Brian J. Murphy

Founded in 1986, Merriman Capital, Inc. is an SEC-registered broker/dealer and investment banking firm headquartered in San Francisco. The firm is a subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MERR), a financial services firm that focuses on fast-growing companies and their institutional investors. Merriman provides advisory and investment banking, equity research, institutional services, corporate services and venture services primarily to corporate clients. Merriman Capital provides research, brokerage and trading services primarily to institutional clients. The firm offers a full range of specialized and integrated services including: equity research, specialized trade execution, equity capital markets, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, sales and trading, market making, corporate and venture services, restructurings and strategic advisory services. Merriman Capital employs bottom-up, fundamental analysis of small-cap companies in select industries including clean technology, healthcare, technology and consumer/Internet/media. The firm also has expertise in emerging markets, with emphasis on emerging markets in China. Merriman Capital is known to engage in shareholder activist investment strategies. Merriman Capital is a member of the NASD, the SIPC and FINRA. The firm serves as an introducing broker/dealer for Pershing LLC. They do not hold or maintain funds or securities or provide clearing services for other broker/dealers.

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.

Founded by Dennis Hammond in 1985, Hammond Associates Institutional Fund Consultants, Inc. is an institutional fund consulting research firm located in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm is also known as Hammond Associates Institutional Fund Consultants, Inc. Their clients include universities, foundations, healthcare organizations, corporate and public retirement plans and private high net-worth individual investors. Hammond Associates combines academic theory and thorough proprietary research to develop sound, practical investment strategies for their clients. The firm's asset allocation model divides the investment universe into three distinct groups: (1) growth assets (2) risk reduction assets and (3) inflation-protection assets. Growth assets include the underlying managers of domestic and foreign equity securities. Risk reduction assets include the underlying managers of domestic and foreign fixed-income securities and other diversified strategies. Inflation-protection assets include the underlying managers of liquid real asset strategies such as real estate, commodities or energy. Hammond Associates' capital markets research team focuses exclusively on building and enhancing their best asset allocation strategies. The firm's traditional, hedge fund and private market research groups then source investments to implement those asset allocation orientations. For the selection of traditional investments, the firm's primary objective is to deliver the core exposures of their preferred asset classes. Hammond Associates uses hedge fund investments using them to complement traditional strategies in equities, bonds and real assets. With hedge fund allocations, the firm's first priority is capital preservation. Their services include manager sourcing, initial due diligence, hedge fund portfolio construction and post-investment monitoring including customized risk reports at the manager and portfolio level. Hammond Associates' private markets research team conducts rigorous due diligence evaluations of direct private equity and real assets fund managers. They seek to help optimize private market programs with disciplined and customized approaches for a variety of client situations. The firm models portfolio cash flows related to existing and projected commitments to help clients implement private market investment programs. Their proprietary monitoring and reporting system provides monthly portfolio visibility.