David Friedman

Consumer Edge Research LLC, dba Consumer Edge (CE), is an equity research holding firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded by Bill Pecoriello in 2009. They offer consumer data solutions for everyone from public and private investors to corporate decision makers and strategists. CE focuses on the global consumer sector such as the beverages, food, cosmetics, household/personal care and tobacco industries. Data is gathered both from global syndicated sources as well as primary research surveys, channel checks and other proprietary data collection.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (GS&Co.) is a securities brokerage firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1927, the firm is a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS). GS&Co. provides services to help hedge funds manage risk, monitor portfolios, maintain liquidity and build their businesses. They offer clients access to global equity and derivatives markets, as well as foreign exchange, commodities, European Lefts, rates and credit across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The firm proactively monitors capital markets, searching for pockets of liquidity and news that may require changes to those strategies. Integration with the Goldman Sachs network gives clients access to the firm's sectored block trades and their insights into price discovery. Their electronic trading program provides clients with tools to manage their trades from pre-trade analytics to post-trade analysis.

Part of JFK KK (Tokyo), Access Securities Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company that operates security brokerage. The company is based in Chuo-ku, Japan.

Painewebber & Co., Inc. provides stock brokerage and asset management services. The private company is based in Los Angeles and has subsidiaries in the United States. The American company was founded by Brent D. Williams.

Founded in 2002, Empirical Research Partners LLC (ERP) is an independent investment research firm located in New York City. The firm provides services to institutional clients. ERP's research approach is based on empirical evidence. They seek to combine the macro and micro and the short- and long-run evidence into a comprehensive viewpoint. The firm employs inclusive, proprietary databases and sophisticated stock selection models that are based on judgments about human nature. ERP's ongoing research effort attempts to determine how best to translate those judgments into useful decision-making rules. The firm's portfolio strategy is based on microeconomics and seeks to exploit a variety of anomalies to identify stocks that should outperform the market. These anomalies may include misvaluation, overinvestment or retrenchment by management and excessive extrapolation of trends by investors. ERP employs a proprietary, customized database that contains large quantities of company-level data. The firm looks for situations in which the current state of affairs is untenable and the reward for patience is great. ERP's quantitative research seeks to help active portfolio managers make better decisions by exploiting recurring aspects of human nature. Their tools quantify these variables and combine them into screens or formal multifactor models that identify companies with desirable or undesirable traits. The models balance conflicting signals in a dynamic fashion, putting greater emphasis on the factor with the highest expected return at each point in time. The firm's research approach with respect to the developed markets outside of the U.S. is similar, but not identical, to the process they use in researching U.S. companies. ERP's international research considers the economic, legal, accounting, cultural and historical differences within each region and covers the broad range of issues affecting stocks and markets globally. Their stock-selection models combine measures of valuation, capital deployment, earnings quality and market reaction into a single expected return. They compare each stock to its peers within the global sector, within the geographic region and to all stocks across the entire market.

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1967 and is a subsidiary of Alliance Capital Management LLC, ultimately held by Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH). Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. provides trading and executions services to their clients.

MEAG New York Corp. (MEAG NY) is an insurance management firm headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 1994 and is a subsidiary of Munich-American Holding Corp., which is owned by Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (Munich Re) (ETR: MUV2; OTCMKTS: MURGY) in Germany. MEAG NY provides investment advisory services primarily on fixed income securities to Munich Re and its direct/indirect subsidiaries.

Wells Fargo Securities LLC (WFS) is the broker/dealer subsidiary of EVEREN Capital Corp., ultimately owned by Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). Headquartered in New York, WFS delivers a comprehensive suite of banking, capital markets and advisory solutions, such as a full complement of sales, trading and research capabilities, to corporate, government and institutional clients.

SSR LLC is a differentiated investment research platform headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The firm was founded in 2009 as Sector & Sovereign Research LLC. They are a subsidiary of Sector & Sovereign LLC. SSR provides their clients with actionable investment ideas derived from anomalies identified while researching and analyzing a broad range of interrelated industries.

Founded in 1924, Saks Fifth Avenue LLC is a subsidiary of Hudson's Bay Co. that sells women's and men's apparel, shoes, handbags, and jewelry through online channels. The company is based in Boston, MA.

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.

Springdale Ventures LLC (Springdale Ventures) is a venture capital firm founded in 2019 by Daniel A. Graham and Gilbreath G. Genevieve. The firm is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Brookside Mezzanine Partners Management LLC (Brookside Capital Partners) is a private equity firm founded in 1977 by John N Irwin and David D Buttolph. The firm is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Part of State Street Corp., State Street Global Markets LLC is a company that provides brokerage services. The company is based in Boston, MA.

Texaco, Inc. explores and produces oil and natural gas. It engages in the worldwide exploration, production and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in San Ramon, CA.

IHS Herold, Inc. is an investment research firm headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. The firm was founded in 1948 and is a subsidiary of IHS Markit, Inc., which is owned by S&P Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPGI). IHS Herold typically offers research, advisory and strategic planning advice on company evaluations, company strategies and associated company and industry transactions for energy-related domestic and foreign equity securities.

Bessemer Trust Co. NA provides wealth management and investment advisory services. The company provides investment banking, brokerage and commercial lending services. It was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in New York City, NY

The FSHD Society is the world's largest research-focused patient organization for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). The organization is based in Lexington, MA and was founded in 1991 by Daniel Paul Perez and Steve Jacobsen. The organization has been working for the past 32 years to accelerate the development of treatments and a cure for FSHD, which affects one million people worldwide. The FSHD Society offers a community of support, news, and information through its website. The FSHD Society has transformed the landscape for FSHD research and is committed to making sure that no one faces this disease alone.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is a registered broker-dealer subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Domestic Holdings, Inc., ultimately owned by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in the US. Headquartered in New York City, the firm was founded in 1987 and provides debt and equity services including underwriting, M&A advice, securities dealing and brokerage and trade execution. Their client base ranges from large global institutional investors to hedge funds at the cutting edge of innovation in the industry.