Steven A. Baffico Managing Director BlackRock Investments Steven A. Baffico is a Managing Director in the U.S. Retail Group for BlackRock. He currently serves as the Head of the Listed Funds business, which includes 102 closed-end funds and related strategic investment products with approximately $40 billion in total assets. Responsibilities include origination, syndication, investment banking, sales management and distribution of IPO new issues and secondary marketing...more Nicolas Bornozis President Capital Link Since 1996 Mr. Nicolas Bornozis is the founder, President and CEO of Capital Link, Inc., an international investor relations and financial advisory group. It assists listed companies and capital markets related organizations to develop and maintain access to European and North American investors. Capital Link has offices in New York, London and Athens and is a leader in investor relations for listed shipping companies, U.S. Closed-End Funds and ETFs and international companies accessing the U.S. and European markets...more Scott Burns Director of ETF Analysis Morningstar, Inc. Scott Burns is the director of ETF analysis and the editor of Morningstar ETFInvestor for Morningstar. Prior to joining the ETF team, Mr. Burns was an associate director for the equity research staff, where he was in charge of training and methodology development. In his time on the equity research team, he also served as a senior equity analyst and team leader, covering industrial companies. Before joining Morningstar in April 2004, Mr. Burns spent a year teaching corporate finance and cash-flow modeling for Bank One. Prior to that, he spent four years as an analyst and later as an associate with the Banc of America Securities Leveraged Finance group...more Ms. Mariana F. Bush, CFA Closed-End Funds & ETF Analyst Advisory Services Group Wachovia Securities Mariana F. Bush is the closed-end fund and exchange-traded analyst at Wachovia Securities. She began her career at Furman Selz in New York as an associate analyst following technology companies long before the internet became a household name. Bush joined Wachovia Securities in 1991 as an analyst in Investment Strategy. In 1993, she began following closed-end funds, and in the late Nineties she also started to cover exchange-traded funds...more M. Grier Eliasek President & Chief Operating Officer Prospect Capital Corporation Mr. Eliasek is President and Chief Operating Officer of Prospect Capital Corporation and a Managing Director of Prospect Capital Management and Prospect Administration. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Prospect Capital Corporation. At Prospect Capital, Mr. Eliasek is responsible for leading the Prospect team of professionals in the origination and assessment of investments. Mr. Eliasek serves on the Board of Directors of Gas Solutions Holdings, Inc., a gas gathering and processing company in East Texas, and he is actively involved in the Prospect Capital portfolio...more Mr. Dennis P. Emanuel Managing Director & Senior Analyst Closed-End Fund\ETF Research Group Citigroup Investment Research Dennis P. Emanuel is a Managing Director and Senior Analyst for the Closed-End Fund\ETF Research Group at Citigroup Investment Research. Prior to joining Citigroup in June 1998, Dennis worked at Merrill Lynch as its senior bond fund analyst in its Closed-End Fund Research Department, where he started in 1991. Before that, he was Director of PS program budgets at the New York City Department of Health, where he commenced employment in 1989. Dennis received a BBA degree in Marketing from Pace University and holds an MBA in Finance/Management Information Systems from Syracuse University...more Matt Forstenhausler Partner - Financial Services Ernst & Young, LLP Matt is a partner in Ernst & Young's Financial Services Office, with over 26 years of experience in the financial services industry. He leads the Financial Services Office's Registered Funds practice. Matt also has significant experience in the areas of business development companies, private equity partnerships, hedge funds, investment advisors and performance verification. He currently serves several of Ernst & Young's most significant investment groups. He has been involved in various IPOs and has helped several regulated and unregulated pooled investment vehicles launch their operations...more Brad N. Friedman Partner Milberg LLP Brad N. Friedman, a member of the firm's Executive Committee, specializes in various complex commercial matters, including securities, bankruptcy, consumer, and life insurance class actions. Mr. Friedman began his legal career as a clerk to the Honorable Max Rosenn, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Friedman has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of injured plaintiffs, including, as lead counsel, numerous "vanishing premium" and "churning" life insurance sales practice class actions (including cases against Prudential and Metropolitan Life)...more Deborah A. Fuhr Managing Director Global Head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy Deborah Fuhr is the Global Head of ETF Research and Implementation Strategy and a Managing Director at Barclays Global Investors. Under Ms Fuhr’s guidance, BGI’s ETF Research and Implementation Strategy team is responsible for advising clients on the implementation of asset allocation strategies using ETFs, producing analysis and guidebooks on the global ETF industry. In addition, the team will provide comprehensive research reports to BGI’s wide range of institutional and intermediary-based clients...more John Hyland Chief Investment Officer United States Commodity Funds, LLC John T. Hyland is the Chief Investment Officer for United States Commodity Funds. Prior to joining USCF, Mr. Hyland founded Towerhouse Capital Management, LLC, which provides portfolio management and new fund development expertise to non-US institutional investors. Mr. Hyland's previous experience includes Roulac International and CB Richard Ellis. He has served on the board for the San Francisco Security Analysts, and is a member of the CFA Institute and the National Association of Petroleum Investment Analysts. He serves as an arbitrator for the FINRA as part of their dispute resolution program. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley...more Martin Jansen Senior Vice President ING Investment Management Martin Jansen is a Senior Portfolio Manager with primary responsibility for international equities. He manages various global and international high dividend strategies and has 30 years of investment experience. He was responsible for managing the transition of the U.S. equity trading facility and U.S. equity assets from ING Investment Management The Hague to ING Aeltus in 2002. He joined ING in The Hague in 1997 as senior manager to co-manage U.S. equity portfolios and was named head of the U.S. equity team in 1999. Prior to joining ING, Martin was responsible for the U.S. equity and venture capital portfolios at a large corporate Dutch pension fund. He received a Bachelor of Commerce and M.B.A...more Dodd Kittsley, CFA Senior Product Manager Principal Dodd is currently responsible for providing customized portfolio solutions to financial intermediaries focusing on home office clients and private client group advisors. Previously, Dodd was a Director of Sales Strategy leading a team that created and delivered ETP product and industry related insights to financial intermediaries. Prior to joining BGI in 2007, Dodd was the Head of ETF Research and Strategy at State Street Global Advisors. He was also an ETF research analyst at Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for that firm's research ratings for closed-end and exchange traded funds. He has published extensively and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and in the media. Dodd holds the CFA designation and has a Masters in Education from the University of Houston...more Jonathan M. Landers Partner Milberg LLP Jonathan M. Landers, a partner at Milberg, LLP., is a nationally recognized authority on bankruptcy and insolvency law. He has extensive experience in bankruptcy, insolvency, restructuring, financing transactions, purchase/sale of assets and bankruptcy and insolvency litigation matters, representing debtors, lenders and lending syndicates, large creditors, litigation plaintiffs and defendants and asset sellers and purchasers. He is one of only sixty-five members of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a member of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been recognized repeatedly in The Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America...more Lawrence Leibowitz Group Executive Vice President, Head of US Markets and Global Technology NYSE Euronext. Lawrence Leibowitz is Group Executive Vice President, Head of US Markets and Global Technology, NYSE Euronext. He is also a member of the NYSE Euronext Management Committee. Mr. Leibowitz, 47, is responsible for business and product development for the U.S. cash markets. In addition, he will assume responsibility for NYSE Euronext's ongoing equities trading platform integration initiative, the company's global technology systems and development, and its U.S. options business. He reports to Duncan Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of NYSE Euronext....more Christian W. Magoon President Claymore Securities As President and Senior Managing Director of Claymore Securities, Inc. and Claymore Advisors, LLC, Christian W. Magoon manages the U.S. exchange-traded funds and unit investment trusts business lines. His duties include overseeing the development, marketing and distribution of the firm's U.S. ETFs and unit investment trusts. In addition, Magoon manages Claymore's firm-wide marketing. Magoon is a frequent contributor to CNBC and Bloomberg TV and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily and other publications....more Kevin D. Mahn Chief Investment Officer Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Portfolio Manager SmartGrowth® Mutual Funds Kevin D. Mahn joined Parsippany, NJ based Hennion & Walsh as a Managing Director in 2004. Serving as its Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Mahn is responsible for the Asset Management activities of the Firm. Mr. Mahn also serves as the Portfolio Manager for the SmartGrowth family of mutual funds and directs the creation and supervision of the various portfolios within the SmartTrust™ series of Unit Investment Trusts. Additionally, Mr. Mahn is the author of the quarterly ETF Insights newsletter...more Jon Maier Investment Strategy Group - Closed-End Funds Bank of America Securities - Merrill Lynch Jon is the senior Closed-end Fund analyst in the Investment Strategy Group at Bank of America Securities - Merrill Lynch. Prior to BAS-ML Jon was with UBS and its predecessor firm PaineWebber covering closed-end funds since 1997. Jon has also worked on privatization projects as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Kiev, Ukraine, and was a financial analyst with the American International Group. Jon received his BA degree in finance from Emory University. ...more Dominic Maister Executive Director Morgan Stanley, Markets Group Dominic Maister is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley and head of Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) and Closed-End Fund (CEF) Research. Dominic leads a team responsible for coverage on over 100 closed-end funds and provides research commentary on the ETF industry and over 750 ETFs listed in the United States. Dominic began his professional career at Raymond James Financial and joined Morgan Stanley in 1998. His prior roles at Morgan Stanley include six years in Equity Capital Market Sales. Dominic graduated from the John M. Olin School of Business in St. Louis, MO., with a major in business and a minor in legal studies....more Paul Mazzilli President Mazzilli Advisors Widely recognized as one of the leading Closed-End and Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) analysts, Paul Mazzilli has over 35 years experience in the investment business. He currently is a fund consultant and a Senior Advisor and on the Advisory board at IndexIQ. Paul previously served as an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, which he joined in 1975. From 1997 to 2008, he was Director of Morgan Stanley's ETF Research team covering index-linked ETFs and actively managed closed-end fund companies. Paul's coverage universe included a broad range of funds listed on U.S. exchanges that invest in equities in the U.S. and in international regions and countries, as well as taxable and municipal fixed income, commodities and currencies...more William McGuinness Partner Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP William McGuinness is a litigation partner in Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP's New York office and the chair of the New York office litigation department. His practice focuses on a broad range of complex commercial and corporate litigation, including matters involving securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and intellectual property. Mr. McGuinness regularly advises corporate clients active in acquisitions and dispositions as well as clients in the brokerage, securities and financial services industries. ....more Karen R. McColl, CFA Senior Vice President, Managing Director, Investment Product Management Evergreen Investments Karen is Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Investment Product Management for Evergreen Investments. Her role includes overseeing both closed end and open-end fund offerings and leading a team of product managers. Karen serves as the primary contact for closed end analysts, directs after-market support efforts, and is also closely involved in new product initiatives... more Ed McRedmond Senior Vice President, Portfolio Strategies Invesco PowerShares At Invesco PowerShares, Mr. McRedmond works on increasing the awareness and use of PowerShares ETFs within the various distribution channels, working with ETF analysts, due diligence groups and portfolio managers that construct ETF models and portfolios, along with sales and marketing personnel. He joined PowerShares in 2005 after 17 years at A.G. Edwards, where he was Associate Vice President and a member of the Allocation Advisors Investment Committee. While at A.G. Edwards, Mr. McRedmond also served as senior analyst covering exchange-traded funds and closed-end funds and was a key part of the team that launched and managed A.G. Edwards' discretionary ETF wrap portfolios... more Arthur Miller Special Counsel Milberg LLP Distinguished law professor, Arthur Miller, is Special Counsel to Milberg LLP, one of the most respected and effective plaintiff law firms in the United States, where he heads up the firm's appellate practice. Professor Miller is engaged in an active law practice, particularly in the federal appellate courts, and has appeared in a number of state courts. He has argued in all of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal on a wide range of jurisdiction, class action, and other matters and several important cases in the U.S. Supreme Court that established important precedents in class action securities law and patents...more Matthew T. Moran Vice President, Business Development Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Matthew T. Moran is Vice President, Business Development, for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and is responsible for many of the exchange's marketing and educational efforts for pension funds, mutual funds, and other institutional investors. Mr. Moran also has served as Trust Counsel at Harris Bank and as Vice President at Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Trading and is on the advisory boards of the Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst Association (CAIA) and The Journal of Indexes....more Timothy O'Brien, CFA Co-founder and Principal, Crow Point Partners, LLC Portfolio Manager Mr. O'Brien is a Principal of Crow Point Partners, LLC, a new investment advisory firm that he co-founded in 2006. Crow Point is majority owned by M.D. Sass/Macquarie Financial Strategies, L.P., a joint venture between M.D. Sass Group and the Macquarie Group. His current responsibilities include managing the Evergreen Utility & Telecommunications Fund ("EVUAX") and the Evergreen Utilities & High Income Fund ("ERH"). Mr. O'Brien was employed with Evergreen from 2002 to 2006. Previously, he managed the Gabelli Utilities Fund for Gabelli Asset Management Inc. (1999-2002). Additionally, he served as a Portfolio Manager and Analyst for Eaton Vance Management (1994-1999), an Equity Analyst with Loomis Sayles & Co. (1986-1994) and as an Equity Analyst for PNC Bank Corp. (1983-1986)...more Mr. Daniel D. O'Neill President and Chief Investment Officer Direxion As the President and Chief Investment Officer, Dan is responsible for all investment management and trading operations. He joined Direxion in 1999 and plays a leading role in the development and launch of new products and value added services for advisors and investors. He is a member of the Direxion Executive Management Committee. Prior to joining Direxion Funds, he served as Portfolio Manager: Private Equity Investments at Hermitage Capital Management Limited in Moscow, Russia. His responsibilities included monitoring investments by two hedge funds in illiquid Russian equities...more Mr. Stephen O'Neill, CFA Portfolio Manager RiverNorth Capital Management, Inc. Stephen O'Neill is the Co-Portfolio manager for RiverNorth Funds. Stephen also co-manages the firm's other closed-end fund trading strategies through the application of proprietary quantitative models and qualitative research. His involvement with closed-end funds dates back to 2002. Prior to joining RiverNorth Capital, he was most recently an AVP at Bank of America's Global Corporate Investment Bank. Stephen graduated magna cum laude from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a B.S. in Finance and a minor in Economics. He received the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the CFA Institute and is a member of the CFA Society of Chicago...more Mr. Harvey L. Pitt Chief Executive Officer Kalorama Partners, LLC. Harvey L. Pitt is the Chief Executive Officer of the global business consulting firm, Kalorama Partners, LLC. Prior to founding Kalorama Partners, Mr. Pitt served as the twenty-sixth Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. In that role, from 2001 until 2003, Mr. Pitt was responsible, among other things, for overseeing the SEC's response to the market disruptions resulting from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for creating the SEC's "real time enforcement" program, and for leading the Commission's adoption of dozens of rules in response to the corporate and accounting crises generated by the excesses of the 1990s....more Alexander Reiss Vice President, Closed-End Fund Research Stifel Nicolaus Alexander Reiss is the Vice President for the Closed-End Fund Research at Stifel Nicolaus. He joined Stifel Nicolaus in October 2007. Previously, Mr. Reiss had been an analyst with Ryan Beck and Company and an associate analyst with Gruntal and Co., covering Closed-End Funds. Earlier in his career, he held various analyst positions focused on the media, advertising and technology industries...more David J. Schulte, CFA, CPA, JD Tortoise Capital Advisors David Schulte has been a Managing Director of Tortoise Capital Advisors since 2002, and serves as CEO for each of its four publicly-traded, closed-end funds. Tortoise is recognized nationally as a pioneer in capital markets for closed-end investment companies and an investment leader in energy infrastructure Master Limited Partnerships. As of March 31, 2009, Tortoise had approximately $1.7 billion of assets under management, and has invested $1.3 billion directly with issuers and sponsors...more Luciano Siracusano Chief Investment Strategist & Director of Sales WisdomTree Investments, Inc. Luciano Siracusano is the Chief Investment Strategist and Director of Sales for WisdomTree. Luciano oversaw the creation and development of the company's proprietary index methodology and other intellectual property. Before joining WisdomTree in 1999, he was an equity analyst at Value Line, Inc. Prior to his career in finance, Luciano served as a Special Assistant to HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and as a Special Assistant to New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo. Luciano is a graduate of Columbia College, Columbia University...more Solomon G. Teller, CFA Head of Investment Analytics ProShares Mr. Teller is the Head of the Investment Analytics Group with ProShares. He is responsible for supporting Institutional client relationships and providing investment insight and analytics within the firm. Prior to coming to ProShares Advisors, he served as Senior Portfolio Manager at Trumbower Financial Advisors, LLC. Previously, he worked for Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., Sagemark Consulting for five years as Financial Planning Manager and for Fannie Mae as a Financial Modeling Analyst. He also co-founded Investor Newswire, Inc, a weekly newsletter highlighting the week's best investment commentary and news coverage...more Paul Williams Managing Director Nuveen Investments, LLC Mr. Williams currently directs much of Nuveen's new product development effort in connection with closed-end funds. Nuveen is the industry's leading sponsor and manager of closed-end funds with total assets under management of approximately $50 billion. Mr. Williams joined Nuveen in 1971 and has been closely associated with the development of Nuveen's asset management business since the late 1980's. He is credited with originating the leveraged municipal bond fund concept and, in recent years, has played a key role implementing the strategic diversification...more Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA Director of ETF Research Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Joe Witthohn is a member of Janney Montgomery Scott's Investment Strategy Group where he serves as an investment analyst with primary responsibility for the firm's Exchange Traded Fund research. Additionally, Mr. Witthohn supports Parker/Hunter Asset Management, an investment management division of Janney, as an ETF analyst. Prior to this, he served as Janney's Mutual Fund Senior Research Analyst. He began his investment career with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 1994 and speaks at national events on the subject of ETFs. ...more