John Thomas Financial

John Thomas Financial, Inc., a licensed, full service broker dealer offering client-centric retail brokerage and investment banking services, today announced that Wayne S. Kaufman, CMT and Chief Market Analyst at John Thomas Financial, was a featured analyst on CNBC from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange along with Douglas Roberts, John Manley, and CNBC's Dylan Ratigan, Maria Bartiromo and David Faber.

As the market begin plummeting and the DOW fell 800 points Mr. Kaufman was on the floor of the exchange with CNBC to bring clarity to a very chaotic market. CNBC has featured Wayne for his much respected market observations and analytical expertise. Kaufman authors the popular daily market letter, "The Kaufman Report," which includes technical and fundamental analysis of the U.S. equities markets, general investment philosophies and reviews of prevailing political, economic and business trends that are impacting the financial markets.

With over 10 years experience as a technical and fundamental market analyst with several Wall Street firms, Kaufman has been widely quoted in the financial media, including CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, Barron's and the Wall Street Journal. Holding the designation of Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a licensed Research Analyst, Kaufman has served as an online instructor teaching CMT candidates "Level 3" coursework for the Market Technicians Association (MTA), the leading national organization of technical analysts in the United States. The MTA's CMT program is considered the industry's gold standard in technical analysis. Kaufman graduated from the University of Michigan where he earned a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts.

"When the market is down 800 points and everyone on the street is in a panic CNBC, one of the most respected financial news powerhouses in the world, calls upon Wayne Kaufman to get the facts. Wayne's market analysis, expertise and experience is why even in a down market our firm, John Thomas Financial, is building a solid foundation where our Financial Consultants are receiving the necessary information to guide their clients in this tough economic environment," stated Thomas Belesis, the firm's founder and CEO.

Greenhill Managing Director Appointed

Christopher Cooke will join the investment bank Greenhill, as a Managing Director in its recently formed Fund Placement Group. Mr. Cooke, who previously worked as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers with the other members of the Firm's Fund Placement Advisory group, will be based in London and will focus on extending the group's capabilities to the European market.

Mr. Cooke was most recently with CQS, a leading London based hedge fund, as a member of the Fund Raising and Investor Relations team. Prior to joining CQS in 2007, he was a London-based Managing Director at Lehman Brothers where he was responsible for European and Middle East fund raising for Buy-out funds, Fund of Funds, Co-investment funds and Real Estate funds. Prior to his time at Lehman, Mr. Cooke was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs for five years. He began his career at the Royal Bank of Canada.

Mr. Cooke holds a BA from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and an MBA from Fordham University, New York City.
Simon A. Borrows, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Greenhill, said, "Our intention is to extend our Fund Placement Advisory business across global markets, just as we have done with our M&A and Restructuring advisory business. Chris has broad experience and a wealth of relationships that will significantly advance this strategy."

Nomura Acquires European Arm of Lehman Brothers

Nomura, has reached an agreement to acquire the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers.

The acquisition will provide Nomura with a market leading equities and investment banking platform in the region and further enhance Nomura's strategy of connecting Asia and Europe. The deal follows Nomura's agreement yesterday to acquire Lehman Brothers' entire franchise in the Asia Pacific region including Japan and Australia.

Lehman's equities and investment banking businesses in Europe and the Middle East employed around 2500 staff, of whom a significant proportion are expected to be retained.

The deal does not include any trading assets or trading liabilities and Nomura will pay an undisclosed sum for the businesses.
Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura's CEO, said: "In the past 24 hours Nomura has executed two transformational deals. This transaction will significantly extend our European footprint and international reach, enabling us to realise our strategy of delivering Asia to the world. Our immediate priority is to get the equity and investment banking divisions back in business operating under the Nomura name."

Evercore Partners

Evercore Partners is an investment banking boutique and investment firm. Evercore's Advisory business counsels its clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and other strategic transactions. Evercore's Investment Management business manages private equity funds and traditional asset management services for sophisticated institutional investors. Evercore serves a diverse set of clients around the world from its offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. More information about Evercore can be found on the firm's Web site at www.evercore.com. EVR-X.