Stephen Matthews

Hambrecht & Quist Group, Inc. operates as a holding investment bank and provides securities brokerage services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

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.

HSBC USA, Inc. provides commercial banking services. Its customers include individuals, including high net worth individuals, small businesses, corporations, institutions and governments. The company operates through the following segments: Retail Banking and Wealth Management (RBWM), Commercial Banking (CB), Global Banking and Markets (GB&M), Private Banking (PB), and Corporate Center (CC). The RBWM segment provides banking and wealth products and services, including personal loans, MasterCard and Visa credit card loans, deposits, branch services and financial planning products and services such as mutual funds, investments and insurance. The CB segment offers domestic and international services and banking, insurance and investment products to companies, government entities and non-profit organizations. The GB&M segment provides tailored financial solutions to major government, corporate and institutional clients as well as private investors worldwide. The PB segment provides private banking and trustee services to individuals and families with local and international needs which include specialist advisory services, including banking, liquidity management, investment services, custody services, tailored lending, wealth planning, trust and fiduciary services, insurance, family wealth and philanthropy advisory services. The CC segment includes BSM and legacy structured credit products, as well as a portfolio of residential mortgage loans, including certain loan servicing activities performed on behalf of HSBC Finance. HSBC USA was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Founded by Hassan Ahmed and Stephen Matthews, Alembic Global Advisors is an institutional research firm located in New York City. The firm focuses on the global chemicals sector.