BTIG Builds Out Research Sales Business – Adds Industry Veteran Karen Blando

New York – July 9, 2012 – BTIG LLC, a global financial services firm that specializes in institutional trading and brokerage services, has expanded its Research Sales team with the hire of Wall Street veteran Karen Blando.

Blando joins BTIG’s Research team, which includes a Global Strategist, six Analysts and Corporate Access. She will serve as a key relationship manager, teaming up with John Taylor, Managing Director, and Bonnie Murray, Director, to provide Research Sales coverage to the firm’s largest global accounts.

Blando comes to BTIG as a Managing Director. She has 18 years of Institutional Research Sales experience, most recently with Macquarie Capital where she served in an Institutional Equity Sales role and managed the US distribution of the firm’s Global Quantitative product. Prior to that, she was a former Head of New York Institutional Sales at Bank of America and previously worked in Institutional Sales at Brown Brothers Harriman and Cowen & Company.

“I am excited to leverage BTIG’s existing client base and work with our sales force to expand their relationships beyond the clients’ trading desks to the portfolio managers and analysts,” says Blando. “Our goal is to promote and deliver BTIG’s research product to a broader audience in the institutional community while helping enhance the overall relationship between BTIG and its clients.”

While many firms have built their research offering first and then added trading, BTIG established first its agency trading business which will now be enhanced by its Research Sales offering. BTIG’s 120-plus Salestraders are seasoned multi-product specialists, and the Research Sales team will magnify the value added by BTIG to its institutional clients by ensuring they receive content that is useful and relevant.

“The build out of BTIG’s Research Sales team demonstrates the firm’s ongoing commitment to expanding its offerings and ensuring BTIG’s research is reaching our clients,” said Rick Blank, BTIG’s Head of Global Equities. “Our global strategy perspectives and stock specific insights add value to our clients’ investment process. A professional like Karen Blando knows how to get that value add to the client in the right way and in a timely manner.”

About BTIG

BTIG LLC is a premier institutional brokerage and fund services company. BTIG continues to build its global franchise around a broad and experienced group of professionals who are leaders and experts in their respective fields. Founded in 2002, BTIG, including through its affiliates, employs over 400 professionals in five different countries. BTIG serves customers from all over the world and offers services in 11 areas: Equity Trading, Equity Derivatives, Futures Trading, Convertible Securities, Prime Brokerage, Outsource Trading, Fixed Income, Direct Market Access, Capital Markets, Equity Research and Corporate Access.

BTIG has nine US offices: New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Greenwich, Red Bank and Orinda. BTIG also has four overseas affiliates: London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.

BTIG LLC is a member of FINRA and SIPC

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