PJC Piper Jaffray Companies

Piper Jaffray Expands Fixed Income Sales and Trading Capabilities in New York - Firm Hires 14 Sales and Trading Professionals Formerly With Mellon Financial Corporation - NEW YORK, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Piper Jaffray & Co. is pleased to announce the strategic addition of 14 new sales and trading professionals to its Fixed Income New York office. The team, formerly with Mellon Financial Corporation, joined the Piper Jaffray Fixed Income dealer sales, corporate trading, trading operations and sales teams. The additions are part of the firm's strategy to enhance execution capabilities, including electronic trading and market making and extend its platform for middle-market clients. The new trading group is located in the firm's Chrysler Building offices in mid-town Manhattan. "We are excited to launch this new effort in corporate sales and trading in our New York office," said Barry Nordstrand, head of Fixed Income at Piper Jaffray. "These 14 individuals bring deep experience and talent to our platform and help us better serve our middle-market clients. In addition, the team allows us to fully implement our strategy of serving corporate bond investors." The team consists of Michael Cullen and Jonathan Silverman, who joined thefirm as managing directors and senior corporate traders. Cullen and Silverman joined the firm after spending the past two and a half years as corporate bond traders at Mellon. They serve as co-team leaders on the corporate bond desk in New York. Joining Cullen and Silverman is Izzy Emek, who is a managing director and senior corporate bond trader. Emek joined the firm after working the past two and a half years at Mellon, where he was a bond trader. Alison Prager and Helen Keegan joined the New York office as managing directors and co-team leaders in dealer sales. Prager and Keegan joined the firm from Mellon, where they worked in dealer sales for the past two and a half years. Peter Knapp joined the firm as a vice president in dealer sales from Mellon, where he worked in corporate bond sales. Charles Dugan also joined the firm from Mellon as a vice president responsible for fixed income electronic trading. In addition, Jim Paviolitis joined the firm as an assistant vice president in dealer sales. Paviolitis most recently worked at Mellon in agency dealer sales. In trading operations, the firm hired John Holman from Mellon as a managing director. Holman is responsible for working with partners in technology to get the firm up and running and managing day-to-day trading issues. Eugene Klechevsky and Dow Crescibene join Holman in providing day-to- day support for the corporate trading desk. Both spent the past two and a half years in trading support at Mellon. "We are thrilled tohave this team join us in our strategic effort to expand our dealer sales and trading presence in New York," said Mike Effron, head of fixed income trading at Piper Jaffray. "The addition of the traders and dealers desk allows us to expand our corporate bond trading platform and is the perfect complement to our current research based trading platform." In addition, the firm hired three corporate bond specialist sales staff from Mellon. John Akalski joined as a managing director, Paul Gallagher as a managing director and Matt Duffy as assistant vice president. "We are pleased to have John, Paul and Matt join our sales efforts in our New York office," said Jim Roddy, head of fixed income institutional sales at Piper Jaffray. "The addition strengthens our platform allowing us to extend our market making services and coverage more broadly. Finding the combination of such talented and experienced professionals is very fortunate for our firm." These 14 new hires are part of an on-going expansionplan at Piper Jaffray. Since opening its fixed income New York trading desk in May 2002, Piper Jaffray has added 31 sales and trading employees in municipals, mortgages and corporates in New York. Overall, the firm has 36 fixed income employees in its New York office. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray & Co., a subsidiary of Piper Jaffray Companies (NYSE:PJC), is a focused securities firm dedicated to delivering superior financial advice, investment products and transaction execution within selected sectors of the financial services marketplace. The company operates through two primary revenue-generating segments -- Capital Markets and Private Client Services. Investment Research, an independent group reporting to the CEO, supports clients of both segments. The firm serves corporations, government and non-profit entities, and institutional investors on a national basis and serves the financial advisory needs of private individuals predominantly across the western half of the UnitedStates. The firm has over 2900 employees in 111 offices in 23 states across the country and in London, England. For more information about Piper Jaffray, visit us online at http://www.piperjaffray.com/ . Since 1895. Member SIPC and NYSE. DATASOURCE: Piper Jaffray & Co. CONTACT: Susan Beatty, Public Affairs and Media Relations of Piper Jaffray, +1-612-303-5680 Web site: http://www.piperjaffray.com/

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