| Ken Dennard Founder and Managing Partner, IR Counsel Kip Rupp, CFA Founder and Managing Partner, Analyst Steve Gray CEO, Founder and Managing Partner Jack Lascar Partner, IR Counsel Lisa Elliott Senior Vice President, IR Counsel Anne Pearson Senior Vice President, IR Counsel Karen Roan Senior Vice President, Market Intelligence |
Sheila Stuewe Vice President, IR Counsel Augustine Okwu, Jr. Managing Director, Analyst and IR Counsel Carol Coale Managing Director, Analyst Chris Nee, CFA Analyst Ben Burnham Assistant Vice President Donna Washburn Office Manager |
Ken Dennard
Founder and Managing Partner
ksdennard@drg-e.com
Ken Dennard is a Founder and Managing Partner of DRG&E. He is responsible for the overall operations and development of the IR Counsel and aids in the development of the InsideOutlook offering.
Dennard has 18 years of senior management investor relations experience, both in-house and third party representation for public companies. Dennard is responsible for supervising all investor relations programs and marketing DRG&E's clients to the investment community and financial media on a national basis, with a focus on producing tangible results. He has developed extensive relationships with the brokerage, analyst and money management communities in multiple industry segments to include energy, technology, retail, communications, healthcare, consolidations, environmental, software and industrial, among others.
Prior to founding DRG&E, Dennard was a Founder and Managing Partner of Easterly Investor Relations, DRG&E's predecessor company, from January 1997 to September 2002. Prior to that, he was Director of Marketing at American Oncology Resources, Inc. from 1995-1996; Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at Coastal Physician Group from 1993-1995; Assistant Vice President with Morgen-Walke Associates from 1991-1993, and Director of Investor Relations at QMS, Inc. from 1989-1991.
Dennard holds a BA from Duke University, where he was a four-year letterman in men's basketball from 1977-1981. Dennard also played professional basketball in the NBA from 1981-84.
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Kip Rupp, CFA
Founder and Managing Partner
krupp@drg-e.com
Kip Rupp, CFA, is a Founder and Managing Partner of Dennard Rupp Gray & Easterly, LLC (DRG&E). He is responsible for overseeing the firm’s Analytical Services Practice, which includes our IR+ and InsideOutlook product offerings, and the development and expansion of the practice. Mr. Rupp has ten years of combined sell side and buy side experience in the investment industry. Prior to becoming one of the Founders of DRG&E he was a Senior Vice President and Equity Research Analyst with Wachovia Securities, Inc., in Atlanta, covering the telecommunications infrastructure services sectors.
Mr. Rupp was one of the first analysts to identify and establish coverage of the wireless tower industry and was a leading analyst covering the sector while on the sell side. He has also covered wireless, wireline and cable TV engineering and construction companies and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and has followed many other industries within the telecommunications and technology sectors. Since co-founding DRG&E, Mr. Rupp has worked with clients in other industries including retail, deathcare, Internet/technology, product distribution and other sectors.
While at Wachovia Securities, Mr. Rupp received research votes from major institutional clients and was ranked #2 or higher by StarMine for earnings estimates accuracy over a two year-period for his research coverage list. He has also served as a frequent speaker at numerous industry conferences and trade shows. Prior to Wachovia Securities, Mr. Rupp held analyst positions with several other sell side and buy side firms. Mr. Rupp majored in Finance with a concentration in Investments and holds a BBA from Stetson University.
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Steve Gray
CEO, Founder and Managing Partner
sgray@drg-e.com
Steve Gray is responsible for overall operations of the company. Prior to becoming one of the Founders of DRG&E, he held various executive management positions at BioNetrix and ION Networks, Inc., where he had been CEO. During his 5-year tenure, this turnaround network management and security software company tripled in revenues, repositioned into a high-growth market, and moved from NASDAQ small-cap to National Market membership. Prior to joining ION, Gray was with Siemens Nixdorf (SNI), where he was Vice President and the executive responsible for their North American business segments focusing on Consulting and Professional Services as well as Self-Service. Before joining SNI, Gray held a series of increasingly responsible marketing positions at IBM. Steve holds a BA from Duke University, where he was a four-year letterman in men's basketball from 1975-1979.
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Jack Lascar
Partner
jlascar@drg-e.com
Jack Lascar serves as Partner of DRG&E. He has over 18 years of senior management experience in investor relations and corporate communications. Most recently, Mr. Lascar worked for Terex Corporation from 1998 until 2002 as Vice-President, investor relations and corporate communications. Prior to joining Terex, Mr. Lascar was employed at Tenneco Inc, for 17 years in various positions in the areas of investor relations and business development. He joined Tenneco's investor relations program in 1990 and served as their Vice-President of Investor relations from 1994 to 1997. In his last assignment at Tenneco, he was Vice-President of business development for Central and Eastern Europe. Over the course of his IR career, Mr. Lascar has developed extensive knowledge of several industries including energy and capital goods, and extensive relationships with the analyst and money management communities. He holds an MBA and an MA in economics from the University of Houston and a BA in economic administration from the University of Grenoble, France. Mr. Lascar is fluent in French and Spanish.
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Lisa Elliott
Senior Vice President, IR Counsel
lelliott@drg-e.com
Lisa Elliott has been a Senior Vice President at DRG&E for over four years and has more than 19 years of experience in investor relations, corporate communications and public capital markets. For the five years prior to DRG&E, she worked as an independent consultant targeting regional public companies. From 1990 until 1993, Ms. Elliott was Vice President of Investor Relations for Nuevo Energy (NYSE: NEV), where she established the investor relations department. From 1988 to 1990, Ms. Elliott was the Vice President of Investor Relations at Energy Assets International Corporation, Nuevo's predecessor entity. From 1983 to 1987, Ms. Elliott was a retail securities broker. She completed the brokerage training program at Dean Witter Reynolds, receiving series 7 and series 63 securities licenses. In 1985, she joined a small financial planning firm that specialized in private placement and equity issues of small growth companies.
Additionally since 1987, Ms. Elliott's IR experience has involved writing and publishing assignments such as quarterlies, annual reports, press releases and editorial features for publications including Financial Planning Magazine and Oil and Gas Investor. She is an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute and served as President of the Houston Chapter during the 1995-96 program year. Ms. Elliott earned her BS in Criminology from Sam Houston State University.
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Anne Pearson
Senior Vice President
apearson@drg-e.com
Anne Pearson joined DRG&E in 2006 with more than 13 years of experience in Investor Relations and Financial Communications and over a decade of experience in financial journalism.
Prior to joining DRG&E, she provided financial communications and IR counsel and support onsite to AT&T Inc., formerly SBC Communications Inc., as a senior vice president with Fleishman Hillard International.
Before joining AT&T in 2003, Ms. Pearson handled financial communications, media relations and executive speechwriting and also provided government relations support for Anadarko Petroleum in Houston. Earlier, she served as investor relations manger for five years for the former Mitchell Energy & Development in Houston, now owned by Devon Energy.
A former financial journalist, Ms. Pearson was a reporter with several daily newspapers, including The Houston Chronicle, where she covered the international oil and gas industry for six years under the byline Anne Pearson.
A native of Dallas, Ms. Pearson holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and English from Trinity University in San Antonio and has completed hours toward an MBA at the University of Houston. She is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute and held board positions with the Houston Chapter throughout the mid-1990s.
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Karen Roan
Senior Vice President, Market Intelligence
kcroan@drg-e.com
Karen Roan has been a Senior Vice President at DRG&E for over two years and the firm since 2000. She worked in the area of Institutional Equity Sales for 15 years, most recently as a Vice President at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where she developed and maintained relationships with institutional investors, such as mutual funds, investment advisors, banks and insurance companies. While at DLJ, Ms. Roan was responsible for marketing the firm's research and capital markets products, including initial public offerings and follow-on offerings. Prior to her career in Institutional Sales, she was an Investment Trust Officer and Financial Analyst at Texas Commerce Bank in Houston. During her investment career, she earned her Series 7 and Series 63 licenses and passed the Chartered Financial Analyst Exam 1. Ms. Roan has also worked as an analyst on independent research projects and as a securities trader. She graduated from the SMU School of Business with a B.B.A. in Finance.
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Sheila Stuewe
Vice President, IR Counsel
sstuewe@drg-e.com
Sheila Stuewe joined DRG&E in April 2005 and brings with her over 10 years of investor relations and corporate communications experience with various size organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Most recently she served as Director of Investor and Public Relations with Advance Auto Parts, where she launched its investor relations program. Prior to joining Advance Auto Parts she led the investor relations efforts at AutoNation (1998 to 1999) and AutoZone (1990 to 1996). While at AutoZone she created "AutoZone by the Numbers," a comprehensive publication for investors to quickly visualize operating trends. Ms. Stuewe's background also includes raising venture capital and working as an associate research analyst at Prudential Securities Inc. She received her MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
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Augustine Okwu, Jr.
Managing Director
gokwu@drg-e.com
Gus Okwu is a Managing Director of DRG&E. Gus has over 15 years of corporate finance experience as a sell-side equity analyst, fixed income analyst and corporate banker. Most recently, Gus was a Managing Director at Integrated Corporate Relations, Inc. (ICR) where he focused on providing investor relations consulting services to telecommunications related companies. Prior to ICR, Gus was a Senior Vice President and Director in the equity research department of Wachovia Securities covering the wireless and wireline telecommunications sectors. During that time, Gus was nominated as "Best Up-and-Comer" wireless analyst in the Institutional Investor's 2001 All-America Research Team.
Previously, Gus was a Managing Director and Fixed Income Analyst in Fitch Inc.'s fixed income group covering U.S. and Latin American telecommunications and media industries. While at Fitch, Gus was frequently interviewed by Reuters and Bloomberg as well as other news services. Prior to that position, Gus held senior banking positions at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Schroders where he worked on debt transactions for media and telecommunications companies in support of various capital markets strategies including M&A. Gus received a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Tufts University.
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Carol Coale
Managing Director
ccoale@drg-e.com
Carol Coale is a Managing Director at DRG&E in the firm's energy research and advisory practice. Prior to joining DRG&E, Ms. Coale served as the Managing Director of the Energy Group at Sanders Morris Harris (SMH Capital) and provided sell-side research on integrated natural gas, power and exploration & production companies. She brings over 20 years of Wall Street experience to DGR&E, including a year as a Portfolio Manager at an energy hedge fund. Carol was a Senior Vice President for ten years at The Prudential Equity Group LLP where she was the Senior Equity Analyst for natural gas, utilities, and power company securities. She was ranked an All American Analyst for six consecutive years in the Institutional Investor magazine survey, reaching the number one spot in 2002. She also achieved the top ranking in Greenwich and Starmine analyst surveys during that same time period, and was ranked three times as an All-Star analyst in the Wall Street Journal's stock picking survey. Before joining Prudential, Carol spent five years with energy boutique Howard Weil Labouisse Friedrichs, and was a fixed income analyst and trader at Rauscher Pierce Refsnes (now RBC Capital), E.F. Hutton, and Rotan Mosle (now UBS). Carol earned her MBA from Southern Methodist University and is an honors graduate with a BA from the University of Texas in Austin.
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Chris Nee, CFA
Analyst
cnee@drg-e.com
Chris Nee is an analyst at DRG&E. Previously, Mr. Nee worked as a buy-side equity research analyst with J.P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management (JPM), performing fundamental analysis of large-cap companies in the capital goods and software industries. He has also worked as a sector strategist with JPM, covering both the technology and telecom sectors and providing macroeconomic research for JPM's private bank and institutional money managers. Prior to this, Mr. Nee worked as Vice President of Operations at TransGlobal Investments, where among other responsibilities, he authored its Pacific Rim research reports. In addition to his investment background, Mr. Nee has worked as a systems analyst for Associates Bancorp. Mr. Nee is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has an MBA from Rice University and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Notre Dame.
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Ben Burnham
Assistant Vice President, IR Counsel
bburnham@drg-e.com
Ben Burnham joined DRG&E in 2005 as an Investor Relations Specialist and was named Assistant Vice President in 2008. His primary responsibilities include IR counsel and marketing support for clients. Burnham also handles vendor relationships, basic IT support and special projects for DRG&E. He graduated from Duke University in 2005, where he majored in electrical engineering and economics.
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Donna Washburn
Office Manager
dmw@drg-e.com
Donna Washburn joined the company in July of 2001. Prior to joining DRG&E, she was employed for 17 years with Marketing Specialists (food brokerage) in various positions of increasing responsibility, including multi-regional operating systems specialist. Donna's duties at DRG&E include the management of all client services, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, human resources and other general office duties.
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