Donald
H. Straszheim is Vice Chairman
of Roth Capital Partners LLC, a contributing columnist for Forbes.com,
Visiting Scholar at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management
and former global Chief Economist at Merrill Lynch and Co. in
New York City. Since the mid-1990s, Straszheim has focused on
understanding China and how it is affecting the US and global
economy and markets. Straszheim joined Roth in March 2006 to spearhead
the firm’s growing efforts in China, as well as to work
with the domestic team. He is located in Roth’s Los Angeles
office. As Merrill’s top economist from 1985 to 1997, he
traveled worldwide representing the firm, leading its global economic
research effort, and meeting with institutional and retail investors
as well as with investment banking clients. He was voted ten consecutive
years to Institutional Investor’s ‘All-Star Team.’
From 1997 to 2002, he was President of the Milken Institute, a
not-for-profit economic think tank in Santa Monica, CA, continuing
as Vice Chairman to 2004. From 2002 to 2006, Straszheim was principal
of Straszheim Global Advisors, an economic and financial markets
advisory firm with offices in Los Angeles and Beijing. Currently
Straszheim is serving as President of the Chartered Financial
Analysts Society of Los Angeles, serves on various boards, and
is a regular speaker and media commentator on China and the global
economy and markets. He earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from
Purdue University.
John P. Waterman, CFA joined Rittenhouse
Asset Management, a subsidiary of Nuveen Investments, in October
1993 as a portfolio manager and became Chief Investment Officer
in December 1997. He played a key leadership role in the growth
of the firm to assets in excess of $18 billion at the peak. John
recently retired from Rittenhouse Asset Management as part of
a transition plan initiated in April 2005. From 1987 to 1993,
Mr. Waterman worked for several middle market investment banking
firms (initially at CoreStates, and then Strategic Corporate Finance
Advisors, Inc. (founded by John P. Waterman and sold to HL&CO.),
and Howard, Lawson & Co.) in the Philadelphia area with a
focus on mergers and acquisitions, private placements, and business
valuation. From 1976 to 1987, he worked in international banking
for CoreStates Financial Corp. (formerly The Philadelphia National
Bank) and the Irving Trust Company. John earned his B.A. in History
from Williams College, his M.A. in International Relations with
a concentration in international economics at the Fletcher School
of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and his M.B.A. at the
Wharton business school. John Waterman is a Trustee and member
of the Executive Committee and Investment Committee of the Church
Foundation, he is head of the Investment Committee for the United
Way of Southeastern PA, and acts as Treasurer, Head of the Finance
Committee, and a member of the Executive Committee for the Montgomery
School in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Tom McManus is a private investor
after a 10 year stint as Managing Director and Chief Investment
Strategist at Banc of America Securities LLC. Before joining Bank
of America, Tom was a senior member of the global strategy and
economics department at Morgan Stanley, where he developed several
stock indices, including the Nifty 50 (NFT), MS Cyclical (CYC)
and Consumer (CMR) indices, for use in conjunction with his equity
strategy recommendations. McManus also served as the chief U.S.
investment strategist at NatWest Markets Prior to his tenure at
Morgan Stanley, McManus worked at Goldman Sachs in institutional
equity sales. He was named "Guru of the Year" in 2001
by TheStreet.com based on the prescience of his strategy recommendations
in 2000, and was selected three times as a member of the Institutional
Investor All-Star equity research team. McManus earned his B.S.
in Operations Research from Columbia School of Engineering and
Applied Science, and is currently a member of the advisory board
for the School's Masters degree program in Financial Engineering.
