Wei Qing Xu

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (Price Associates) is a registered investment advisor and mutual fund manager headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The firm was founded by Thomas Rowe Price, Jr. in 1937. They are a subsidiary of the T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW), which was formed in 2000 as the publicly traded parent holding company of Price Associates and their affiliated entities. Price Associates offers a variety of mutual funds, sub-advisory services and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans and financial intermediaries.

DWS Investment Management Americas, Inc. (DIMA) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of DWS USA Corp., ultimately held by Deutsche Bank AG (ETR: DBK) in Germany. The firm was founded in 1984 and formerly known as Deutsche Investment Management Americas Inc. In 2018, they changed their name into DWS as part of the rebranding of Deutsche Asset Management. DIMA provides discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory services to various institutional clients. They also provide investment advisory services for its municipal bond strategies through wrap fee programs.

American Century Investment Management, Inc. (ACIM) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and mutual fund manager headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The firm was founded by James E. Stowers, Jr. in 1958 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Century Cos., Inc. ACIM provides portfolio management services to financial advisors, individual investors and institutional clients.

UBS Securities LLC is an investment bank and registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1998 as UBS Warburg LLC. They are a subsidiary of UBS Americas Holding LLC, ultimately held by UBS Group AG (SWX: UBSG, NYSE: UBS) in Switzerland. UBS Securities is a primary dealer in US Government securities and provides a full range of investment banking services which includes corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, trading and sales, fixed-income, equity research, private banking, underwriting and prime brokerage operations. The firm also provides advisory services and access to capital markets for corporate, institutional, intermediary and alternative asset management clients.

McKinsey & Co., Inc. provides management consulting services. It specializes in design, marketing and sales, analytics, operations, transformation and restructuring, risk, strategy and corporate finance, and sustainability and resource productivity. The company was founded by James O. McKinsey in 1926 and 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.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA (Investment Management) (JPMC-IM) is the investment management division of JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, ultimately held by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a global financial services firm. Headquartered in New York City, JPMC-IM provides asset management services for corporations, institutional investors, hedge funds, governments, healthcare organizations, educational institutions and affluent individuals.

Ernst & Young provides accounting services. Its services include auditing, accounting, tax and transaction services, assurance and advisory business, online transaction advisory and a wide range of financial services. The company was founded by Arthur Young and Alwin C. Ernst in 1881 and is headquartered in Kansas City, MO.

The Ross Cos. provides retirement planning, actuarial and life insurance brokerage services. The company was founded by Arnold S. Ross and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Crowell & Moring LLP provides legal services. It offers litigation and arbitration, regulatory, and transactional matters. The firm serves the aerospace and defense, automotive and trucking, aviation, chemicals, education, energy, financial institutions, and government contracting industries. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

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.

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC (SEIA) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and wealth management firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm was founded by Brian D. Holmes in 1997. They are wholly owned by Signature Financial Service Group LLC, which is owned primarily by a consortium of employees and investors through Reverence Capital Partners Opportunities Fund V LP. SEIA provides investment advisory services to individuals, trusts, estates, pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations, corporations and other businesses.

The District of Columbia Bar provides legal services. The private company is based in Washington.

Aegis Wealth Management LLC (Aegis Wealth) is an independent registered wealth management firm headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The firm was founded by four founding partners in 2005. Aegis Wealth provides advisory services to individuals, high net-worth individuals, charitable organizations and corporations or other businesses.

American Public University System, Inc. offers online degree programs through American Public University and American Military University. The company was founded by James P. Etter in 2002 and is headquartered in Charles Town, WV.

Homeland Security & Defense Business Council provides security services. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC provides undersea warfare solutions. The firm provides solutions for sonar detection and classification, torpedo defense, distributed training, learning and knowledge management systems, software engineering, and systems integration. The company was founded by Michael Carnovale in 1989 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, NY.

Washington Building Congress operates as non-political association dedicated to building relationships with and among members, encouraging collaboration on best practices and working together to advance industry. The company was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

National Fire Protection LLC develops and designs fire protection systems. It offers fire protection systems contractor capable of performing any type of commercial, industrial, residential, and special hazards systems and construction. The firm also provides full design-build services from project conception, budgeting, and trending, through full contract documents and specifications. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Rockville, MD.

Blacklynx, Inc. manufactures and designs electronic hardware solutions for embedded computing, instrumentation, radio frequency, signal processing and power management. Its product Ryft ONE is an appliance capable of providing real-time business insights into both historical and streaming data. The firm delivers the speed, scalability, simplicity and security required for real-time intelligence applications like smart retail, fraud prevention, cyber security and financial compliance. It serves the government agencies and university research institutions specializing in defense, intelligence, physics and energy applications. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Rockville, MD.

Companhia Sulamericana de Distribuição engages in the retail sales and distribution of grocery products. It operates a chain of supermarkets. The company was founded by Jefferson Nogaroli and Carlos Alberto Tavares Cardoso on January 12, 2010 and is headquartered in Maringa, Brazil.

Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. manufactures wood products. The firm produces doors and wood components for the custom kitchen and bath industry. It also manufactures solid wood kitchen cabinets, doors, cabinet systems, finished wood products, rigid thermal foil, and medium density fiber board products. The company was founded in 1964 by Norman Hahn and Samuel Hahn and is headquartered in East Earl, PA.

The SURVICE Engineering Co. provides systems engineering and related services. It specializes in survivability, lethality, safety engineering services, test and evaluation, dimensional metrology and reverse engineering, systems analysis and engineering, information technologies and management. The company was founded by Jeffrey W. Foulk and Nancy Foulk in 1981 and is headquartered in Belcamp, MD.

Capital Bank NA (Rockville, Maryland) is a privately-held business bank in the Washington, D.C., that offers a range of services encompassing cash management, commercial lending, consumer credit and residential mortgage and veterans administration home loans. The company was founded by Li-Min Lee in 1999 and is headquartered in Rockville, MD.