PMR.L Regulatory News (PMR)

22 May 2007 14:00

ThinkEquity Partners LLC (London-AIM:PMR), a leading global growthinvestment bank, today announced the addition of three new bankers tosupport the firm's commitment to serve the investment banking needs oftechnology growth companies. £ The new members of the ThinkEquity Partners technology bankingteam are Joe Dews, who is joining the firm as a Partner to head upbanking for Semiconductors and related industries; Robin Graham, whowill be a Partner in the mergers and acquisitions practice; and PooyanMehdizadeh, who will be a Principal in the mergers and acquisitionspractice. The three bankers were formerly with Needham & Company, LLC. £ "We are seeing an uptick in the demands of technology companies inthe market today, and are always pushing to address these needs. Weaim to be the number one growth investment bank in technology andhealthcare and believe these new additions will get us one stepfurther to reaching our business goal. We are poised to capitalize onthe momentum we are experiencing and to leverage our success since thePanmure Gordon merger," said Michael Moe, Co-founder, Chairman and CEOof ThinkEquity. £ Deborah Quazzo, Co-founder, President, and Head of InvestmentBanking said, "We aggressively targeted these top tier technology /semiconductor and M&A bankers. Their experience and relationships willbe invaluable to helping ThinkEquity execute successful M&Atransactions and financing deals for our clients. These hirescomplement two additional recent hires in Chicago: Chris Pigott, aPrincipal formerly at Robert W. Baird who is covering the for-profiteducation segment and Steve Tober, a Managing Director, withapproximately 10 years of operating experience in IT services andformerly a Smith Barney growth banker, who is covering the CorporateServices market for the ThinkEquity Partners." £ TEAM BACKGROUND £ Dews brings to ThinkEquity more than 18 years experience intechnology investment banking and the technology industry. He beganhis career in technology investment banking with Needham & Company in1988, and later rejoined Needham in 2001. At Needham, Dews led thefirm's Semiconductor investment banking efforts globally. His otherinvestment banking experience includes roles as a Managing Director atCIBC World Markets/Oppenheimer & Co., where he headed the ElectronicsGroup, and as a Managing Director at Dain Rauscher Wessels, where heheaded the Semiconductor and Technical Software Groups. £ Dews' investment banking transaction experience includes ventureinvestments, private placements, IPOs, follow-on equity offerings,convertible debt offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He hascompleted transactions for clients located in the US as well as inCanada, China, Germany, Korea, Taiwan and the UK. In addition to hisbanking experience, Dews brings industry knowledge from stints as aField Applications Engineer at Cirrus Logic K.K. in Tokyo, and as VicePresident of Business Development at Versata, Inc. Dews is a graduateof Cornell University with a B.S. in Applied & Engineering Physics. £ Graham joins ThinkEquity with 13 years of growth companyinvestment banking experience at Needham & Company. He began hiscareer on Wall Street and later transferred to Silicon Valley toco-found and build Needham's M&A Group. He is the co-author of "EquityCarve-outs and Spin-offs of Technology Operations," published in TheFinancier in November 1995, and subsequently executed suchtransactions for DuPont, Palm and TRW. £ Over the past decade Graham has successfully advised on a broadrange of M&A transactions for clients including AllianceSemiconductor, Atmel, Bell Microproducts, Ceradyne, Microsemi andMaxtor. Graham completed graduate finance and accounting studies atthe M.I.T. Sloan School of Management while he earned an A.B. fromHarvard University. £ Mehdizadeh joins ThinkEquity with seven years of technologyinvestment banking experience, most recently as a Vice President inNeedham & Company's M&A group. He has successfully completed over 45transactions for both public and private technology companies acrossthe full spectrum of advisory assignments, including acquisitions,exclusives sales, divestitures, spin-offs, take-over defenseassignments and cross-border transactions. Earlier in his career,Mehdizadeh was a Consultant at Accenture Ltd. Mehdizadeh received aB.S. in Information and Computer Sciences from the University ofCalifornia, Irvine. £ About ThinkEquity Partners LLC £ ThinkEquity Partners LLC is a research-centric institutionalinvestment firm focused on the growth economy. ThinkEquity PartnersLLC is dedicated to providing focused insight, advisory services, andcapital to institutional investors and corporate constituents in theknowledge economy's key growth verticals, including technology,healthcare, media and consumer business services. In March of 2007,ThinkEquity Partners LLC completed its merger with Panmure Gordon inLondon, to become a leading global growth investment bank. For moreinformation about ThinkEquity Partners LLC, please visitwww.thinkequity.com. Member NASD and SIPC. Copyright Business Wire 2007