Featured June 03, 2011

B. Riley Hires Ranked Senior Research Analyst Richard Eckert to Cover Specialty Finance

Los Angeles, CA – B. Riley & Co., LLC (B. Riley) www.brileyco.com, a full service securities broker dealer providing research and trading to institutional clients and investment banking services, announced that Richard Eckert, CFA, will join its Financial Industries Group as a Senior Research Analyst, according to Ian Corydon, Director of Research.

Mr. Eckert, a top ranked analyst, will be covering Specialty Finance companies from B. Riley’s San Francisco office. He will help expand B. Riley’s coverage of the financial services industry, which now includes coverage of 40 regional banks.

Mr. Eckert comes to B. Riley from Capstone Investments, where he held the title of SVP, Institutional Equity Sales and served institutional clients in San Francisco, CA and the Pacific Northwest.

Before joining Capstone, Mr. Eckert formed Second Derivative Research, LLC, an independent securities research firm committed to original research and the generation of timely, new investing ideas within the financial services sector.

Prior to forming Second Derivative, Mr. Eckert served as Chief Financial Officer/Risk Manager at Lahde Capital Management, LLC, a Los Angeles, CA-based hedge fund established to exploit deteriorating conditions in the real estate and broader credit markets.  From November 2006 to October 2008, LCM’s U.S. Residential Real Estate Hedge Series A, U.S. Residential Real Estate Hedge Series B, Commercial Real Estate Hedge Series A, and Short Credit Funds returned to its investors, net of fees, 1,040%, 345%, 202%, and 41%, respectively. 

Previously, Mr. Eckert spent nine years as a sell-side research analyst covering, by and large, the mortgage finance sector.  His coverage also included a number of non-mortgage, non-depository lenders.  While at Roth Capital Partners, he was recognized by the Wall Street Journal in its 2005 "Best on the Street Analysts Survey" as the #1 ranked analyst in the Consumer & Specialty Finance category.  Also during his tenure at Roth, Mr. Eckert was recognized in the 2007 Forbes.com/ Starmine North American Analyst Survey, which ranked him the #2 Stock Picker and the #3 Estimator in the Consumer Finance Industry.    

Prior to his career as an equity analyst, Mr. Eckert worked as a risk management professional at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLB-SF).

Mr. Eckert holds a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Illinois. Mr. Eckert is also a CFA Charterholder. He is a member of both the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of San Francisco (CFASF).

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. 

Contact Information:

For B. Riley & Co.:

Ian Corydon
Director of Research
310-966-1443
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or

Media Inquiries:
The Orbach Company, Inc.
Nevena Orbach
818-904-0500
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