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Dutton Associates is one of the largest issuer-paid equity research firms in the United States and our investment performance is ranked comparable to that of the top Wall Street firms. Our analysts, primarily CFAs with over 20 years of experience at the major securities firms, are among the most experienced on Wall Street. We offer high-quality, independent, fundamental research on small cap public companies.
We recognize independent investment research as an opportunity for both companies and investors, because the traditional avenues of gaining research coverage are closing for smaller company stocks. In our small cap space, in an era of declining commissions, coupled with insufficient investment banking opportunities, traditional Wall Street research departments have gone after larger cap stocks. Without analyst coverage, the current market prices of our small cap companies are often significantly below their intrinsic value and are many times below the relative valuation of their analyst-covered competitors. The amount of this discount attributable to lack of analyst coverage, while hard to measure, is suggested to range up to 50%. Many institutional and individual investors will not invest in companies lacking independent, third-party research coverage.
Companies recognize the opportunity afforded by enrolling with Dutton Associates. Our continuing year-long program of research coverage allows under-followed companies to gain a thorough, independent analysis of their competitive position, along with independently developed earnings and valuation models that otherwise would not be available to interested investors and institutions. Dutton Associates research program is modeled in terms of prepaid compensation after the Standard & Poor's and other credit rating services. Dutton Associates research is used by investment banking firms, institutions, and individual investors to obtain independent company equity research. Our firm's operations are similar to a research department of a major investment banking firm, except we do not have any brokerage or investment banking operations. Unlike traditional brokerage firms that limit research distribution to their client bases, in exchange for commissions, we widely distribute our research to institutions and individuals, both domestic and international from our website, as well as via Bloomberg and First Call. Our estimates are included in the major consensus estimates - Zacks, Reuters, The JCF Group, and First Call.
Companies are enrolled in a one-year continuing research program, prepaid before commencement of its research activities. Although any party can pay the enrollment fee, reports are performed on behalf of the public, and are not a service to any company. Dutton Associates does not accept payment of any of its fees in either company stock or any form of securities; as receipt and disposal of these securities under these alternative payment methods, might compromise the integrity of the continuing research program. The payer is also responsible for additional pass through costs, including printing. All electronic reports and distribution are included in the initial research fee. We adopted key SEC and NASD regulations and rules governing brokerage research, including SEC Regulation AC (Analyst Certification) and NASD 2711, which provide disclosure and transparency, and allow the effectiveness of our research to be judged independent of platform.
John M. Dutton is President and Chief Executive Officer of Dutton Associates. He is a member of both the Charter Financial Analyst Societies of both Boston and Sacramento, and a member of the CFAI. John Dutton also served from 1998-2001 on the 14 member NASDAQ Committee for the Future of the Bulletin Board. Mr. Dutton has been a money manager, analyst and director of research and capital markets at several firms. These firms included Moseley, Hallgarten, Estabrook & Weedon and the institutional firm of LH Friend, Weinress, Frankson & Presson. He was president of Corsair Asset Management, an asset management firm, for over 14 years. For eight years he was executive vice president and a member of the board of directors and the executive committee of the international hospital company American Medical International, Inc. (now Tenet Healthcare Corporation). At AMI, he was responsible for its worldwide development and expansion programs, as well as management of its pension and captive insurance investments. He received an A.B. degree from Brown University, and received his MBA from theWharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania.
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Curtis M. Rocca serves as Managing Partner of DCA Partners, responsible for all aspects of the organization, and also functions as a General Partner to the Firm's affiliated private equity fund, DCA Capital Partners. Mr. Rocca is a seasoned chief executive with a background in leading high growth organizations from inception to exit. In his career, he has held a number of top executive management positions including CEO of several companies, both public and private. Prior to DCA, Mr. Rocca was Chief Executive Officer of Dental Partners, Inc., a healthcare services roll-up based in Sacramento, CA, but with operations across the U.S. During his stint at Dental Partners, Mr. Rocca led the growth and operations of this multi-state healthcare consolidation from a standing start to over $30 million in revenues in 18 months, before driving negotiations for the Company's sale in late 2000. Prior to Dental Partners, Mr. Rocca was President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Bio-Dental Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: BDTC), a global dental technology and products company. Under his leadership, Bio-Dental quickly became one of the nation's fastest growing companies, as recognized by Business Weekmagazine. Mr. Rocca earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Davis, where he graduated cum laude. He remains an active entrepreneur and advisor to high-growth businesses.
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Richard Hefter joined Dutton Associates in 2001. He has more than 25 years experience in financial publishing and 10 years in online financial publishing and marketing. Prior to joining Dutton Associates, he was editor-in-chief of GlobalNetFinancial, which published MicroCap1000.com, UK-Invest.com and other financial sites around the world, from 1998 until June 2001. He was associate director of communications at Northwestern University's Office of Development from 1994 to 1998, and prior to that was associate editor at Cahners Publishing Company, division of Reed Business, where he twice won the Jesse H. Neal Award (the Pulitzer of the trade press). He has been published in Morningstar, CBSMarketWatch, Red Herring, Chicago Magazine, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune, among many other publications, and was named by OnlineInvestor Magazine in November 1999 as one of the top 25 columnists on the Web for investment ideas.
Mr. Hefter has a B.A. from Stanford University and M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
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Mr. Quigley is President of ICServices Corporation (ICS). Initially founded in 1996, ICS is specialized in business Internet services, corporate image design, Investor Relations media development and on-line database design and integration. One of ICS's many successes, and its current focus, has been the development of the Dutton Associates website, research production processes and an extensive set of interrelated databases. Dutton Associates' research preparation, editing, supervisory approval, website publishing tools and process is seamlessly integrated and highly automated. Mr. Quigley is also president of Quigley & Associates, Inc. Since its incorporation in 1985, Quigley & Associates has primarily focused on system and software engineering design and development in support of the U.S. Navy's Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Control System MK 116 MOD 7 and the AN/SQQ-89 BASIC programs. Mr. Quigley's 39 years of software and system engineering experience spans the entire project development process, from concept development through system design, software architecture definition, detailed design, code, integration, test, documentation and life cycle maintenance. During his career, Mr. Quigley has provided project and software engineering consulting services to Martin Marietta Data Systems, Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, California, Science Applications International Corporation, The Naval Surface Warfare Center, General Electric Corporation, Sperry Univac and System Development Corporation. Mr. Quigley attended college via military extension while serving as a Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy.
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Mr. Resnik has over 35 years of experience in the investment industry. He is a principal analyst at Dutton Associates. He is also currently the principal of Resnik Asset Management Co., Inc. (RAMCO), a registered investment advisor providing equity portfolio management to high net worth individuals. Prior to founding RAMCO in 1995, he held executive positions in portfolio and securities analysis and investment strategy at major investment firms including Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber, E.F. Hutton, Shearson Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney. At E.F. Hutton, Mr. Resnik created the firm's Equity Research Marketing Department. In this position, he provided investment guidance to the firm's representatives and, at public seminars across the country, to individual investors. At Lehman Brothers, Mr. Resnik was a member of the highly rated Equity Research Department's Investment Policy Committee which, in addition to working with securities analysts in determining common stock investment ratings, selected the firm's well-known annual "Uncommon Values" list. His professional designations include Chartered Financial Analyst and Registered Supervisory Analyst. He is a member of the CFAI.
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Mr. Freyermuth has over thirty years experience in the investment banking industry ranging from institutional equity sales, investment banking, and branch management. He started his career with Morgan Stanley, and spent ten years with Bear Stearns in San Francisco. He then joined Alex Brown & Company, followed by Van Kasper/Wells Fargo, and the Shemano Group. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and attended NYU Graduate School of Business.
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Jamie Hyland is a Vice President of Dutton Associates and provides sales and marketing services in Canada. Mr. Hyland has over 20 years of experience as a financial and marketing consultant, a corporate founder and manager of a number of early stage public and private Canadian businesses. His industry expertise includes hospitality, publishing, financial services, technology, mining, alternative energy and healthcare appliances. He has also worked with a major mining and resource publication based in Vancouver BC. He is an avid sportsman who enjoys hockey, golf and skiing. Mr. Hyland earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management from Royal Roads University of Victoria, BC. Canada.
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Prior to joining Dutton Associates, Stanley Ng had nearly 20 years of research experience in the Hong Kong, China and Japan stock markets with foreign and HK listed stockbrokers. He has been Head Of Research for several brokerage firms in the city. Most recently he served as research director for Universal Investment (HK) Ltd., and his prior firms included Tung Tai Securities Limited, Drake & Morgan/Rexcapital Securities, and Standard Charter Securities Ltd. He holds a BSc from Tennessee Tech University, and a MSc from Texas Tech University.
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Prior to joining Dutton Associates, Judith Kleinman has worked as an institutional salesperson specializing in the Israeli and emerging European equity markets for over 10 years. As Director of Israeli equities for UBS Securities, Ms. Kleinman established the first sales, trading and research office for the international investment bank in Israel in 1998. Prior to her assignment in Israel, she was head of sales for southern European emerging markets at UBS in London. Before joining UBS, Ms. Kleinman was a VP and Head of Emerging Market Research at Bankers Trust in London where she directed the emerging Europe equity research team and analyzed Israeli and Turkish equities. Previoslly, Ms. Kleinman was a senior analyst at James Capel (now HSBC Securities) and worked as an economist at the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Kleinman holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics from Duke University, Master of Commerce degree in International Finance from University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and a Master of Science in Macroeconomics from the London School of Economics.
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Jim Patrick until joining Dutton Associates was publisher of Buyside and WSR magazine's these past 10 years. Both publications were high-quality print periodicals that were distributed monthly to all North American money managers, analysts and public companies. Buyside Magazine was the first national publication to bridge the gap and establish integral working relationships between these diverse but connected groups.
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Mr. Peralta before joining Dutton Associates was the Vice President, West Coast Regional Sales Manager for Merrill Lynch. In that position he worked with companies across the Western United States overseeing the sale of Merrill Lynch's suite of corporate products. Prior to Merrill, he was E*Trade selling their corporate services. From 1985 to 1998, Mr. Peralta was with the United States Air Force in Military Intelligence as a Russian Arms Control Interpreter. He received his BS degree from State University of New York in management and had a Russian language minor.
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Most recently, Ann Popelka was Director, Equity Research at Lehman Brothers, London, UK. At Lehman, she headed up Lehman's first European small cap research team and broke into the Reuters small cap survey in three sectors: retail, household goods and alcoholic beverages. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, she was a Spanish Country Analyst with HSBC in London, UK and Madrid, Spain. At HSBC, her Spanish team ranked consecutively within the top three Spanish research teams in the Extel survey. Prior to this, she worked in equity sales at the Spanish brokerage house, Beta Capital, Madrid, Spain, and also was an equity analyst at B&T Asociados Financieros, Madrid, Spain. She received her BA degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her MBA from Thunderbird (Garvin School of International Management), Glendale, Arizona.
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Mr. Tipton joined Dutton Associates from his own firm, Tipton Financial Services and NanoCap Gems. Prior to forming his own firm, he was Sales Director for E*Trade in Sacramento, CA with responsibility for 75 securities sales people. He received his B.S. degree from California State University Sacramento with a major in business administration.
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Steve Kircher is Chairman and CEO of Solar Power Inc., a publicly traded company (OTCBB: SOPW). Solar Power is U.S.-based, and owns and operates its own manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China. He is also involved in the ownership and operation of a top Caribbean resort hotel. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of International DisplayWorks (NASDAQ: IDWK) from October 1999 through January of 2005. International DisplayWorks was acquired by Flextronics (Nasdaq: FLEX). Mr. Kircher was the Chief Executive Officer of IDWK from July 2001 through October 2004 while its market value rose to over $300 million from $14.5 million. From 1993 through 2001 Mr. Kircher was the majority owner of Capitol Bay Group and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capitol Bay Group, and it's two wholly owned subsidiaries, Capitol Bay Securities, Inc., a securities and investment banking firm and Capitol Bay Management, Inc., an investment company. Mr. Kircher closed Capital Bayin February of 2001. Mr. Kircher was also a founding Director of Burlingame Bancorp and served on its Board of Directors from 1984 to 1991. Mr. Kircher has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University ofCalifornia, San Diego.
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Edwin L. McClendon joined Terra Nova Financial Group in October 2006 as Executive Vice President and Head of Investment Banking. Mr. McClendon has 25 years of broad experience in the investment industry. Mr. McClendon has served 10 years in senior Equity Research positions at 1st Chicago Investment Management, BMO Nesbitt Burns Securities, Advest and William Blair & Company LLC. In addition to publishing detailed company and industry research reports, he was active in advising High Technology investment banking clients on public offerings, mergers & acquisitions and private placements. In 2001 Mr. McClendon formed McClendon & Associates LLC a management consulting firm that provided M&A advisory services, distressed securities and private equity analysis, and investment research services. In 2003 Mr. McClendon co-founded West Loop Partners LLC, and was general partner of the West Loop Partners Long/Short Balanced Fund 1 L.P. until 2006. Mr. McClendon is a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, MN with majors in Economics and Political Science.
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Steven R. Mills joined DCA Partners in 2002, and is both a Partner in the Firm's investment banking business as well as a General Partner of DCA Capital Partners, the Company's affiliated private equity fund. Mr. Mills brings more than 25 years of executive financial management and transactional experience to the Firm. He served as the Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Responsys, Inc., a global provider of on-demand email and life cycle marketing automation software and solutions. Prior to Responsys, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary of AnyTime Access, Inc., a provider of outsourced lending services. Anytime Access was sold to Digital Insight (NASDAQ: DGIN) in 2000 which was subsequently sold to Intuit in 2006. Mr. Mills was a Partner with Ernst & Young, LLP in both the San Jose and Sacramento offices, where he specialized in consulting with technology companies and other organizations in various sectors--both public and pre-IPO--concerning all elements of their financial and tax affairs, with a particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, SEC reporting, and structuring financing and international transactions. While at E&Y, Mr. Mills was a Founding Member of the San Jose Office Entrepreneurial Services Group, and also served as the Director of Taxes for the Sacramento, Reno, and Salt Lake City offices. Mr. Mills started his professional career in 1978 at Deloitte & Touche, LLP, Mr. Mills is an Attorney, holding a Juris Doctor of Law from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he also earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. Mr. Mills has been admitted to the state bar in Nebraska, and is a Certified Public Accountant in both California and Nebraska.
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