PJC Piper Jaffray Companies

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Piper Jaffray Private Capital today announced the addition of Mike Pohlen to the firm's fund of funds team. Pohlen will be responsible for evaluating, implementing and monitoring venture capital (VC), leveraged buyout (LBO) and direct investment opportunities. He will be based in the Minneapolis headquarters office. Prior to joining the fund of funds team, Pohlen was a vice president in investment banking at Piper Jaffray where he focused on lower middle market mergers and acquisitions. Previously, he was the founder and president of an investment fund focused on small cap industrial and consumer companies, and also worked with the TerraVest Income Fund, a private equity firm that acquired lower middle market companies in Canada. In addition, he was the vice president and co-founder of the small cap portfolio group at Deephaven Capital Management, a multi-strategy hedge fund manager. "Each of the members of our investment committee and the senior members of our team have known and worked with Mike for at least seven years," said Scott Barrington, head of Private Capital. "He brings a wealth of valuation expertise, investment experience and insights about private equity managers, which are the perfect complement to our existing investment team." Piper Jaffray Private Capital manages the Private Equity Partners series of funds of funds. These funds invest in highly sought after VC, LBO and CleanTech fund managers to create vehicles that are diversified across industry sectors, investment stage, vintage year and geography. Clients include college endowments, foundations, pension plans (corporate, public and Taft Hartley), family offices and high net worth individuals. In early 2006, the team began implementing a thoughtfully-constructed plan to build a world-class fund of funds team with direct investment capabilities. During that time, it added several investment professionals and an institutional sales team, and significantly enhanced its accounting and reporting capabilities. "The addition of Mike this month marks the completion of that plan," adds Barrington. Pohlen earned a bachelor's degree in actuarial science and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. About Piper Jaffray Piper Jaffray Companies is a leading, international middle-market investment bank and institutional securities firm, serving the needs of middle-market corporations, private equity groups, public entities, nonprofit clients and institutional investors. Founded in 1895, Piper Jaffray provides a comprehensive set of products and services, including equity and debt capital markets products; public finance services; mergers and acquisitions advisory services; high-yield and structured products; institutional equity and fixed-income sales and trading; equity and high-yield research; and private equity products. With headquarters in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray has 25 offices across the United States and international locations in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. (NYSE:PJC) (http://www.piperjaffray.com/) DATASOURCE: Piper Jaffray CONTACT: Rob Litt, Media Relations of Piper Jaffray, +1-612-303-8266 Web site: http://www.piperjaffray.com/

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