B. Riley Continues Expansion-9 Professionals Join Institutional Sales & Research

New Hires Strengthen B. Riley Footprint in Technology, Media & Entertainment Sectors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--B. Riley & Co., LLC, (B. Riley) www.brileyco.com, a leading independent investment bank, announced a major expansion with the hiring of 8 professionals in Institutional Sales and Equity Research, significantly ramping up its presence in both the Bay Area and New York City.

The largest number of new hires — nine — join from Merriman Capital; the others come from Guggenheim Securities, Leerink Swann and Roth Capital. Almost all have held senior positions at their former firms; five have served as department heads.

“Though many of our competitors have been forced to downsize during this market turmoil, we are expanding and attracting talented professionals who share our commitment to the small and mid-cap space,” said Bryant Riley, Chairman, noting that the firm has increased its workforce by 50 percent in 2011 alone.

B. Riley CEO Tom Kelleher credits an increase in market share to “our disciplined approach to Research. We have resisted the temptation to chase trendy sectors and have remained focused on our core competencies. In addition to #1 and #2 rankings earned by our tech analysts in the most recent Wall Street Journal and Forbes annual surveys, INVESTARS has ranked B. Riley #1 among regional firms for the past consecutive four years, besting the bulge bracket firms in terms of performance of our buy recommendations.”

“These added professionals will support our new business and increased activity,” concluded Mr. Kelleher. “Each professional brings a breadth of experience and relationships that allow us to further expand our sales distribution platform, grow our research universe, and provide the expertise to strategically exploit select sectors, including Technology, Media and Entertainment.”

Joining B. Riley’s Institutional Equity Sales & Trading Group:

Paul Kent joins the San Francisco office from Merriman Capital, where he was Managing Director, Head of Equities, overseeing Institutional Equity Capital Markets sales and trading. Earlier, Mr. Kent was a Managing Director at Gleacher and Company, responsible for Institutional Sales on the West Coast. Prior to Gleacher, Mr. Kent was a Managing Director at Pali Capital, where he developed an Institutional Equity presence within the western United States. During his career, he worked as Head of US Equity Sales at Jefferies and Company, and as a Floor Broker on the Pacific Stock Exchange with Seidler Amdec Securities in Los Angeles. Mr. Kent received a B.A. in Economics from University of California Los Angeles.

Michael Philipps joins B. Riley’s New York office from Guggenheim Securities, where he was Director, Sales and Trading for two years. Prior, Mr. Philipps was with ThinkEquity Partners for three years as a Partner, Sales Trading and Partner/Head of Alternative Asset Investment. Earlier, he was Head of the Institutional Sales Desk at Ladenburg Thalmann. During his 22-year career, he has held Managing Director and Sales Trader positions at Gerard Klauer Mattison, ING Barings, CIBC Oppenheimer, and Furman Selz. He earned his B.A. in Economics at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Eric Rajewski joins B. Riley’s San Francisco office, having previously worked for 7.5 years at Merriman Capital, where he served as Head of Institutional Sales. Prior to that, he spent three years originating and executing transactions as an analyst in the equity capital markets group at Banc of America Securities. He began his career as an analyst with Silicon Valley Bank. He holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado, Leeds School Business.

Gerard (Gerry) Sweeney joins B. Riley’s San Francisco office from Leerink Swann, where he was Vice President Institutional Equity Sales Trading. Earlier, he held the same position at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. for 5 years. Prior to that, he was a Senior Institutional Sales Trader at Legg Mason and an Institutional Equity Sales Trader at Bear Stearns. He attended Fordham University.

Adrienne Hudspeth joins B. Riley’s New York office from Merriman Capital, where she worked for five years, most recently as a Senior Vice President, Equity Capital Markets. Earlier, Ms. Hudspeth worked as an Associate at EF Education. Ms. Hudspeth holds a B.A. from University of California Berkeley.

Joining B. Riley’s Research Department:

Eric Wold, CFA, joins the San Francisco office as Senior Equity Analyst covering Media & Entertainment. He comes to B. Riley after 9.5 years at Merriman Capital, where he was Director of Equity Research and Head of the Global Consumer & Media Group. While there, Mr. Wold earned top ranking in the StarMine/Forbes.com “Best Analysts-Stock Pickers” Survey, ranking #1 for 2006 in the “Restaurant Industry” category. For his 2004 coverage, he earned #2 ranking in the Wall Street Journal “Best on the Street” Annual Survey, also in the “Restaurant Industry” category. Earlier, Mr. Wold was Director, Corporate Finance at NightFire Software. Prior to that he was Director, Corporate Development at TheMan.com and also worked at First Security Van Kasper (Wells Fargo Securities) as a Senior Research Analyst. He earned his B.S. with an emphasis in Finance at University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Selin Roberts joins the San Francisco office as Research Administrator. Prior, she was at Merriman Capital for nine years working as a Supervisory Analyst and formerly in Sales Trading, making markets in OTCBB and Pink Sheet stocks. Ms. Roberts started her career in finance at Robertson Stephens as an Executive Assistant to the Head of Sales Trading for three years. Ms. Roberts earned a B.A. from University of California Santa Barbara, where she was on the Dean’s Honor List.

Greg Scott, Research Associate, joins the New York office from Merriman Capital’s Technology Group. Earlier, he was a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught courses in microeconomics and econometrics. He started his career as an intern with the domestic hedge fund at Nicholas Applegate Capital Management. Mr. Scott earned both his M.A. and B.A. in economics from the University of California, San Diego, where he was also an NCAA All-American swimmer.

Information contained herein should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

ABOUT B. RILEY & CO.
B. Riley & Co. is a leading independent investment bank which provides a full array of corporate finance, research, sales, trading and otcqx dad services to corporate, institutional and high net worth individual clients. Investment banking services include merger and acquisitions advisory to public and private middle market companies, initial and secondary public offerings and institutional private placements. Its Corporate Governance Advisory Services Group is engaged by both companies and investors to help maximize value for shareholders. The firm is recognized for its distinguished Equity Research. Founded in 1997, B. Riley is headquartered in Los Angeles and maintains offices in Newport Beach, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. It is a member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, please visit www.brileyco.com.

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