Kevin Michael Buttigieg

Ariel Investments LLC (Ariel) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and fund management firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded by John W. Rogers, Jr. in 1983 and is a subsidiary of ACMI, Inc. Ariel provides investment management services to a variety of individual and institutional clients in the US. The firm also serves institutional separate account clients in Canada and offers certain separate account products to professional investors in Australia and Asia.

MKM Partners LLC (MKM) is a premier institutional equity trading, sales, and research firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The firm was founded by Thomas G. Messina in 2002. They were acquired in 2023 by ROTH Capital Partners LLC, a subsidiary of CR Financial Holdings LLC. MKM provides timely, insightful, and actionable proprietary research to hedge funds, mutual funds, family offices, endowments, corporates, private equity, pension plans, RIAs, etc. The firm combines high-impact fundamental analysis with macroeconomics, technical insights, derivatives strategies, event-driven commentary, alternative research, and first-rate execution. They take a client-centric approach to the trading desk and utilize both a top-down and bottom-up approach.

Longbow Research LLC is an independent investment research firm headquartered in Independence, Ohio. The firm was founded by David S. MacGregor in 2003 to provide the institutional equity research market with a high quality, independent product, free from the many conflicts of interest that plague bulge-bracket research. Longbow Research provides insights and research coverage on publicly-traded mid-cap companies in the industrial/basic materials, consumer and technology sectors.

Founded in 1991, Collins Stewart LLC is a broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of UK-based Collins Stewart Plc. Their research focuses on the aerospace and defense, technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, Internet/software and semiconductors sectors

Hapoalim Securities USA, Inc. (Hapoalim Securities) is a registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of PCM-HSU Holdings, Inc., which is owned by Bank Hapoalim BM (TLV: POLI) in Israel. Founded in 1993, Hapoalim Securities specializes in value added investment strategy services and products for institutional and high net-worth private investors. The firm combines a full product offering with international capability. They seek to provide investors with access to Israeli financial markets and companies.

FTN Equity Capital Markets Corp., formerly FTN Midwest Securities Corp., is an institutional equity research, sales and trading firm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. They provide institutional investors with bottom-up, fundamental research on domestic companies in a broad array of industries including consumer, health care, manufacturing, business services, technology and financial services. The firm is also a full-service investment banking firm offering equity and debt underwriting and mergers and acquisition services. FTN Equity Capital Markets Corp is a registered broker/dealer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Tennessee Bank NA, which is owned by First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN). The firm is a member of the NASD and the SIPC.

Founded in 1932, Stanford Group Co. is a broker/dealer headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices nationwide. They are a subsidiary of Stanford Financial Services, Inc. and their ultimate parent is CBaySystems Holdings Ltd. The firm offers a full range of brokerage services for both domestic and international clients. They are a member of the NASD and the SIPC. Stanford's research includes both institutional equity research and Washington-focused policy research, offering a perspective on individual companies, sector-specific topics and national policy. Their equity analysts offer insight and opinions on companies in the consumer/retail, media, energy, financial institutions, healthcare, technology and water/environment sectors, targeting small- and mid-cap companies. Their policy analysts deliver investment relevant insights across a broad range of sectors, including geopolitics, international/trade, Federal Reserve board policy, health care (including services, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, telecom, media, financial services, water/environment, agribusiness/tobacco, energy) and technology (including information technology services, homeland security and biometrics/emerging technologies).

A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. is a full-service brokerage firm. A.G. Edwards equity research team covers a wide range of industries including: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, material, telecommunication services and utilities. They also provide fixed-income research in the utility, auto, banking and finance, and telecom industries. A.G. Edwards was founded in 1887 by General Albert Gallatin Edwards and his son Benjamin Franklin Edwards. They are a broker/dealer subsidiary of A.G. Edwards, Inc. They are a member of the SIPC.

Founded in 1995, Kaufman Bros. LP is a broker/dealer headquartered in New York City with an additional office in San Francisco. The firm is a member of the NASD, the SIPC and FINRA. Kaufman Bros. provides investment banking, equity research and institutional sales and trading. The firm provides fundamental research on the following sectors: (1) cable, satellite and interactive media (2) communications equipment (3) digital media software (4) green technology (5) information technology hardware and storage (6) information technology services and software (7) semiconductors and (8) telecommunications & data services.