James Brennan

BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. (BNYMIA) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1951 and formerly known as The Dreyfus Corp. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of MBC Investments Corp., ultimately held by The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK). BNYMIA serves as an investment advisor to mutual funds, such as the BNY Mellon Family of Funds and The BNY Mellon Funds Trust, and as sub-investment advisor to non-affiliated mutual funds. Formed in 2009, Dreyfus Cash Investment Strategies (Dreyfus) is a division of the BNYMIA that offers money market strategies to US and non-US institutional investors.

Van Eck Associates Corp. (VanEck) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor and mutual fund management firm founded in 1955 by John van Eck to manage an international equity fund. In 1968, the firm began offering investments in gold shares and other hard assets. Headquartered in New York City, VanEck provides investment advisory services to registered investment companies and other pooled investment vehicles.

Wedbush Securities, Inc. is a full-service investment bank and brokerage firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm was founded in 1955 as Wedbush Morgan Securities, Inc. They are a subsidiary of Wedbush Financial Services LLC, which is owned by Wedbush, Inc. Wedbush Securities provides a wide range of securities brokerage, wealth management, and investment banking services to private and institutional clients. Their research focuses on providing coverage of small and mid-sized companies in the following industries: (1) consumer products and services (2) technology (3) entertainment and media (4) life sciences and (5) industrial growth and clean technology.

Cowen Investment Management LLC (Cowen Investment Management) is a venture capital subsidiary of Cowen, Inc. founded in 1997. The firm is headquartered in New York.

Founded in 1972 by Candace King, C.L. King & Associates, Inc. is a self-clearing, service-oriented broker/dealer and investment bank located in Albany, New York with additional offices in Boston and New York City. The firm delivers investment research, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, prime brokerage, investment advisor and clearing services to institutional and high net-worth clients and to other broker/dealers. For corporations, they underwrite securities and provide strategic advice in connection with mergers, acquisitions, strategic alternatives and valuation. C.L. King & Associates is a member of FINRA and the SIPC. C.L. King & Associates follows 120 names in 9 sectors. They seek to discover uncovered investment opportunities by seeking out companies that may be ignored by other Wall Street research providers and by identifying value and growth that may be unrecognized by institutional equity investors. The firm provides comprehensive trading services including capital commitment, market making and listed block positioning for their institutional equity clients. C.L. King & Associates' fixed-income group focuses on trading fixed-income securities, primarily in the secondary market. They offer a broad cross section of agencies, convertibles, investment-grade corporates, mortgage-backed securities, municipals, CDs and preferred stock to other broker/Dealers and institutional investors. The firm's investment banking group provides strategic M&A advice and capital raising services to emerging and mid-cap companies, both public and private. In addition, they act as a WBE underwriter in stock and bond offerings by large corporate issuers. C.L. King & Associates' corporate services group offers specialized services to assist corporate clients and their executives in handling delicate stock holding matters. Their services include guiding clients through restricted stock/rule 144 transactions, developing customized rule 10b5-1 trading plans and managing corporate share repurchase programs. The firm's equity research is based on a fundamental, value-oriented approach that focuses on small- and mid-cap companies. The firm offers research on the following sectors: special situations, building materials companies, specialty retail/apparel/footwear, industrials/cyclicals, restaurants/franchising, business services/staffing companies, telecommunications equipment and medical technology/devices/supplies.

Truist Securities, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm was founded in 1894 as SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. In 2020, the firm was renamed following the integration of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and BB&T Capital Markets. The firm is a subsidiary of Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) and is an active market maker in equity and fixed-income products. Truist Securities delivers a comprehensive range of strategic advisory, capital raising, risk management, and financing solutions, as well as a dynamic suite of sales, trading, and research services in both fixed-income and equity. Their strategies are carefully tailored to meet the needs and vision of their clients.

Founded in 1993, IFS Securities, Inc. is an independent, full-service, registered broker-dealer headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm is a subsidiary of IFS Group, Inc. Their Capital Markets operations is managed from their Equity Trading Desk in Orlando, Florida and their Fixed Income Desk in Chicago. IFS Securities' institutional fixed-income sales and trading operations offer a high level of personalized oversight from pre-trade analysis to completion and settlement of a variety of securities. The fixed-income desk provides competitive bids and offers by maintaining constant contact with customer portfolios and the Street. Through their relationships with money managers, corporations, financial institutions, and corporate and public treasurers, the company can provide the best possible bid-offer spreads. The firm's trading desk is a diversified operation, offering such products as: Government securities, investment-grade corporate securities, corporate bonds, money-market instruments, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, and municipal securities. IFS Securities' equity sales and trading desk focuses on responsive order execution for exchange-listed services, as well as routinely executed third-market trades. Over-the-counter orders are executed on an agency basis through their access to the Level III NASDAQ system. Stock Repurchase Programs for major corporations are executed as directed by the client and in compliance with SEC Rule 10b.18. Sales and trading services include both domestic and international equity executions as well as stock buy-back services. The IFS Equity Research Group analyzes markets, securities and economics to provide insights and analysis for their clients. Services provided by the IFS Equity Research Group include: market analysis, theme reports, proprietary daily commentaries, company-specific initiating research reports/results updates, sector allocation and model portfolios, and integration of sector research with macro coverage of industries. IFS Securities covers companies with up to $1 billion market cap (average is $600 million) that have a double-digit growth rate objective. The 120 companies they track include: innovative/disruptive technologies (industrial, IT/internet and healthcare/life sciences) and public companies based in Georgia.

NGN Capital LLC (NGN Capital) is a venture capital firm founded in 2003 by Kenneth S. Abramowitz and William J. Gedale. The firm is headquartered in New York.

Spencer Trask Holdings, Inc. operates as an investment company with in technology and healthcare sectors. The company is headquartered in New York, NY.

Duke University is an academic university that offers undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. It also has publications and research services. The university was founded in 1838 and is headquartered in Durham, NC.

ROTH Capital Partners LLC is a broker/dealer headquartered in Newport Beach, California. The firm was founded in 2001 and is a subsidiary of CR Financial Holdings, Inc. They offer institutional sales and trading services. Their broad institutional coverage includes investors in North America, Canada, UK, Europe and other international territories.

Standard & Poor's Investment Advisory Services LLC (SPIAS) is investment research firm and registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of S&P Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPGI), formerly McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. SPIAS’ advisory services are generally offered to institutions (e.g., broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies and other financial institutions). SPIAS does not generally provide its advisory services directly to retail clients, but its services may be used by its clients in advising their own underlying clients, which may include retail clients. SPIAS also provides advisory consulting services to institutional clients and investment managers-of-investment funds, and investment sub-advisory services for registered investment companies, including open-end mutual funds and other institutions. S&P Global's operations consist of three reportable segments: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Platts, and S&P Dow Jones Indices. S&P Global Ratings is an independent provider of credit ratings, research and analytics to investors, issuers and market participants. It includes the NRSRO and certain other ratings-related businesses. S&P Global Platts provides essential price data, analytics, and industry insight that enable commodities markets to perform with greater transparency and efficiency. S&P Dow Jones Indices is a global index provider that maintains a wide variety of indices to meet an array of investor needs. In 2016, CFRA acquired S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Equity and Fund Research business (formerly known as S&P Capital IQ and SNL) from S&P Global, Inc.

Sidoti & Co. LLC (S&C) is a registered broker and equity research firm headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of Sidoti Holding Co. LLC and was founded in 1999. S&C provides research exclusively to institutional investors. The firm covers the following sectors: housing, retail, basic industries, technology, business services, capital goods, automotive, computer software, regional banking, telecommunications, entertainment, healthcare and consumer products. Their analysts conduct their own due diligence which includes visiting companies and meeting with operating and financial management. In addition, the firm's analysts focus on fundamentals, particularly cash flow from operations and EPS.

Part of Fiserv, Inc., Stuart Coleman & Co. is a company that provides retail brokerage services. The company is based in New York, NY. Stuart Coleman was acquired by Investec Ernst & Co. on November 18, 1998.

RBC Capital Markets LLC is a full-service brokerage and financial services firm headquartered in New York City. They are a direct subsidiary of RBC USA Holdco Corp. and a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada (TSE, NYSE: RY). Founded in 2010, the firm is comprised of 3 major business lines: the Private Client Group, the Fixed-Income Group and the Clearing and Execution Services Group. The Private Client Group serves individual investors, while the Fixed-Income Group provides services to institutions, municipalities and non-profit organizations. The Clearing and Execution Services Group is a provider of clearing and execution services to independent brokers/dealers throughout the US. RBC Capital Markets focuses on the following sectors: communications, media, consumer/retail, diversified industries, energy, financial institutions, forest products, healthcare, infrastructure finance, mining & metals, real estate, social infrastructure, technology and the US municipal markets.

Starboard Value LP is a SEC-registered investment adviser and hedge fund manager headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded by Jeffrey Smith and Peter Feld in 2011 when Ramius LLC's activist value and opportunity business was spun-off as an independent firm. Ramius LLC maintains a significant minority interest in the firm. They are a subsidiary of Starboard Principal Co. LP. Starboard Value provides discretionary investment management services to private investment funds and offshore investment funds that are offered to investors on a private placement basis.

Part of State Street Corp., State Street Advisors, Inc. provides investment advice. The company is based in Dallas, TX.

SternAegis Ventures LLC (SternAegis Ventures) is a private equity/venture capital firm, a subsidiary of Aegis Capital Corp. founded in 2012. The firm is headquartered in New York.

The New York Society of Security Analysts, Inc. operates as a financial services trade group and networking forum for wall street and provides Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam. The company was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

CFA Institute operates as non-profit organization, which engages in the provision of chartered financial analyst programs. It offers certificate in investment performance measurement program, investment foundations, and scholarship. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA.

Outstanding Foods, Inc. provides plant based foods. The company was founded by Bill Glaser and is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.

Dermasensor, Inc. operates as a medical device company. Its DermaSensor? technology is used for skin cancer evaluation. The company is headquartered in Miami, FL.

Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC (WFCS) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and wealth management firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm was founded 1852 and formerly known as Wells Fargo Advisors LLC. They are a subsidiary of Wachovia Securities Financial Holdings LLC, a non-bank indirect subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), a financial and bank holding company. Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC and Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC. WFCS provides investment advisory services to individuals, pension or profit-sharing plans, trusts, estates or charitable organizations, corporations or other business entities, governmental entities and educational institutions, as well as banks or thrift institutions. The firm also acts as portfolio manager for certain wrap fee advisory programs.

Part of Vector Group Ltd., VGR Holding LLC is a cigarette manufacturing company. The company is based in Miami, FL.

New York State Bar Association is a non-profit organization, which provides legal services and offers a membership program for lawyers. It also publishes an array of books, bar journals, law digest, and State Bar news. The company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Alban, NY.