Rick Patterson

Waller Capital Corp. engages in the provision of investment banking focused exclusively on the media, communications and information industries. It provides mergers and acquisitions, private placements, restructurings and valuation services. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Albany, New York.

Highline Media LLC was formed in October 2003 to acquire The National Underwriter Company, the leading publisher and reference provider to the insurance and financial industries. Magazine brands include the National Underwriter Property, Casualty and Life, Health weeklies, Claims, Tech Decisions, Insurance Advocate and Florida Underwriter, the reference tools Tax Facts and Fire, Casualty & Surety Bulletins, along with 150 other books and electronic products, and three conference events. In May 2004, the company added insurance and banking data assets, including regulatory, M&A and publicly traded data, from The Thomson Corporation. In the fall of 2005, Highline acquired Wealth Manager Magazine from Bloomberg and Research and Futures magazines from Adams Business Media. The company has 250 employees and revenues of $50 million. The company is backed by Spire Capital, a private equity firm whose current fund is making investments totaling $260 million, and the banks Harris Nesbitt, Brown Brothers Harriman and Wells Fargo.

Professional Bull Riders LLC operates and organizes bull riding events. It conducts bull riding events and tours in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The company was founded by Ted Nuce,Jim Sharp, Hedeman Tuff, Adam Carrillo, David Bailey, Aaron Semas, Gilbert Carrillo, Daryl Mills, Clint Branger, Bobby Delvecchio, Mark Cain, Cody Lambert, Jerome Davis, Mike Erikson, David Fournier, Brent Thurman, Ty M. Murray, Cody Custer, Scott R. Mendes and Randy Bernard in 1992 and is headquartered in Pueblo, CO.

Spire Capital Partners LLC (Spire Capital Partners) is a private equity firm founded in 2000 by Andrew J. Armstrong Jr., Bruce M. Hernandez and Richard H. Patterson. The firm is headquartered in New York.

Ariston Global LLC acquires, develops, make investments and operates communications services companies. The firm provides software products and services to a global, diversified set of communication service providers, DOD/Federal Agencies, large municipalities and select enterprise customers. The company was founded by Kevin Dickens and Steve M. Dubnik in 2006 and is headquartered in Pittsford, NY.

Velocity Technology Solutions, Inc. provides private-cloud application services for enterprise software. It offers platform, application, professional and software services. The firm serves to the aero space, defense, consulting, energy, health care, manufacturing, public sector, private equity and retail industries. The company was founded by Thomas Bruno in 2003 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC.

Highline Financial provides banking-industry financial and market data, business information and analytic software to the financial services industry. HighlineFI, Highline Financial's flagship web and Excel-based product suite, enables on-demand access to complete, accurate and timely U.S. banking data which is used by financial, corporate, and government organizations for strategic analysis that informs their decisions every day: Investment evaluation and monitoring, M&A analysis, industry trend analysis, business valuation, financial strength assessment, peer comparisons, prospecting and more. Highline Financial is majority owned by Spire Capital Partners, L.P.; a private equity firm founded in 2000 with more than $350 million of capital under management. Spire partners with exceptional management teams to invest in middle market buyouts, recapitalizations, industry consolidations and growth equity investments in the media, communications, information services and business services industries. Spire Capital's Principals have served as owners, managers, investors and advisors of companies in these industries for over 20 years. The firm's Principals have complementary industry experiences and have worked closely together as an investment team to initiate, negotiate, finance, manage and realize investments since 1997, and have worked together in various other capacities since 1985. Spire Capital prides itself on being an active, value-added investor. The firm is headquartered in New York.

Redshelf, Inc. operates as an online store for eBooks, textbooks, academic materials, magazines, documents and other digital content. The firm specializes in digital course materials, secure document distribution, cloud technology, e-textbooks, document security, e-book, html5 conversion, digital content management, online bookstore, e-learning, e-documents, digital content and cloud reader. The company was founded by Greg Fenton and Timothy Haitaian in August 2011 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Coniston Capital Corp. (Coniston Capital) is a venture capital firm founded in 2001 by Rick Patterson. The firm is headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey.