Ranita Ragunathan

Founded in 1947 by Oscar Gruss and Emanuel Gruss, Oscar Gruss & Son, Inc. is a full-service broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm offers focused independent research and trading and execution services focusing particularly on special situations and convertibles. They conduct business with major Israeli institutional clients who execute trades in U.S. equities and options. Oscar Gruss & Son also maintains a trading desk in New York solely dedicated to European investors. The firm is a member of the NYSE and the SIPC.

Bankers Trust Co. is an asset management headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. The firm was founded in 1917 and is a subsidiary of BTC Financial Corp. The firm serves as a trusted partner for individuals’ comprehensive financial planning, trust and fiduciary needs.

Fiera Capital Inc. is a SEC-registered investment advisor and wealth management firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1972 as Wilkinson O'Grady & Co, Inc. and they were acquired in 2013 by Fiera Capital Corp. (TSE: FSZ) in Canada through its wholly-owned subsidiary Fiera US Holding, Inc. Fiera Capital provides investment management services on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis to separately managed accounts for predominantly US high net-worth individuals, such as affluent families and their foundations, and institutional clients which include pension plans, profit sharing plans and other charitable organizations.

Founded in 1922, Weeden & Co. LP is a broker/dealer headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut with additional offices in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco. The firm offers a full array of investment services with independent value-added research covering various sectors. Weeden's research goal is to produce independent, actionable long/short ideas that are free from the inherent conflicts created by investment banking. The firm vigilantly monitors proprietary, quantitative and fundamental indicators across all asset classes to identify and communicate important inflection points within the marketplace to clients. Their equities trading division specializes in difficult-to-execute orders. They are a member of the FINRA, NASDAQ and the SIPC.

Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., Inc. (Broker) is the broker/dealer division of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., Inc., ultimately held by Advisor Group Holdings, Inc. Headquartered in New York City, the firm was founded in 1876 and offers a full suite of capital markets products and services, including proprietary equity research and a fixed-income trading desk. For institutional asset management clients, the firm provides liquidity, execution, high-quality idea-generating research, and access to corporate management teams. Their institutional coverage includes relationships with over asset management companies all over the world. To corporate clients, they bring access to investor capital, broad distribution capabilities and financial markets advisory. Ladenburg Thalmann is a leader in financing growing middle-market public companies across various industry verticals, including Healthcare & Life Sciences, Yield-Oriented Securities (BDCs, REITs, MLPs), Energy, Power & Infrastructure, and Telecom, Media & Technology.

Maxum Enterprises LLC operates as an energy logistics company. It provides fuel, lubricants and chemicals to the energy, marine, mining and industrial markets. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, TX.

Jefferies LLC is a global investment bank and institutional securities firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1962 and is a subsidiary of Jefferies Group LLC, ultimately held by Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF). Jefferies provides corporate clients with research and execution services in equity, fixed income, and foreign exchange markets, as well as a full range of investment banking services such as underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and recapitalization, and other advisory services, with all businesses operating in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is a registered broker-dealer subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, Inc., ultimately owned by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in the US. Headquartered in New York City, the firm was founded in 1987 and provides debt and equity services including underwriting, M&A advice, securities dealing and brokerage and trade execution. Their client base ranges from large global institutional investors to hedge funds at the cutting edge of innovation in the industry.

Leerink Partners LLC is a full-service brokerage and investment banking firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm was founded by Jeffrey Leerink in 1995 and formerly known as SVB Securities LLC. They rebranded as Leerink Partners in 2023. The firm is a subsidiary of SVB Securities LLC. Leerink Partners provides institutional sales, equity research, institutional trading, and corporate finance and asset management services to the healthcare and technology industries. They offer superior execution capabilities in common stock, convertibles and derivatives with a singular focus on healthcare and a knowledge-led approach.

BMO Capital Markets Corp. (Broker) is the broker/dealer division of BMO Capital Markets Corp., a full-service North American financial services provider headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1998 and is a subsidiary of BMO Financial Corp., which is owned by Bank of Montreal (NYSE, TSX: BMO) in Canada. BMO Capital Markets offers corporate, institutional and government clients access to a variety of products and services including equity and debt underwriting, corporate lending and project financing, merger and acquisitions advisory services, merchant banking, securitization, treasury and market risk management, debt and equity research and institutional sales and trading.

Founded in 2002, Ardour Capital Investments LLC is a broker/dealer located in New York City. They provide a wide range of financial services for both public and private growth companies. They focus primarily on several sectors including alternative energy resources, distributed generation, environmental, energy efficiency and enabling technology. They provide independent research compiled by their network of industry specialists. They also maintain coverage of the sector's key publicly-traded companies

Fordham University provides college and university. It offers undergraduate colleges and graduate & professional schools. The company was founded in 1841 and is headquartered in Bronx, NY.

BGC Partners LP is a broker/dealer located in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP), a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, specializing in the brokering of a broad range of financial products including fixed-income, rates, foreign exchange, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, futures and structured product markets. Previously a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, BCG separated from that firm in 2004. In 2005, BGC merged with Maxcor Financial Group, integrating two leading brokerage firms. This was followed by the acquisitions of ETC Pollak and Aurel in Paris. On April 1, 2008, BGC merged with eSpeed to form a world-class provider of voice and electronic brokerage services in the global marketplace. The combined company is BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC offers a full range of brokerage services including price discovery, trade execution, straight through processing and clearing, settlement and access to electronic trading services through its eSpeed and BGC Trader brands.

Strands Labs, Inc. offers personal finance management solutions. Its products are designed to assist financial institutions in engaging with its customers while helping users develop money management habits. The company was founded by Marc Torrens and Francisco J. Martin in 2003 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

NCA Partners, Inc (NCA Partners) is a private equity firm founded in 1992 by Bradford N. Creswell and Don L. Tisdel. The firm is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Private Export Funding Corp. provides export-financing services. It assists the financing of U.S. exports through the mobilization of private capital as a supplement to the financing available from commercial banks and other lenders. It provides export finance programs as a direct lender and as a secondary market buyer of export loans. The company was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

The Financial Services Forum provides financial services. The non-profit company is based in Washington. The American company was founded by Keith Anderson Carby.

Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. provides and disseminates ideas on foreign policies to individuals, corporate members, journalists and policy makers. It operates a forum for government officials, students and other interested parties to study and discuss world issues and impact on American foreign policies. The company publishes Foreign Affairs, a magazine that comes out six times a year, along with books and studies by its own scholars. Council on Foreign Relations was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in New York City, NY.

The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) is an organization that works with local partners to develop business-driven solutions to socio-economic problems. The organization is based in Washington. CIPE believes that democracy is strongest when the private sector is flourishing. The organization is the only one in the world that supports democracy and strengthens the private sector. CIPE addresses economic gender disparities and supports women's inclusion through a pilot women's business resource center.

Barclays Capital, Inc. is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Barclays Group US, Inc., ultimately owned by Barclays plc (LON: BARC) in Great Britain. Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients a full spectrum of prime brokerage services which includes equities and fixed income financing, OTC Clearing, Futures and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage and access to industry insights and analytics from their Strategic Consulting team.

Cornell University is an educational institution that offers undergraduate and post graduate programs. It was founded in 1865 and is based in Ithaca, NY.