Donald Worthington

The Banc Funds Co. LLC (TBFC) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor and hedge fund manager headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded in 1986 by Charles J. Moore. TBFC provides investment advisory services on a discretionary basis to the Banc Funds. Investors in the funds include high net-worth individuals, single family offices, pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, pooled investment vehicles, as well as other corporations or businesses.

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. (Duff & Phelps) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was established in 1979, evolving from the Duff & Phelps investment research firm founded in 1932. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virtus Partners, Inc., which is wholly-owned by Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTS). Duff & Phelps provides investment advisory services to institutional clients, mutual funds, closed-end funds, and other pooled investment vehicles as well as to retail clients. Duff & Phelps is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (RJA) is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm was founded in 1962 and is a subsidiary of Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF), a diversified holding company. RJA offers a full array of capital markets services, strategic advice and planning for institutional investors.

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.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. (KBW) is a full-service investment bank and broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1962 and is a subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF). KBW offers sales and trading in equities securities of financial services companies.

Seagate Technology Plc engages in the development, production, and distribution of data storage products and electronic data storage solutions. Its products include hard disk drives, solid state hybrid drives, solid state drives, peripheral component interconnect express cards, serial advanced technology attachment controllers, storage subsystems and computing solutions. The firm offers its products under the Backup Plus and Expansion product lines, and Maxtor and LaCie brands. The company was founded by Finis Conner, Syed Iftikar, Doug Mahon, David Thomas Mitchell, and Alan F. Shugart in 1978 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

Founded in 2003, FIG Partners LLC is a broker/dealer specializing in mid- and small-cap bank and thrift stocks. They strive to generate superior returns for institutions and high net-worth individuals through integrated trading, sales and research. They are employee-owned. FIG Partners is a member of the NASD and the SIPC. They are located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Founded in 1984, Noble Financial Capital Markets is a broker/dealer headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The firm is a subsidiary of Noble Financial Group, Inc. Noble Financial Capital Markets' sales & trading team provides strategic insight and reliable solutions to nearly 500 of the dominant small-cap money managers in North America. They are members FINRA, SIPC and MSRB. Noble Financial Capital Markets offers a full array of investment services with a particular focus on under-followed, undervalued, out-of-favor small-cap emerging growth companies. Their research coverage universe includes healthcare, business services & software, defense/defense technology, energy, enterprise hardware, and media & entertainment.

Founded in 1988 by Richard Messina, the Benchmark Co. LLC is a full-service broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm provides equity research, sales and trading services for institutional and private clients. They focus on the media, energy, enterprise software, infrastructure software, biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals, REITs, Internet and communications sectors. The Benchmark Co.'s clearing agent is JP Morgan Clearing Corp.

William Blair & Co. LLC (William Blair) is a SEC-registered broker/dealer firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded by William McCormick Blair in 1935 and is a subsidiary of WBC Holdings LP. Until 1941, they were known as Blair, Bonner & Co. William Blair provides broking services to individual, institutional and issuing clients.

Asset Allocation & Management Co. LLC (AAM) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was founded in 1982 and is principally owned by Securian AAM Holdings LLC, ultimately owned by Minnesota Mutual Cos., Inc. AAM provides discretionary and non-discretionary investment advice to insurance companies across all business segments of the industry including Property and Casualty, Life, Health and Captive insurers.

BB&T Securities LLC, doing business as BB&T Capital Markets, is the broker/dealer subsidiary of BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT). The firm is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. They offer a full array of investment, trading and execution services to middle-market companies. BB&T Capital Markets' sales and trading arm is comprised of 2 groups: Debt Securities Sales & Trading and Equity Sales & Trading. The Debt Securities Sales & Trading group focuses on: (1) Government and agency securities (2) corporate bonds (3) municipal bonds (4) asset-backed securities (5) mortgage-backed securities (6) preferred securities and (7) money market desk (short-term securities including BB&T funding). The Equity Sales & Trading group focuses on: (1) institutional block execution services (2) institutional distribution of proprietary research (3) providing proprietary access to industry leading conferences and management teams (4) serving as a NASDAQ market maker for over 250 securities (5) stock buybacks including 10b-18 and 10b5-1 trading plans and (6) 144 stock sales, individual 10b5-1 trading plans (buy and sell) and employee cashless stock option programs. BB&T Capital Markets provides research coverage of the communications, defense and government services, energy, financial services, furnishings and consumer durables, healthcare, industrial services, retail/consumer durables and transportation services sectors.

Founded in 1999 by the late Thomas Watson, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC (JMS) is a full-service financial services firm and registered broker/dealer headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The firm is a subsidiary of Independence Square Properties LLC, itself a subsidiary of Penn Mutual Insurance Co. Their ultimate parent is Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co. JMS is a member of the NYSE, the SIPC and FINRA. The firm provides comprehensive financial advice and services to individual, corporate and institutional investors. Their primary coverage verticals include the consumer, technology, financials and infrastructure sectors.

Founded in 1962, Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF) is a diversified holding company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm provides services to individuals, corporations and municipalities through their wholly-owned subsidiaries: Raymond James & Associates, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James Ltd. Raymond James operates through eight segments: Private Client Group (PCG); Capital Markets; Asset Management; Raymond James Bank (RJ Bank); Emerging Markets; Securities Lending; Proprietary Capital; and Other. The Private Client Group segment provides securities transaction and financial planning services to client accounts through the branch office systems of the company's subsidiaries. The Capital Markets segment's activities consist primarily of equity and fixed income products and services. The Asset Management segment provides asset management services for individual investment portfolios and mutual funds. The RJ Bank segment provides corporate, residential and consumer loans, as well as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insured deposit accounts, to clients of the company's broker-dealer subsidiaries and to the general public. The Emerging Markets segment operates securities brokerage, investment banking, asset management and equity research businesses. The Securities Lending segment conducts its business through the borrowing and lending of securities from and to other broker-dealers, financial institutions and other counterparties. The Proprietary Capital segment consists of the company's principal capital and private equity activities, including various direct and third-party private equity and merchant banking investments. Raymond James' capital markets reach within the financial institutions segment focuses on community and regional banks and thrifts including equity research, sales, trading and investment banking resources and services. Raymond James is one of the largest research organizations in the brokerage industry and serves institutional investors domestically and abroad. The firm's capital markets activities are based on insightful, timely and comprehensive equity research. They publish research on over 1,000 companies in their core industries. Raymond James seeks attractive niches within broader industries and then covers these sectors deeply to develop differentiated sector expertise and relationships. Although their focus is mid- and small-cap companies, their coverage includes large, medium and small companies across each sector. Raymond James' Institutional Trading division is organized into 3 specialty departments: Sales Trading, Principal trading and Agency Trading. Their Sales Trading division covers over 800 domestic and 1,300 international financial institutions throughout North America and Europe. The firm's Principal Trading division consists of industry-focused teams and their OTC Principal Trading department makes markets in over 680 domestic stocks, 85% of which are covered by Raymond James Institutional Research department. Their Agency Trading department services the trading needs of over 5,500 financial advisors located in 2,500 retail offices across the US.

Northwestern University is a private institution founded in 1851 to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that now includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Northwestern has three campuses

Founded by Len Zacks in 1978, Zacks Investment Research, Inc. is an SEC-registered broker/dealer and investment research firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with an office in Irvine, California. The firm is principally owned by The Greenwood Trust. Zacks makes both short-term and long-term investment recommendations using the following investment styles: aggressive growth, growth/income, momentum, value, technicals and options. Zack Investment Research employs the Zacks Rank, a 100% a peerless stock rating system that is based on a quantitative model that includes the use of four factors including as earnings estimate revisions and earnings surprises. Stocks are classified into five groups, ranging from 'Strong Buy' to 'Strong Sell.' Zacks Rank is completely mathematical and focuses only on the math and whether the math predicts that a stock's price will rise. It is a short-term indicator of stock performance that is effective for 1 to 3 months. The Zacks Recommendation process begins with a new quantitative model that employs the Zacks Rank. The firm then utilizes qualitative insights to develop a unique recommendation based on a 6 month time horizon. Zacks Investment Research provides coverage primarily on the following sectors: (1) manufacturers of electrical components (2) photo optics/lasers (3) HPC computing platforms (4) manufacturers and distributors of textiles (5) information technology (6) independent oil and gas companies involved in the exploration, development and acquisition of crude oil and natural gas (6) providers of docking, manipulator and wafer probing interface products for semiconductor and ATE manufacturers (7) companies that design and manufacture oscilloscopes, serial data analyzers and protocol analyzers to test, measure and analyze electronic signals (8) manufacturers of branded toys, collectibles, hobby or infant products and (9) financial services companies.

Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco provides financing, community development grants and other banking services. Its services include grant programs such as affordable housing program, wish program, credit programs like community investment programs and community works. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Brean Capital is an independent investment bank and registered broker/dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1973 and provides equity research, corporate finance and advisory investment banking, equity institutional sales and trading, and asset management to institutional investors and corporate clients. Their fixed income business provides sales, trading, research and banking services on a wide range of mortgage and asset-backed, US Treasury and government agency securities, structured products, corporate bonds, and municipal debt. The fixed income sales team employs a highly analytical approach to bond selection, trade execution, and overall bond portfolio management. Under the guidance of fixed income strategists, the fixed income team uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses to create custom investment portfolios and develop targeted, executable bond trading strategies to complement their clients? balance sheets.

Origin Bank operates as a state chartered commercial bank. It offers personal, business and commercial services which includes checking, home loans, insurance, investments, deposit accounts and lines of credit. The company was founded in 1912 and is headquartered in Choudrant, LA.