Jill Lehman

Accounting Research & Analytics LLC, do-business-as Center for Financial Research & Analysis (CFRA), is an investment research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1994 and is a subsidiary of CFRA Research, Inc. CFRA provides independent and actionable research and analytics to their global subscribers to improve their investment and business decisions. The firm’s services also include forensic accounting research and analytics that identifies public companies with deteriorating earnings quality; and fundamental research and commentary focused on stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, sectors and industries.

Founded in 1998, MSCI is an investment research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of MSCI, Inc. (NYSE: MSCI). The firm was originally formed and operated by Morgan Stanley. In 2004, MSCI acquires Barra, a leading provider of portfolio and firm wide investment risk management systems and services. As part of this transaction, MSCI also acquired Financial Engineering Associates (FEA), a firm specializing in energy derivatives modeling. MSCI They became independent of Morgan Stanley in 2009. In 2010, MSCI acquired RiskMetrics and its subsidiary Institutional Shareholder Services, expanding MSCI's risk management offerings and moving into corporate governance and the ESG space. Also in 2010, the firm acquired Measurisk, a leading provider of independent risk transparency and risk measurement tools for hedge fund investors. MSCI provides investment decision support tools to over 5,000 clients worldwide, ranging from large pension plans to boutique hedge funds. They offer a variety of products and services including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and governance tools.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. (MLPFS) is the SEC-registered broker/dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., ultimately held by Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). The firm was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in New York City. In 2010, Banc of America Securities LLC merged with MLPFS and the firm uses the trade name Bank of America Merrill Lynch. MLPFS's global strategy and economics team serves institutional and individual investors using a wide range of macroeconomic disciplines. Their analysis of global issues provides clients with investment ideas, market forecasts, macro overviews and specific sector recommendations across asset classes, regions and disciplines. Their equity research team conducts fundamental analysis on companies globally and provides institutional and retail clients with industry-specific and in-depth research and analysis on numerous industries. The firm's global fixed-income and equity-linked research focuses on fixed-income and equity derivatives, fixed-income strategy, convertibles, commodities, high-yield, mortgages, municipals and global foreign exchange.