David Acton

American Airlines, Inc. engages in the provision of airline transportation services. It offers travel insurance, email subscriptions, group and meeting travel and business programs services. The company was founded by C. R. Smith on April 15, 1926 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, TX.

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.

Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. (DBSI) is a SEC-registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1971 and is a wholly-owned investment banking and brokerage arm of DB U.S. Financial Markets Holding Corp., ultimately held by Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB, FRA: DBK) in Germany. DBSI provides securities brokerage and investment advisory services to domestic and international private clients and institutions. They are also a primary dealer in US government securities as designated by the Federal Reserve.

Founded in 1984, Aegis Capital Corp. is a broker-dealer located in New York City. They provide a full array of trading and execution services for their clients. They do not provide any internal research

JPMorgan Securities LLC (JPMS) is a securities brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1985 and is a subsidiary of JPMorgan Broker-Dealer Holdings, Inc., ultimately held by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Inc. (NYSE: JPM). JPMS provides research on fixed income, credit, derivatives, emerging markets, foreign exchange, structured finance, technical analysis and bond indices. Their equity analysts cover equities throughout North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and the emerging markets. The firm's fixed income team formulates trading and portfolio recommendations for investors in global bonds and other fixed-income markets based on valuations, analytics and market dynamics.

Founded in 1969, HSBC Securities (U.S.A.) Inc. is an SEC-registered brokerage firm and registered futures commission merchant located in New York City. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. and their ultimate parent is HSBC Holdings Plc. (NYSE: HBC). HSBC Securities (U.S.A.) is a member of FINRA, the NYSE and the SIPC. Their securities and annuity products are provided by registered representatives and insurance agents of HSBC Securities (U.S.A.). In California, HSBC Securities (U.S.A.) conducts insurance business as HSBC Securities Insurance Services. Insurance products are offered through insurance agents of HSBC Insurance Agency (U.S.A.) Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Bank U.S.A. NA and an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc. The company also engages in investment banking underwriting, dealing and brokering of debt and equity securities and futures contracts and is a primary dealer in U.S. Government and federal agency securities.

Founded in 2002, Empirical Research Partners LLC (ERP) is an independent investment research firm located in New York City. The firm provides services to institutional clients. ERP's research approach is based on empirical evidence. They seek to combine the macro and micro and the short- and long-run evidence into a comprehensive viewpoint. The firm employs inclusive, proprietary databases and sophisticated stock selection models that are based on judgments about human nature. ERP's ongoing research effort attempts to determine how best to translate those judgments into useful decision-making rules. The firm's portfolio strategy is based on microeconomics and seeks to exploit a variety of anomalies to identify stocks that should outperform the market. These anomalies may include misvaluation, overinvestment or retrenchment by management and excessive extrapolation of trends by investors. ERP employs a proprietary, customized database that contains large quantities of company-level data. The firm looks for situations in which the current state of affairs is untenable and the reward for patience is great. ERP's quantitative research seeks to help active portfolio managers make better decisions by exploiting recurring aspects of human nature. Their tools quantify these variables and combine them into screens or formal multifactor models that identify companies with desirable or undesirable traits. The models balance conflicting signals in a dynamic fashion, putting greater emphasis on the factor with the highest expected return at each point in time. The firm's research approach with respect to the developed markets outside of the U.S. is similar, but not identical, to the process they use in researching U.S. companies. ERP's international research considers the economic, legal, accounting, cultural and historical differences within each region and covers the broad range of issues affecting stocks and markets globally. Their stock-selection models combine measures of valuation, capital deployment, earnings quality and market reaction into a single expected return. They compare each stock to its peers within the global sector, within the geographic region and to all stocks across the entire market.

AGF Investments, Inc. (AGFI) is a Canadian mutual fund manager headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 2007, the firm is owned by AGF Management Ltd. (TSE: AGF.B). AGFI provides services to individual and institutional clients, catering to pension plans, foundations and corporate investors.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is a registered broker-dealer subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, Inc., ultimately owned by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in the US. Headquartered in New York City, the firm was founded in 1987 and provides debt and equity services including underwriting, M&A advice, securities dealing and brokerage and trade execution. Their client base ranges from large global institutional investors to hedge funds at the cutting edge of innovation in the industry.

Duke University is an academic university that offers undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. It also has publications and research services. The university was founded in 1838 and is headquartered in Durham, NC.

Harvard University engages in the provision of teaching and research. It has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a global education. The university was founded in 1636 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc. (Stifel) is a dual-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1890, the firm is a subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF), a financial service holding company. Stifel provides full-service brokerage and investment advisory services to individuals and their families, institutions and businesses, and financial advisors.

Purdue Research Foundation manages and licenses intellectual property, administers trusts, acquires property, negotiates research contracts and performs other services. The organization was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in West Lafayette, IN.

Global Factory, Inc. provides collaborative manufacturing execution systems. The firm's software gather, organize & analyze demand, production & quality data from various sources and monitor key indicators & execute business processes to control, manage & optimize distributed manufacturing operations. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

FundStrat Global Advisors is an independent research boutique that provides fundamental, technical, and quantitative research to a broad array of clients, including institutional investors, wealth advisors, pension funds, and high net worth individuals. The private company is based in New York, NY, and focuses on delivering analysis, not opinions, to aid in clients' investment process. The firm also has a retail-facing service for smaller investors called FSInsight. FundStrat's data-intensive approach seeks to exploit anomalies and identify sectors and stocks with a high likelihood of outperforming the market. Founded in 2014 by Thomas J. Lee and John Sungho Bai, the company is well-known for custom-tailoring research to clients' unique needs and interests.

West Monroe Partners LLC engages in the provision of business and technology solutions. It offers advance analytics, customer experience, mergers and acquisitions, operation excellence and performance services. It also provides services to private equity, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, energy, banking and credit unions. The company was founded by Dean Fischer, Susan Stelter, and Kevin McCarty in 2002 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Alambic Investment Management LP (Alambic) is an independent hedge fund manager headquartered in Belvedere, California. The firm was founded by Albert Richards and Scott McBride in 2006. Alambic provides investment advice to the Colombard Funds and, on a sub-advisory or advisory basis, to separately managed accounts held by other types of clients, such as private funds managed by unaffiliated investment advisers.

Sikich LLP engages in the provision of technology-enabled professional services. It offers accounting, audit and tax, advisory, investment banking, ERP and CRM solutions, information technology services and managed services. The company was founded by James A. Sikich in 1982 and is headquartered in Naperville, IL.

Founded in 1998, Highstreet Asset Management, Inc. is a mutual fund manager and registered investment advisor located in London, Ontario. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AGF Management Ltd. They manages portfolios for pension plans, corporate investors, foundations and high net-worth families. Their Canadian clients include universities and some of Canada’s largest pension plans.

Manna Tree Partners LLC (Manna Partners) is a venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Ellie Rubenstein, Ross Iverson and Brent Drever. The firm is headquartered in Vail, Colorado.

StepStone Group LP (StepStone) is a private equity firm founded in 2006 by Monte M. Brem, Tom Porter Keck and Jose A. Fernandez. The firm is headquartered in New York.

Evercore Group LLC is a SEC-registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1995 and is a subsidiary of Evercore BD Investco LLC, which is owned by Evercore, Inc. (NYSE: EVR). Evercore Group delivers equity research and equity sales and agency trading execution, in addition to providing wealth and investment management services to high net worth and institutional investors.

Moody's Investors Service, Inc. is a credit rating and investment research firm headquartered in New York City. They are a subsidiary of Moody's Corp. (NYSE: MCO). The firm performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities and provides a variety of analytic tools for assessing credit risk. Their clients include creditors, investment banks and commercial banks.