Colin Patrick McWey

Heartland Advisors, Inc. is a mutual fund manager and SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm's predecessor was founded in 1983 as an investment advisory subsidiary of a regional brokerage firm, The Milwaukee Co., owned in part by William J. Nasgovitz. In 1984, Mr. Nasgovitz purchased a majority interest in the investment advisory subsidiary from his partners and started managing Heartland's first mutual fund, the Heartland Value Fund. In 1988, Mr. Nasgovitz and his partners sold The Milwaukee Co. to Dain Bosworth. In the same transaction, Mr. Nasgovitz acquired the remaining shares of the investment advisory subsidiary and changed its name to Heartland Advisors, Inc. In 2000, the firm was reorganized into a wholly owned subsidiary of Heartland Holdings, Inc., but it remains a 100% employee-owned independent firm. Heartland Advisors provides investment advice to individual and institutional clients.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Banc of America Securities (BAS) is the investment banking subsidiary of Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC). The firm provides both the domestic and international equity and investment banking markets, and pursues a strategy pioneered by Citigroup that combines corporate lending with investment banking advice and services. They provide high-yield debt underwriting and leveraged finance, in addition to industry coverage groups such as healthcare, media and telecom, financial institutions, real estate and gaming. BAS also does a significant amount of work for Financial Sponsors, or private equity firms, often financing leveraged transactions. Following the strategy of Goldman Sachs, the firm lacks a standalone mergers and acquisitions department, instead employing mergers and acquisitions senior bankers throughout the industry coverage groups. The firm is registered as a broker/dealer with the SEC, is a member of the NYSE, and the NASD. The use of Banc in the BAS's name is indicative of the fact that the company is not a bank, and their deposits and other holdings are not insured by the FDIC.