Charlie Smith

OEP Capital Advisors LP is an Private Equity/Venture Capital firm founded by Dick Cashin in 2001. The firm is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Broadpoint.Gleacher Asset Management provides investment banking and asset management services. The firm provides strategic advisory services to corporations around the world, principally related to mergers & acquisitions, restructurings, strategic alliances and financings. Broadpoint.Gleacher was founded in 1990 by Eric Gleacher and is headquartered in New York City with an additional office in Greenwich, Connecticut. They are a subsidiary of BroadPoint Securities Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BPSG) and their ultimate parent is MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC.

In 1915 Charles Edward Merrill founded Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) with Edmund C. Lynch in Baltimore, Maryland. The modern Merrill Lynch was formed in 1940 through mergers with E.A. Pierce & Cassatt and, soon after, Fenner & Beane. In 1973, Merrill Lynch adopted a holding company format, with Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. as the parent and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith as the operating subsidiary. Merrill Lynch Asset Management, Inc. (MLAM) was created as an integral business unit in the Merrill Lynch family in 1976. Fund Asset Management, doing business as Mercury Asset Management, was acquired in December 1997. In 2000, MLAM and Mercury were combined under the name Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. MLAM manages the Merrill Lynch family of mutual funds, as and acts as sub-advisor to other mutual funds.