Alexander Benjamin Scharf

NWQ Investment Management Co. LLC (NWQ) is an investment advisory firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm was founded in 1982 and is a subsidiary of Nuveen NWQ Holdings LLC, ultimately held by Nuveen Investments, Inc. NWQ provides investment advisory services to a wide variety of retail and high net-worth individual and institutional clients, such as corporate and multi-employer plans, charitable organizations, educational institutions, trust accounts, estates, corporations or other business entities, banks and thrift institutions, insurance companies, governments and municipalities. Additionally, the firm provides investment sub-advisory services to affiliated and unaffiliated open-end and closed-end investment companies, CITs, and UCITS Funds.

Founded in 2002, Maxim Group LLC is a registered broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm provides an array of financial services including: investment banking, equity research, private wealth management, structured products and global institutional equity, fixed-income and derivative sales and trading to a diverse range of corporate clients, institutional investors and high net-worth individuals. Maxim Group's niche is emerging-growth companies in a variety of sectors including healthcare, technology, retail and others. They utilize a fundamental, bottom-up approach to investment recommendations. The firm combines rigorous financial analysis of specific companies and industries with due diligence that includes frequent consults with suppliers, customers, competitors and senior management. The firm focuses on under-covered, small- to-mid-cap companies where valuation levels may be out of sync with fundamental trends. Maxim's coverage universe often represents attractive niche industries where stocks tend to be inefficient. This research coverage fills a void created by the downsized research ranks and shrinking coverage of small- to mid-cap stocks by large investment banks. Maxim Group is a member of FINRA, the MSRB, the SIPC, the ISE, NASDAQ and NYSE Arca.