Ron D. Kazel

Founded in 1994, Fixed Income Discount Advisory Co. (FIDAC) is a registered investment advisor located in New York City. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE: NLY), a publicly-traded REIT. FIDAC specializes in managing residential and commercial loans and securities, CDO liquidations and other financial services. The firm provides services to the public and private markets and is also a leading CDO liquidation agent. FIDAC manages a variety of investment vehicles and separate accounts that are marketed globally through distributor relationships. They also serve as the external manager for Chimera Investment Corp. (NYSE:CIM) and CreXus Investment Corp. (CreXus) (NYSE:CXS). In addition, FIDAC provides financial services to a wide range of clients including government entities.

Arlington Asset Investment Corp. engages in the acquisition and holding a portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities. Its portfolio consists of agency mortgage-backed securities and mortgage credit investments. The company was founded by Eric Francis Billings and William Russel Ramsey in 1989 and is headquartered in McLean, VA.

Founded in 1988, Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP is a broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm is a subsidiary of Sandler O'Neill & Partners Corp. and their ultimate parent is SOP Holdings LLC. Sandler O'Neill & Partners' Equity Sales & Trading team seeks to enhance liquidity, execute complex transactions, distribute securities and provide institutional investor exposure for hundreds of financial institutions. Sandler O'Neill is a market maker for over 425 NASDAQ financial stocks and trades equities on all active exchanges including the NYSE, NASDAQ, OTC Bulletin Board and Pink Sheets. They work with CEOs, CFOs and management teams on corporate buybacks, portfolio valuations, rebalancings and liquidations. Sandler O'Neill publishes detailed equity research on approximately 270 financial services companies. They primarily cover small- and mid-sized companies that are not widely followed by large Wall Street firms. Their research coverage focuses on the following industries: (1) banks and thrifts (2) specialty finance and credit card companies (3) asset management (4) e-Finance (5) investment banking firms and broker/dealers (6) REITS (7) mortgage REITs and (8) insurance.

Annaly Commercial Real Estate Group, Inc. operates as commercial real estate company. The firm acquires, manages, and finances, directly or through the company's subsidiaries, commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate debt, commercial real property, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and other commercial real estate-related assets. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Prodesse Investment Ltd. operates as an investment company. It invests in portfolio of actual or implied AAA-rated U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation or the Government National Mortgage Association. The company was founded on February 22, 2005 and is headquartered in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

Merganser Capital Management LLC (Merganser) is a registered investment advisor headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm is the successor to the business of Merganser Capital Management, Inc., which was founded in 1985. They are a subsidiary of Providence Equity Capital Markets Merganser LLC, which is owned by Providence Equity Partners LLC. Merganser serves the fixed income investment needs of institutional and high-net worth individual clients. Their advisory clients include institutions and high net worth individuals with separately managed accounts, private funds intended for sophisticated investors and institutional investors and registered investment companies.

Founded in 1989, FBR Capital Markets & Co., formerly Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., is a broker/dealer headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with additional offices throughout the US. The firm is a subsidiary of FBR Capital Markets Holdings, Inc.. and their ultimate parent is FBR & Co. (NASDAQ: FBRC). In 2007, FBR Capital Markets Corp. was spun out from FBR Group as an independent investment bank, of which FBR Group retained majority ownership. FBR Capital Markets is registered with the SEC and is a member of FINRA, Nasdaq and the SIPC. FBR Capital Markets' Equity Sales & Trading Group provides institutional sales and trading services to over 1300 institutional accounts in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. Their clients include mutual funds, hedge funds, money managers, endowments, foundations, banks, insurance companies and pension and profit sharing plans. They actively trade on behalf of clients and make markets in almost 1000 stocks traded on the NYSE, listed and OTC markets and trade more than $100 billion of securities on a per annum basis. In 2009, FBR Capital Markets began making markets in selected stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext. In addition to agency trading in listed securities markets, they act as market-maker in Nasdaq and other OTC securities. They are one of the largest distributors of the shares of small- and mid-cap companies in public and private securities offerings and have deep trading expertise in the vertical industry groups in which the firm's investment banking and research teams specialize. These sectors include: (1) consumer (2) diversified industrials (3) energy and natural resources (4) financial institutions (5) healthcare (6) insurance (7) real estate (8) Washington policy analysis and (0) technology, media and telecommunications. The firm's analytical coverage includes a large number of small- and mid-cap companies in addition to large companies. Research is provided by FBR Capital Markets' research department, which is independent from the firm's investment banking department and has the sole authority to determine which companies receive research coverage and the recommendation contained in the coverage.