Todd Carlin

Founded by James Giordano in 1999, J. Giordano Securities Group, Inc. is an independent, privately-owned full-service investment banking and brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is also known as NewOak Capital Markets LLC. They provide a range of investment banking services for small-cap and middle-market companies including private capital, initial and follow-on public equity offerings, convertible debt and preferred stock offerings, high yield offerings and M&A advisory services. J. Giordano Securities Group also provides equity and fixed-income research to institutional clients. The firm's research focuses on the following sectors: (1) industrial services (2) conventional energy (3) regional and special situations (4) shipping (5) healthcare (6) homeland defense and (7) business services. J. Giordano Securities Group is a member of the NASD and SIPC.

Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. is a global investment banking, securities trading and brokerage firm located in New York City with additional offices in Dallas, Boston and San Francisco. The firm is a subsidiary Bear Sterns Cos., Inc. (NYSE: BSC). Their equity research team consists of senior analysts located throughout the world. In addition to domestic coverage, they have research teams focusing on Latin America, Asia and Europe. The analysts use a bottom-up approach to stock selection. The Bear Stearns fixed-income research department provides coverage of every sector of the fixed-income universe. The financial analytics and structured transactions group (F.A.S.T) provides investment research, fixed-income portfolio management and analytical systems, trading technology and general financial expertise. The group also provides a broad range of services to financial institutions including asset-liability management, balance sheet restructuring, receivables-based financing analysis, security and portfolio analysis, peer analysis, and historical and real-time market-based information.