Apple Analysts

Managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, specializing in Internet (US and China) & Digital Media. He joined Piper Jaffray in 1995. Munster's Internet focus is search, media, and China, including Google, Yahoo!, and Baidu.com. In addition, Munster has covered the Digital Media space since 1995, including Adobe, Autodesk, and Apple.

Toni Sacconaghi - senior research analyst covering IT hardware stocks at Sanford C. Bernstein. He joined the firm in 1998, and was elected a Partner at AllianceBernstein in 2009. Previously, Mr Sacconaghi was a consultant with McKinsey & Co., where he served a variety of technology and consumer clients.

A senior sell-side equity research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein covering U.S. IT hardware companies, thinks about the challenges and opportunities presented by the firm's new office in Hong Kong. Sacconaghi was previously the only analyst covering IT hardware companies for Bernstein. However, the firm has recently hired an analyst to cover Asian IT hardware companies in Hong Kong. Sacconaghi thinks about the best way to work collaboratively with the new Asian analyst.

Principal Analyst with Gartner Research, where she is part of the Consumer Technology and Markets team, based in Paris. Her area of expertise is the EMEA consumer device area with a focus on France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Turkey, specifically market-sizing research, forecast and market trends.

Senior research analyst, covers consumer electronics and digital media with a vertical approach that focuses on the relationships among software, hardware and content. Andy joined Pacific Crest's software team in 2003 and helped it earn national recognition as Institutional Investor's Best of the Boutiques in 2003 and 2004.

Sarah serves Consumer Product Strategy Professionals. Her research anticipates and analyzes consumer trends in computing and mobility. Sarah's research on tablets is some of the most-quoted in the industry: In her March 2011 report "iPad Challengers Have Flawed Product Strategies," she made the call that Android tablets would fail in the US unless they were made by Amazon — six months before Amazon announced the release of its successful Kindle Fire. She is tracking new disruptive consumer technology products on the horizon, such as Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system as well as new form factors such as wearables.
In a consulting and advisory capacity, Sarah helps companies optimize their product strategy to reach customers across devices and platforms, anticipate future disruptions, and identify opportunities for offering and monetizing new digital product experiences.

Charles Wolf joined Needham & Company in 2000. Charlie is well known for his two signature publications, Wolf Bytes and Wolf Bits, which provide in-depth analysis of significant industry issues. He began an 18-year career in the Finance Division of the Columbia Business School in 1966, rising from assistant professor to professor, during which time he published many articles on financial economics and decision theory in major academic journals.

Managing Director, Citigroup

Horace has eight years of experience as an industry analyst and business development manager at Nokia, preceded by six years of software development and management in a startup environment, two years of IT management and five years of computer science research in an industrial laboratory.

Horace has an MBA from Harvard Business School and MS Engineering from Tufts University.

B.B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison; Master of Management, Northwestern University. Milunovich joined Merrill Lynch in 1997 where he covers the server and enterprise hardware sector. He worked at Morgan Stanley from 1992 to 1997, and prior to that worked at Salomon Brothers and CS First Boston.

Mr. Tavis C. McCourt, CFA is a Research Analyst at Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division. Mr. McCourt was a Managing Director at Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., Research Division. Mr. McCourt joined Morgan Keegan in 1998 and covered the communications technology sector. He was Equity Analyst of Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division. He worked at L. Knife & Son. Mr. McCourt was ranked number two both years among telecommunications analysts for stock picking in the fixed line telecom sector by Wall Street Journal Best on the Street Analyst Survey in 2005 and 2007; Ranked number five among 32 telecommunications analysts for stock picking in fixed line telecom sector by Wall Street Journal Best on the Street Analyst Survey in 2004; and was listed in the NASDAQ-StarMine 2003 Analyst Survey. He is a C.F.A. charterholder. Mr. McCourt holds an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in Business Administration from Villanova University.

As President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, he provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to create credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero dollar marketing. For over 20 years Rob has worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, ROLM, and Siemens.

Based in New York, Um joins Wells Fargo Securities as a managing director and senior analyst in the Equity Research department covering the IT Hardware sector. Um joins the bank after spending more than 15 years at UBS Investment Bank and its predecessor firms, where most recently he was the firm’s senior IT Hardware equity analyst. At UBS, Um functioned as the global PC coordinator and was responsible for publishing the firm’s worldwide PC forecast, one of UBS’s key global indicators. During his long tenure at UBS, in addition to IT Hardware, Um followed a number of technology sectors, including Internet, PC Software and Wireless Equipment.

Scott Kessler is a Senior Director with S&P Capital IQ. Since mid‐2004, he has directed Technology Sector strategy and recommendations, for hundreds of securities. Since March 2000, he has personally covered companies/stocks in the Internet sub‐industries, recently including S&P 500 constituents Akamai, eBay, Expedia, Google, priceline.com, VeriSign and Yahoo. He also authors the bi‐annual industry survey entitled “Computers: Consumer Services & the Internet.” Scott received his department’s S&P Analyst of the Year award in 2006, and a corporate Gold SPARC award for substantial contributions to innovation in 2007.
Scott was recognized by The Wall Street Journal in its Best on the Street 2003 Analysts Survey as the top analyst covering General Industrial Services for his work on data‐processing technology stocks. He is regularly relied upon by media including Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Financial Times, Investor’s Business Daily, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as numerous local U.S. periodicals, international outlets, and online publications.
Prior to becoming an equity analyst, Scott worked as a legislative adviser to the Vice Chairman of the House Telecommunications & Finance subcommittee, handling issues related to technology, media and telecommunications. Thereafter, he worked for a law firm in Washington, D.C. as a telecommunications attorney, representing clients including Time Warner and The Walt Disney Company.
Scott graduated from Brandeis University in 1992 and received a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1995.
Contact Scott: scott_kessler@spcapitaliq.com

Vern Essi joined Needham & Company in 2007. Prior to joining Needham, Vern was a senior analyst at MS Howells and Janney Montgomery Scott, in both cases covering the consumer and power verticals of the semiconductor industry.

Jessica Kwee conducts research and analysis for the company’s portfolio of mobility-focused advisory services, especially in the APAC region. Based in Canalys’ Singapore office, she also supports the company’s mobile research on a worldwide basis, tracking mobile subscribers, new product launches, pricing changes, product shipments and routes to market on a quarterly basis.

Prior to joining Canalys in 2010, Jessica received an Honors Degree in Business, specializing in Marketing, from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. As part of this degree, she studied various aspects of business and marketing, including international business and research. She also conducted research projects in various business segments.

Jessica speaks English and Indonesian and has knowledge of Japanese, French and Spanish.

Managing Director covering the Enterprise Systems & PC Hardware industry. She joined Morgan Stanley Equity Research in 2000 as a research associate on the Enterprise Hardware team. Katy earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and holds a BA in finance, investment, and banking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mike Walkley is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Canaccord specializing in communications technology. Mike has over 11 years of experience as a research analyst, and previously worked at Piper Jaffray, where he was the senior wireless technologies analyst for the past 6 years. Mike has also worked in equity research at RBC Capital Markets and Raymond James Financial. Mike was ranked No. 3 stock picker for communications equipment for 2004 by Starmine and No. 5 stock picker for telecommunications equipment for 2004 by the Wall Street Journal. He holds a bachelor's degree in commerce from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and economics from the University of Chicago. Email: mwalkley@canaccordgenuity.com; Phone: 1.612.332.8069

Matthew Hoffman joined Cowen in February 2006, as a Senior Research Analyst covering the wireless equipment industry. Prior to joining Cowen, he spent a year at Moors & Cabot and six years at SoundView Technology Group/Schwab SoundView, where he was ranked by Institutional Investor as a top 10 analyst in the wireless telecommunications equipment space.

Mr. Walter Piecyk is the Head of New Media Satellite and Telecom Industries at BTIG, LLC since March 2010. Mr. Piecyk is the Co-Head of Research at BTIG, LLC, Research Division. Prior to this, he was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Research at Pali Capital Inc., Research Division. Mr. Piecyk provided coverage of telecom service provider and communication equipment equities. He spent four years as a Wireless Services and Equipment Analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners, LLC. Prior to this, Mr. Piecyk was an Analyst at PaineWebber, Inc., where he spent five years covering the Wireless Services and Communications Equipment industries. Previously, he worked at Nextel Communications in its corporate development and corporate finance departments. He was a Research Analyst at Soleil Securities Group, Inc. Mr. Piecyk was an Equity Analyst at UBS Investment Bank, Research Division and Financiële Diensten Amsterdam. He was an Analyst at UBS Wealth Management USA, Research Division. Mr. Piecyk was cited in Institutional Investor magazine's 2004 Home Run Hitter edition as having picked the best performing stock for the prior year. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Brian Marshall is a Senior Managing Director, heads ISI’s Technology Team, and is ISI’s IT Hardware and Data Networking Analyst. Brian spent the last 15 years conducting fundamental research on the technology sector from both a buy-side and sell-side perspective. In 2010, StarMine recognized Brian as a top 5 overall earnings estimator out of 1,800+ publishing analysts.

Prior to joining ISI in 2011, Brian spent 3 years as a sell-side analyst at Gleacher covering IT Hardware and Data Networking sectors. Prior to joining Gleacher, Brian started a global technology long/short fund and partnered with Jefferies. Before that, he was employed at DE Shaw and oversaw the firm’s effort in the long/short technology sector while managing a substantial fund and team of investment professionals.
Brian graduated from Georgetown University in 1996 with a BS in Japanese.

Brian White covers the IT Hardware, Networking & Tech Supply Chain industry at Topeka Capital Markets. Mr. White has covered the Technology sector for over a decade with firms such as Merrill Lynch, Jefferies & Company and Collins Stewart. Mr. White was ranked as one of the leading analysts in the Electronics Industry category by Forbes as part of the 2009 Blue Chip Analyst Survey. He was also a member of the #1 ranked Electronics Manufacturing Services team and #1 Global Hardware team by Institutional Investor magazine while at Merrill Lynch. In 2012, Mr. White was ranked #4 on the Business Insider list of “The Apple Influencers – 15 Analysts and Writers You Should be Following.” He is frequently a guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business News, CCTV and CNBC Asia discussing trends at leading technology companies such as Apple, Cisco, Corning, Dell, EMC, HP and others. Mr. White has also been active in researching the technology sector in China over the past decade and has made over fifty visits to China. Mr. White received his MBA from Vanderbilt University with a concentration in Finance and Accounting with an International Emphasis. He graduated with honors and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. Mr. White is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Amit Daryanani covers the IT hardware and technology supply chain sector as an Equity Analyst for RBC Capital Markets. He is highly regarded by clients for his research coverage and has been recognized multiple times in the U.S. Institutional Investor poll - number two in 2012, runner-up in 2011 for technology supply chain.

William Shope, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs

Colin is a senior technology analyst and director of research at BGC Financial, levering a decade of sell-side experience analyzing public and private companies. His current focus includes mobile computing, performance and brand advertising, payments and commerce, and the platforms and piping that power the digital economy.