Benjamin Schuman

The Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) is the state-owned pension fund entity headquartered in Austin, Texas. ERS was founded in 1947 and manages benefits for employees and retirees of State of Texas agencies and some higher education institutions.

Founded in 1990, Pacific Crest Securities LLC is an independent investment bank and SEC-registered broker/dealer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The firm is a subsidiary of KeyCorp. (NYSE: KEY). Pacific Crest Securities participates in the following types of business: (1) making inter-dealer markets in corporate securities over-the-counter (2) retailing corporate equity securities over-the-counter (3) underwriting and selling group participant securities (4) retailing mutual funds (5) dealing in U.S. government securities (6) trading securities for their own account and (7) private placements of securities. The firm does not engage in transactions involving commodities, commodity futures or commodity options. Their investment banking activities include providing advisory services related to M&A transactions. Pacific Crest Securities focuses exclusively on the technology sector. They seek to identify emerging trends and provide insight and solutions to institutional investors, venture capitalists and technology companies in North America and Europe. Pacific Crest Securities provides equity research, institutional sales and trading, merger and acquisition advisory services, public company financings, private company financings and corporate services. Within the technology sector, Pacific Crest Securities targets a variety of industries including: (1) government policy regulation (2) clean technology (3) Internet and digital media (4) software and systems (5) communications technologies and (6) semiconductor technologies.

Drexel Hamilton LLC is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded in 2007 and is a subsidiary of Drexel Hamilton Holdings LLC. Drexel Hamilton provides underwriting and executing securities transactions for corporations, municipalities and financial institutions. They offer meaningful employment opportunities for service-disabled veterans in the field of financial services.