Andrew Firmin

Founded in 1998, MSCI is an investment research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of MSCI, Inc. (NYSE: MSCI). The firm was originally formed and operated by Morgan Stanley. In 2004, MSCI acquires Barra, a leading provider of portfolio and firm wide investment risk management systems and services. As part of this transaction, MSCI also acquired Financial Engineering Associates (FEA), a firm specializing in energy derivatives modeling. MSCI They became independent of Morgan Stanley in 2009. In 2010, MSCI acquired RiskMetrics and its subsidiary Institutional Shareholder Services, expanding MSCI's risk management offerings and moving into corporate governance and the ESG space. Also in 2010, the firm acquired Measurisk, a leading provider of independent risk transparency and risk measurement tools for hedge fund investors. MSCI provides investment decision support tools to over 5,000 clients worldwide, ranging from large pension plans to boutique hedge funds. They offer a variety of products and services including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and governance tools.

Boston-based John Hancock Advisers, Inc. (JHA) is the mutual fund affiliate of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. and manages the John Hancock family of retail and institutional mutual funds, as well as separate equity portfolios for private accounts and retirement plans for individual and institutional investors. In 2003, Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX, NYSE: MFC) and John Hancock Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: JHF) announced that they would merge and would thus create a leading global insurance franchise. The combined company will market products and services under multiple brands including John Hancock in the US and Manulife in Canada and the US.

Accounting Research & Analytics LLC, do-business-as Center for Financial Research & Analysis (CFRA), is an investment research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1994 and is a subsidiary of CFRA Research, Inc. CFRA provides independent and actionable research and analytics to their global subscribers to improve their investment and business decisions. The firm’s services also include forensic accounting research and analytics that identifies public companies with deteriorating earnings quality; and fundamental research and commentary focused on stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, sectors and industries.