James Schumm

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.

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.

Susquehanna International Group LLP engages in the provision of investment and other financial services. It offers institutional brokerage, trading, research, and market making services for equities. The company was founded by Lon Taylor and Gordon Apple in 1987 and is headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, PA.

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.

A subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., Lehman Brothers, Inc. is a broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. They provide global equity and fixed research. The equity research department covers more than 100 sectors. They use a fundamental, quantitative, strategic and tactical research approach. In addition to these Lehman has also developed special products, such as 10 uncommon values and 10 uncommon eurovalues.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA (Investment Management) (JPMC-IM) is the investment management division of JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, ultimately held by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a global financial services firm. Headquartered in New York City, JPMC-IM provides asset management services for corporations, institutional investors, hedge funds, governments, healthcare organizations, educational institutions and affluent individuals.

Guggenheim Securities LLC is a SEC-registered broker-dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of Links Holdings LLC, ultimately held by Guggenheim Partners LLC. Guggenheim Securities’ specializations include the sales and trading of fixed-income securities and sophisticated structured products. The firm offers in-depth analysis and expert execution of trading opportunities to large institutional investors and asset originators. They offer sales and trading services relating to a wide range of instruments.

Founded in 2004, TD Securities (USA) LLC is a broker/dealer located in New York City with additional offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney. The firm is a subsidiary of Toronto Dominion Holdings (USA), Inc. and their ultimate parent is Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD). TD Securities (USA) provides a wide range of capital market products and services to corporate, government and institutional clients in five areas of finance including: investment banking, debt capital markets, institutional equities, foreign exchange and money markets. Their services include the underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues, providing advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures and executing daily trading and investment needs. The equity group provides research coverage of media and communications, technology, financial services, oil and gas, mining and metals, industrial products, forest products, technology, utilities and power, real estate, biotechnology, consumer products and merchandising and quantitative analysis strategy. The fixed-income group provides a full range of underwriting sales and trading products for Canadian, U.S. and European debt issuers and investors.