Carl J. Seiden

Fortitude Life Insurance & Annuity Co. provides insurance services. It develops long-term savings and retirement products. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Jersey City, NJ.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. (RJA) is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. The firm was founded in 1962 and is a subsidiary of Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF), a diversified holding company. RJA offers a full array of capital markets services, strategic advice and planning for institutional investors.

Founded in 1972 by Candace King, C.L. King & Associates, Inc. is a self-clearing, service-oriented broker/dealer and investment bank located in Albany, New York with additional offices in Boston and New York City. The firm delivers investment research, equity and fixed-income sales and trading, prime brokerage, investment advisor and clearing services to institutional and high net-worth clients and to other broker/dealers. For corporations, they underwrite securities and provide strategic advice in connection with mergers, acquisitions, strategic alternatives and valuation. C.L. King & Associates is a member of FINRA and the SIPC. C.L. King & Associates follows 120 names in 9 sectors. They seek to discover uncovered investment opportunities by seeking out companies that may be ignored by other Wall Street research providers and by identifying value and growth that may be unrecognized by institutional equity investors. The firm provides comprehensive trading services including capital commitment, market making and listed block positioning for their institutional equity clients. C.L. King & Associates' fixed-income group focuses on trading fixed-income securities, primarily in the secondary market. They offer a broad cross section of agencies, convertibles, investment-grade corporates, mortgage-backed securities, municipals, CDs and preferred stock to other broker/Dealers and institutional investors. The firm's investment banking group provides strategic M&A advice and capital raising services to emerging and mid-cap companies, both public and private. In addition, they act as a WBE underwriter in stock and bond offerings by large corporate issuers. C.L. King & Associates' corporate services group offers specialized services to assist corporate clients and their executives in handling delicate stock holding matters. Their services include guiding clients through restricted stock/rule 144 transactions, developing customized rule 10b5-1 trading plans and managing corporate share repurchase programs. The firm's equity research is based on a fundamental, value-oriented approach that focuses on small- and mid-cap companies. The firm offers research on the following sectors: special situations, building materials companies, specialty retail/apparel/footwear, industrials/cyclicals, restaurants/franchising, business services/staffing companies, telecommunications equipment and medical technology/devices/supplies.

Truist Securities, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm was founded in 1894 as SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. In 2020, the firm was renamed following the integration of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and BB&T Capital Markets. The firm is a subsidiary of Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) and is an active market maker in equity and fixed-income products. Truist Securities delivers a comprehensive range of strategic advisory, capital raising, risk management, and financing solutions, as well as a dynamic suite of sales, trading, and research services in both fixed-income and equity. Their strategies are carefully tailored to meet the needs and vision of their clients.

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.

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.

AllianceBernstein LP (AB) is a SEC-registered investment advisor and mutual fund manager headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 2000, the firm is owned by Equitable Financial Life Insurance Co., ultimately held by Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH). AB provides investment advice to investment companies, pension and profit-sharing plans, banks and thrift institutions, trusts, estates, government agencies, charitable organizations, individuals, corporations and other business entities.

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.

McKinsey & Co., Inc. provides management consulting services. It specializes in design, marketing and sales, analytics, operations, transformation and restructuring, risk, strategy and corporate finance, and sustainability and resource productivity. The company was founded by James O. McKinsey in 1926 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Harvard University engages in the provision of teaching and research. It has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a global education. The university was founded in 1636 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.

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.

Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. engages in the provision of management and technology consulting services. Its services include consulting, analytics, digital solutions, engineering, cyber security, and product. The company was founded by Edwin G. Booz in 1914 and is headquartered in McLean, VA.

Tyro Capital Management LLC is an asset management firm based in New York, NY. Tyro manages assets for institutions and high net worth individuals, utilizing a research process that evaluates secular trends and supply chains driving technology, healthcare, industrial, and consumer markets. The private company was founded by Alex Draime and Dan McMurtrie, with Dan McMurtrie serving as CEO since incorporation.

Pzena Investment Management LLC (Pzena) is a SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm was founded by Richard S. Pzena 1995 and is owned by Pzena Investment Management LP. Pzena manages investment portfolios for endowments, foundations, state and municipal government entities, partnerships, corporations, investment companies, public funds, pension trusts, profit-sharing plans, high net-worth individuals, and pooled funds located in the US and in select foreign jurisdictions. The firm became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in early 2018 and a SASB Alliance member in 2020, and they have accepted Japan’s Stewardship Code.

Part of Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Reinsurance Co. Ltd. is a Bermudian company that provides reinsurance and transactional solutions. The company is based in Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. The company was founded in 2017. Alon Neches has been the CEO of the company since 2022.

QED Investors LLC (QED Investors) is a venture capital firm founded in 2007 by Frank Rotman, Caribou Honig and Nigel William Morris. The firm is headquartered in Virginia, US.

Open Invest Co. engages in the provision of values-based financial solutions. Its platform include dynamic custom indexing, white-labeled separately managed accounts and model delivery, and robust ESG and impact reporting. The company was founded by Conor Murray, Phillip Wei and Joshua Levin on March 15, 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Blooom, Inc. (blooom) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. The firm was founded in 2013 by Chris Costello, Randy Auf Der Heide and Kevin M. Conard. blooom offers various investment advisory and management services through a web-based application to individual clients who participate in 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457 Plans and other Employer Sponsored Retirement Accounts, or who own Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s).

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is a research organization that conducts social science research to guide practice and inform policy. EDC designs and conducts various types of research studies both in the US and overseas, partnering with school districts, ministries of education, community health groups, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and federal agencies to adapt research designs to fit local contexts and priorities. The non-profit company is based in Newton, MA. Since 1958, EDC's research has helped to advance healthcare equity, identify disparities in learning, improve student outcomes, and decipher the market forces that drive modern economies. EDC's research is funded by public and private funders, including the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Agency for International Development, the Department of Education, Schmidt Futures, and the MetroWest Health Foundation.

Fortitude Casualty Insurance Co. operates as an insurance company. It is headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.

Standard & Poor's Investment Advisory Services LLC (SPIAS) is investment research firm and registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City. The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of S&P Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPGI), formerly McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. SPIAS’ advisory services are generally offered to institutions (e.g., broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies and other financial institutions). SPIAS does not generally provide its advisory services directly to retail clients, but its services may be used by its clients in advising their own underlying clients, which may include retail clients. SPIAS also provides advisory consulting services to institutional clients and investment managers-of-investment funds, and investment sub-advisory services for registered investment companies, including open-end mutual funds and other institutions. S&P Global's operations consist of three reportable segments: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Platts, and S&P Dow Jones Indices. S&P Global Ratings is an independent provider of credit ratings, research and analytics to investors, issuers and market participants. It includes the NRSRO and certain other ratings-related businesses. S&P Global Platts provides essential price data, analytics, and industry insight that enable commodities markets to perform with greater transparency and efficiency. S&P Dow Jones Indices is a global index provider that maintains a wide variety of indices to meet an array of investor needs. In 2016, CFRA acquired S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Equity and Fund Research business (formerly known as S&P Capital IQ and SNL) from S&P Global, Inc.

Northwestern University is a private institution founded in 1851 to serve the Northwest Territory, an area that now includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Northwestern has three campuses