industries. Raymond James seeks attractive niches within broader industries and then covers these sectors deeply to develop differentiated sector expertise and relationships. Although their focus is mid- and small-cap companies, their coverage includes large, medium and small companies across each sector. Raymond James' Institutional Trading division is organized into 3 specialty departments: Sales Trading, Principal trading and Agency Trading. Their Sales Trading division covers over 800 domestic and 1,300 international financial institutions throughout North America and Europe. The firm's Principal Trading division consists of industry-focused teams and their OTC Principal Trading department makes markets in over 680 domestic stocks, 85% of which are covered by Raymond James Institutional Research department. Their Agency Trading department services the trading needs of over 5,500 financial advisors located in 2,500 retail offices across the US.

Cornell University is an educational institution that offers undergraduate and post graduate programs. It was founded in 1865 and is based in Ithaca, NY.

FIAM LLC (do-business-as Fidelity Institutional Asset Management) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Smithfield, Rhode Island. The firm was founded in 2006 and formerly known as Pyramis Global Advisors LLC. They are wholly-owned by FIAM Holdings LLC, which in turn is owned by FMR LLC, aka Fidelity Investments. FIAM provides discretionary investment management services to institutional accounts. They also sub-advice funds or accounts for affiliated advisers and unaffiliated advisers.

Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. (Broker) (Oppenheimer-Broker) is the global full-service brokerage division of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc., an investment boutique headquartered in New York City with additional offices nationwide. Founded in 1975, the firm is owned directly by Viner Finance Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: OPY). Oppenheimer-Broker offers a full array of brokerage services to retail, institutional, and corporate clients.

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.

Barclays Capital, Inc. is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Barclays Group US, Inc., ultimately owned by Barclays plc (LON: BARC) in Great Britain. Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients a full spectrum of prime brokerage services which includes equities and fixed income financing, OTC Clearing, Futures and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage and access to industry insights and analytics from their Strategic Consulting team.

The Bank of The West operates as a state chartered commercial bank. The firm provides checking, savings, IRA accounts, Certificates of Deposit, as well as several types of consumer and commercial loans to its customers in those areas. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Thomas, OK.

Triumph Insurance Group, Inc. provides transportation and equipment insurance products and services. It offers primary liability insurance that protects the client from damage or injuries to other people caused by trucks the client own or operate; physical damage insurance that pays to fix or replace damaged tractors and trailers; downtime coverage for owner-operators that want to protect any revenue lost during the repair of their equipment due to an accident; and motor truck cargo insurance that protects transporters for their responsibility in the event of damaged or lost freight. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.

Whitestar Asset Management LLC (Whitestar) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The firm was founded in 2013 and is wholly-owned by WSAM Holdco LLC. Whitestar is the collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), structured products, and broadly syndicated credit arm of Clearlake Capital Group LP.

TBK Bank SSB engages in the provision of consumer and commercial banking services. It offers business and personal checking, savings and loans, treasury management, and business services. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Dallas, TX.