Our Team

Jack Iacovone joined Needham & Company in 1995 and became Chief Executive Officer of Needham & Company in 2022. He has previously held the roles of President, Head of Investment banking and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. While at Needham, Jack has assisted emerging growth companies complete over 125 equity financings and advisory transactions totaling over $80 billion in value in a variety of industries. He has also sponsored over 25 principal investments made through the firm’s Private Equity Partnership, Needham Capital Partners, and has sat on the board of directors or been an observer to the board of directors of six companies. Jack previously worked within the financial services line of business at KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. He received a B.S. in Accounting from Pace University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York. Jack is a member of the Metro New York Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.

Steve Camp joined Needham & Company in 2007. Steve serves as Co-Head of Boston Investment Banking and advises Infrastructure Software and Cybersecurity companies on M&A, IPOs and growth equity financing. Prior to joining Needham in 2007, Steve worked in EMC’s Corporate Development group, where he played a key role in the execution of numerous acquisitions in security, data management and cloud, as well as the spinout IPO of VMware. Steve serves on the Board of Directors for the Concord Conservatory of Music and on the Leadership Council of PeacePlayers International. Steve graduated with honors from the University of Cincinnati.

Samir Desai joined Needham & Company in 2002 and serves as the Head of New York Investment Banking as well as the Head of the Software and Services Corporate Finance team. Samir’s experience includes a wide variety of equity, debt and private placement financings and advisory assignments for a large number of technology clients over the last 25 years. At Needham & Company, he has been the lead advisor on a number of IPOs, Follow-on and Private Placement offerings, as well as buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions related to a large number of enterprise, application, network and infrastructure software as well as tech-enabled and IT Services companies. Prior to joining Needham, Samir was a Vice President in the Technology Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston/Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he focused on clients in the Enterprise Computing, Software and Internet Consulting Services sectors. Prior to CSFB/DLJ, he worked at Cowen & Company, where he was an Associate in Cowen’s Technology Investment Banking Group. He also worked at Salomon Brothers Inc, where he was a Financial Analyst in Salomon’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Samir earned an M.B.A. with Honors from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Government and Economics cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Jack Higgins joined Needham & Company in 2007 and is a Managing Director in the Technology Investment Banking Group. He has extensive experience advising private and public semiconductor, materials and industrial technology companies on equity financings and M&A advisory assignments. Previously, Jack was a senior banker at Janney Montgomery Scott for the firm’s information technology security effort. Prior to joining Janney, he spent four years with Adams Harkness, working in the semiconductor device and communications technology banking groups. Prior to working at Adams Harkness, Jack worked at Genuity (GTE Internetworking) in product management. He graduated from Colby College and received his MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Jim King joined Needham & Company in 1993. Jim currently heads Needham’s activities related to Solar and Semiconductor Capital Equipment. While at Needham & Company, he has been responsible for the execution of over 100 equity financings and advisory transactions worth over $15 billion for technology companies. Additionally, Jim has significant technology operations and business strategy experience, working in strategic marketing at Silicon Graphics, in enterprise sales for a start-up software company, and serving for three years as CEO of a demand chain software company he founded. Jim holds an AB in Quantitative Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Pooyan Mehdizadeh rejoined Needham & Company in September 2012 and leads the M&A practice at Needham & Company. He has more than 25 years of investment banking experience. Prior to joining Needham & Company as a senior member of the M&A group, Pooyan was a Managing Director at ThinkEquity. He has successfully represented public and private companies in over 175 completed transactions across the full spectrum of advisory assignments, including acquisitions, exclusive sales, divestitures, majority recaps, spin-offs, take-over defense assignments and cross-border transactions. Earlier in his career, he was a software consultant at Accenture plc. Pooyan earned a B.S. in Information and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Irvine.

Laura Black joined Needham & Company in 1999 and is a seasoned corporate finance professional as well as an experienced Board member. With over 30 years of experience in high technology, business strategy and finance, she has refined her expertise in developing shareholder value creation strategies and advising companies on equity capital raising and M&A. Laura serves as a board member of two publicly traded companies: VIAVI Solutions, a provider of network & service enablement and optical security and performance solutions, and Ichor Holdings, a leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems for semiconductor capital equipment. She chairs the Corporate Development Committee and the Cybersecurity Steering Committee and serves on the Nominating & Governance for VIAVI; she chairs Ichor’s Nominating & Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee. She previously served as a board member of Super Micro, a provider of advanced computer server systems, for seven years. As an investment banker for Needham & Company, Laura has advised a broad range of technology companies on over $50 billion of mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and other equity financings. At Needham, Laura has focused on cybersecurity, infrastructure and enterprise software, and next-gen industrial technologies. She previously served as head of corporate finance at Black & Company where she raised public equity capital and completed numerous M&A and strategic advisory assignments. She also held the position of Director of M&A for TRW Avionics & Surveillance Group where she evaluated acquisition candidates, managed direct investments and divestitures, and raised venture capital to back spin-off companies. She began her career at TRW as an electronic circuit design engineer for spread spectrum communications systems. Laura earned an MS in management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an MSEE from Santa Clara University and a BSEE from the University of California at Davis.

Steve Camp joined Needham & Company in 2007. Steve serves as Co-Head of Boston Investment Banking and advises Infrastructure Software and Cybersecurity companies on M&A, IPOs and growth equity financing. Prior to joining Needham in 2007, Steve worked in EMC’s Corporate Development group, where he played a key role in the execution of numerous acquisitions in security, data management and cloud, as well as the spinout IPO of VMware. Steve serves on the Board of Directors for the Concord Conservatory of Music and on the Leadership Council of PeacePlayers International. Steve graduated with honors from the University of Cincinnati.

Ehud Eisenstein joined Needham & Company in 2010 and is a Managing Director as well as Head of Israeli Banking. He has taken an active role in accelerating the firm’s business in Israel, delivering the full spectrum of financing and advisory capabilities to Israeli emerging growth companies, both public and private. Prior to joining Needham, Ehud was a senior research analyst at Oscar Gruss & Son in NYC and Tel-Aviv, where he covered Israeli-based technology companies on Nasdaq – supporting U.S. and UK-based institution investors. Ehud has over 20 years of experience working with Israeli public companies achieving their financials goals in the U.S. markets. Ehud has a Masters in Business Administration from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and B.A. in Business Administration from the College of Administration, Tel Aviv.

Mel S. Lavitt joined Needham & Company in 2009. Mel’s professional career in investment banking has included hundreds of capital market transactions accounting for several billion dollars of equity and debt financing. In July 2007, he was vice chairman and managing director of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, when it was purchased by Collins Stewart, LLC. Upon completion of the transaction, he formed Lavitt Group, LLC to advise private and public companies in finding and securing financing, structuring, and negotiating investment terms and advising on investor marketing strategy, but as of January 2009, his primary business affiliation is as a Senior Advisor to Needham. He graduated from Brown University and today serves as a Board member to several companies and organizations.

Shawn Messner joined Needham & Company in 2019. His responsibilities include the origination and execution of public and private financings, and mergers and acquisitions. He currently heads Needham’s activities related to the cannabis, food technology, and agriculture texhnology industries. Over his approximately 20-year career, Shawn has been responsible for 150+ equity financings and advisory transactions, representing over $12B+ in aggregate value. Prior to joining Needham, Shawn worked for Northland Capital Markets where he was Managing Director and Head of Energy Investment Banking. Prior to Northland, Shawn worked at Piper Jaffray. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Shawn graduated from Augsburg College with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and the University of Minnesota with an MBA in Finance.

Pete Donat joined Needham & Company as a Senior Advisor in 2019 to help bolster the firm’s Investment Banking capabilities in FinTech and Payments. Since joining, Pete has been involved in several M&A transactions and IPOs. He is also co-head of the firm’s Crypto and Blockchain efforts. Prior to Needham, had a 25-year career in the payment industry with a variety of executive roles at First Data, Visa and MasterCard. During that time, he worked on over 30 transactions, including several industry-transformative acquisitions, divestitures, investments and IPOs. At First Data, he was Head of New Ventures & Business Development with responsibility for managing the company’s most disruptive partnerships – and dozens of investments/acquisitions with early stage FinTech companies. Outside of Needham & Company, Pete is a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Services practice, and an advisor/board member to several FinTech and security startups. Pete holds an MBA from Wharton, an M.A. in International Economics & US Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins (SAIS), and an AB from Dartmouth College.

Bobby Steinkrauss joined Needham & Company in 2019. He is the co-head of Needham’s Cryptoasset/Blockchain Investment Banking practice and a member of Needham’s Mergers & Acquisitions team. Bobby focuses on the execution of a wide range of advisory assignments for growth companies both public and private. Prior to joining Needham, Bobby held corporate development positions at Fidelity, Dell Technologies Capital and EMC. Over his career, Bobby has worked on 50+ completed transactions including mergers and acquisitions and private capital raises. He graduated from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College with a BS in Management, concentrating in Finance.

Simon Gill rejoined Needham & Company in January 2010, having previously been a senior healthcare banker at the firm. In the last 15 years Simon has completed over 200 transactions for life science companies. These include IPOs, Follow-on Offerings and Registered Direct Offerings, PIPEs, Private Placements, Convertible Debt, Royalty Financings, M&A Advisory, Shareholder Rights Plans and Stock Buybacks. He has been a keynote speaker and panelist at numerous industry conferences, and has extensive experience in working with CEOs, CFOs and VCs in the life science community. Prior to rejoining Needham, Simon was Co-head of U.S. Healthcare Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets. He began his career with Credit Suisse First Boston in London. In addition to RBC and CSFB, he has worked at SBC Warburg (now called UBS), Schroders, Inc. and Prudential Securities, where he was Head of Investment Banking. Simon graduated from the University of Oxford with Masters and Undergraduate degrees.

Carolyn Horn joined Needham & Company in 2015 and Co-Head of Needham’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group. With a focus on emerging growth companies in the biotech and medtech sectors, Carolyn advises on both public and private financings including IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertible debt, and private placements. Prior to her current role at Needham, Carolyn was Head of Healthcare Equity Capital Markets, where she led the origination and execution of all life sciences equities transactions at the firm. Carolyn has more than 15 years of experience working with life sciences companies and providing investment banking and capital markets advisory services. Prior to joining Needham, Carolyn was a Healthcare Sector Specialist in Institutional Equity Sales at JMP Securities. Earlier in her career, she was part of the Emerging Companies group at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) in Washington DC. Carolyn received her B.A. in Biology and International Studies, with a premed concentration, from Washington University in St. Louis.

Brian Stollar joined Needham & Company in 2022 and has over 20 years of Wall Street experience specializing in the Life Sciences sector. Prior to Needham, Brian spent 7 years at Oppenheimer as a senior member of the Healthcare ECM team. During his tenure at Oppenheimer, Brian was responsible for deal execution as well as other investor outreach initiatives. He successfully placed over 150 book run financings, raising approximately $6B for the issuers. Before joining Oppenheimer, Brian’s financial career highlights include senior roles at Cowen, LifeSci Advisors, and B Riley. Brian holds a BS in Chemistry from Rutgers University and before joining the Wall Street ranks he enjoyed time in the lab and was a successful business development professional for several firms including Thermo Fisher, Covance and Icon Labs.

Matt Wagner joined Needham & Company in 2017 as a member of Healthcare Investment Banking Group. Since joining Needham, he has advised companies across a wide range of corporate finance and strategic matters, with a focus on capital raising transactions for public and private life science companies. Over the last decade, Matt has executed more than 120 capital raises for life science companies, several of which were realized in a lead bookrunner role. Additionally, he has completed M&A transactions as the lead advisor for buy-side, sell-side and reverse merger transactions in the healthcare sector. In 2014, Matt began his career with the Private Equity and Venture Capital Group at OrbiMed Advisors in New York. Matt holds a BS in biochemistry from Denison University.

Scott Glaid joined Needham & Company in 2006. Prior to joining Needham, Scott was a senior analyst at technology investment bank Ion Partners LLC. He possesses a Masters of Finance from the Institute of Political Studies, Paris, and graduated with highest honors from Boston College. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Jim King joined Needham & Company in 1993. Jim currently heads Needham’s activities related to Solar and Semiconductor Capital Equipment. While at Needham & Company, he has been responsible for the execution of over 100 equity financings and advisory transactions worth over $15 billion for technology companies. Additionally, Jim has significant technology operations and business strategy experience, working in strategic marketing at Silicon Graphics, in enterprise sales for a start-up software company, and serving for three years as CEO of a demand chain software company he founded. Jim holds an AB in Quantitative Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Navdeep Saini joined Needham & Company in 2007. At Needham, his responsibilities include the origination and execution of financing and M&A transactions. Prior to Needham, Navdeep has worked with technology companies, Motorola and Freescale Semiconductor, where he held positions in engineering and chip design. In the summer of 2006, he worked with a venture capital fund, where he analyzed investment opportunities for technology companies and supported portfolio companies. Navdeep holds a BE in Electronics Engineering from PEC, India, and an MBA in Finance from Duke University.

Mike Staff joined Needham & Company in 2006. His responsibilities include working on IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, and private financings across both consumer and B2B businesses. Prior to joining Needham, Mike worked as a research associate for Aurora Investment Management, LLC (fka Harris Alternatives, LLC), a $10 billion fund of hedge funds. He graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government, and he earned his Masters in Finance from the ICMA Centre at the Henley Business School, University of Reading.

Chris Smajdor joined Needham & Company in 2008 and currently serves as a Managing Director and Head of Internet & Digital Media Investment Banking. Chris works with both private and public companies across all categories of capital markets and M&A transactions including sell-side and buy-side advisory, IPOs, public follow-on offerings and private placements. Verticals of focus include advertising and marketing technology, digital media content, e-Commerce, Internet services and online sports betting and gaming. Prior to joining Needham & Company, Chris worked for AllianceBernstein, a global asset management firm.

Chad Keck joined Needham & Company in 1991. Throughout his career, he has focused on the firm’s activities in semiconductors and semiconductor equipment. He was also instrumental in building the firm’s business in Asia helping underwrite the IPO’s of China-based companies in the semiconductor and solar sectors. Since opening the Menlo Park office in 1991, he has been involved in over 150 transactions, including more than 30 initial public offerings. He has served as head of the West Coast Office, Co-head of Corporate Finance and in 2005 became Vice Chairman of Needham & Company. Prior to joining Needham, he was a managing director and head of Prudential Bache’s San Francisco Investment Banking Group. Other investment banking experience includes First Boston’s Technology Group, and founding and co-heading Smith Barney’s Technology Financing Group. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and received an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jack Higgins joined Needham & Company in 2007 and is a Managing Director in the Technology Investment Banking Group. He has extensive experience advising private and public semiconductor, materials and industrial technology companies on equity financings and M&A advisory assignments. Previously, Jack was a senior banker at Janney Montgomery Scott for the firm’s information technology security effort. Prior to joining Janney, he spent four years with Adams Harkness, working in the semiconductor device and communications technology banking groups. Prior to working at Adams Harkness, Jack worked at Genuity (GTE Internetworking) in product management. He graduated from Colby College and received his MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Jim King joined Needham & Company in 1993. Jim currently heads Needham’s activities related to Solar and Semiconductor Capital Equipment. While at Needham & Company, he has been responsible for the execution of over 100 equity financings and advisory transactions worth over $15 billion for technology companies. Additionally, Jim has significant technology operations and business strategy experience, working in strategic marketing at Silicon Graphics, in enterprise sales for a start-up software company, and serving for three years as CEO of a demand chain software company he founded. Jim holds an AB in Quantitative Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Helen Li joined Needham & Company in 2011, with a primary focus on semiconductor investment banking and Needham’s China practice. Helen has 20 years of combined operational and investment banking experience. While at Needham, Helen has advised over 70 transactions including public and private financings as well as M&As, with a total transaction size above $40 billion. Helen is specialized in cross-border transactions involving complex deal structures and cross-cultural negotiation. Prior to Needham, she worked in the semiconductor industry serving in multiple roles including R&D, technical marketing, and strategic sales at Micron Technology, Marvell Semiconductor and InvenSense, a TDK Group company. Currently Helen also serves as a board member for two semiconductor companies: Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (NASDAQ: AOSL), a global supplier of a broad range of power semiconductors and Kandou, a leading player in high-speed connectivity solutions. Ms. Li received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, MSEE from the University of Southern California, and B.A. from Tsinghua University.

Laura Black joined Needham & Company in 1999 and is a seasoned corporate finance professional as well as an experienced Board member. With over 30 years of experience in high technology, business strategy and finance, she has refined her expertise in developing shareholder value creation strategies and advising companies on equity capital raising and M&A. Laura serves as a board member of two publicly traded companies: VIAVI Solutions, a provider of network & service enablement and optical security and performance solutions, and Ichor Holdings, a leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of critical fluid delivery subsystems for semiconductor capital equipment. She chairs the Corporate Development Committee and the Cybersecurity Steering Committee and serves on the Nominating & Governance for VIAVI; she chairs Ichor’s Nominating & Governance Committee and serves on the Audit Committee. She previously served as a board member of Super Micro, a provider of advanced computer server systems, for seven years. As an investment banker for Needham & Company, Laura has advised a broad range of technology companies on over $50 billion of mergers, acquisitions, IPOs and other equity financings. At Needham, Laura has focused on cybersecurity, infrastructure and enterprise software, and next-gen industrial technologies. She previously served as head of corporate finance at Black & Company where she raised public equity capital and completed numerous M&A and strategic advisory assignments. She also held the position of Director of M&A for TRW Avionics & Surveillance Group where she evaluated acquisition candidates, managed direct investments and divestitures, and raised venture capital to back spin-off companies. She began her career at TRW as an electronic circuit design engineer for spread spectrum communications systems. Laura earned an MS in management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and an MSEE from Santa Clara University and a BSEE from the University of California at Davis.

Samir Desai joined Needham & Company in 2002 and serves as the Head of New York Investment Banking as well as the Head of the Software and Services Corporate Finance team. Samir’s experience includes a wide variety of equity, debt and private placement financings and advisory assignments for a large number of technology clients over the last 25 years. At Needham & Company, he has been the lead advisor on a number of IPOs, Follow-on and Private Placement offerings, as well as buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions related to a large number of enterprise, application, network and infrastructure software as well as tech-enabled and IT Services companies. Prior to joining Needham, Samir was a Vice President in the Technology Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston/Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he focused on clients in the Enterprise Computing, Software and Internet Consulting Services sectors. Prior to CSFB/DLJ, he worked at Cowen & Company, where he was an Associate in Cowen’s Technology Investment Banking Group. He also worked at Salomon Brothers Inc, where he was a Financial Analyst in Salomon’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Samir earned an M.B.A. with Honors from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Government and Economics cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Pete Donat joined Needham & Company as a Senior Advisor in 2019 to help bolster the firm’s Investment Banking capabilities in FinTech and Payments. Since joining, Pete has been involved in several M&A transactions and IPOs. He is also co-head of the firm’s Crypto and Blockchain efforts. Prior to Needham, had a 25-year career in the payment industry with a variety of executive roles at First Data, Visa and MasterCard. During that time, he worked on over 30 transactions, including several industry-transformative acquisitions, divestitures, investments and IPOs. At First Data, he was Head of New Ventures & Business Development with responsibility for managing the company’s most disruptive partnerships – and dozens of investments/acquisitions with early stage FinTech companies. Outside of Needham & Company, Pete is a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Services practice, and an advisor/board member to several FinTech and security startups. Pete holds an MBA from Wharton, an M.A. in International Economics & US Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins (SAIS), and an AB from Dartmouth College.

Will Cass joined Needham & Company in 2008 and is a Managing Director based in New York. Will works with emerging growth technology companies and their investors and strategic acquirers with a specific focus on enterprise application software. Will is responsible for originating and executing a wide range of strategic advisory and financing assignments for both public and private B2B SaaS companies. While at Needham, he has completed more than 150 transactions, including sell-side and buy-side M&A, private capital growth equity and debt raises, initial public offerings, follow-on equity and debt offerings and SPACs. Will graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Finance and Broadcast Journalism from the Whitman School of Management and the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Matt Stavris joined Needham & Company in 2017 to focus on Digital Health and Tech-enabled Services in Healthcare. Within the Software & Services group, his areas of focus include growth equity financings, initial public offerings, public follow-on offerings and M&A advisory across public and private healthcare technology companies. Prior to joining Needham, Matt held several strategy, operations and partnership management roles at athenahealth, Inc., a leading cloud-based practice management and care coordination platform. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Healthcare Fraud Analyst for the US Attorney’s Office in Boston, investigating Medicare & Medicaid fraud within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He holds an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Helen Li joined Needham & Company in 2011, with a primary focus on semiconductor investment banking and Needham’s China practice. Helen has 20 years of combined operational and investment banking experience. While at Needham, Helen has advised over 70 transactions including public and private financings as well as M&As, with a total transaction size above $40 billion. Helen is specialized in cross-border transactions involving complex deal structures and cross-cultural negotiation. Prior to Needham, she worked in the semiconductor industry serving in multiple roles including R&D, technical marketing, and strategic sales at Micron Technology, Marvell Semiconductor and InvenSense, a TDK Group company. Currently Helen also serves as a board member for two semiconductor companies: Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (NASDAQ: AOSL), a global supplier of a broad range of power semiconductors and Kandou, a leading player in high-speed connectivity solutions. Ms. Li received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, MSEE from the University of Southern California, and B.A. from Tsinghua University.

Ehud Eisenstein joined Needham & Company in 2010 and is a Managing Director as well as Head of Israeli Banking. He has taken an active role in accelerating the firm’s business in Israel, delivering the full spectrum of financing and advisory capabilities to Israeli emerging growth companies, both public and private. Prior to joining Needham, Ehud was a senior research analyst at Oscar Gruss & Son in NYC and Tel-Aviv, where he covered Israeli-based technology companies on Nasdaq – supporting U.S. and UK-based institution investors. Ehud has over 20 years of experience working with Israeli public companies achieving their financials goals in the U.S. markets. Ehud has a Masters in Business Administration from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and B.A. in Business Administration from the College of Administration, Tel Aviv.

Jack Iacovone joined Needham & Company in 1995 and became Chief Executive Officer of Needham & Company in 2022. He has previously held the roles of President, Head of Investment banking and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. While at Needham, Jack has assisted emerging growth companies complete over 125 equity financings and advisory transactions totaling over $80 billion in value in a variety of industries. He has also sponsored over 25 principal investments made through the firm’s Private Equity Partnership, Needham Capital Partners, and has sat on the board of directors or been an observer to the board of directors of six companies. Jack previously worked within the financial services line of business at KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. He received a B.S. in Accounting from Pace University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York. Jack is a member of the Metro New York Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.

Pooyan Mehdizadeh rejoined Needham & Company in September 2012 and leads the M&A practice at Needham & Company. He has more than 25 years of investment banking experience. Prior to joining Needham & Company as a senior member of the M&A group, Pooyan was a Managing Director at ThinkEquity. He has successfully represented public and private companies in over 175 completed transactions across the full spectrum of advisory assignments, including acquisitions, exclusive sales, divestitures, majority recaps, spin-offs, take-over defense assignments and cross-border transactions. Earlier in his career, he was a software consultant at Accenture plc. Pooyan earned a B.S. in Information and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Irvine.

Jim Apostolides joined Needham & Company in 2008 as a Managing Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group and is also the Chairman of the Firm’s Fairness Opinion Committee. He has decades of experience as an investment banker, a strategy consultant and a corporate executive, and has completed a very large number of transactions of all types and values, across many geographies. Jim began his career at McKinsey & Company, helping clients develop strategies to address growth, resource allocation, turnaround and diversification issues. As an investment banker, he has worked at Salomon Brothers, Scully Brothers & Foss, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. Most of his banking career prior to Needham & Company was devoted to working on large, extremely complex projects for some of the world’s highest profile clients. He also spent four years in executive roles at Accenture, Oracle and BearingPoint, executing C-suite special projects of a financial and strategic nature. Jim has a BS in Operations Research and an MBA in Finance, both from New York University.

Brian Perrault rejoined Needham & Company in July 2022, having previously been a technology banker and senior member of the M&A group at the firm. Brian’s M&A and capital raising experience includes substantial complex corporate carve-out, public-to-public mergers, founder-led going private, IPO, follow on offering and shareholder activism experience in numerous industries, end markets and countries spans almost 20 years. Prior to rejoining Needham, he worked as a Managing Director at Sage Park from 2019 to 2022, an operations-focused single L.P. family office investment firm. Earlier in his career, he was a member of the research staff in the Advanced Space Systems & Concepts Group at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Brian earned his B.S. in Physics from Saint Michael’s College and his MBA from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.

Bobby Steinkrauss joined Needham & Company in 2019. He is the co-head of Needham’s Cryptoasset/Blockchain Investment Banking practice and a member of Needham’s Mergers & Acquisitions team. Bobby focuses on the execution of a wide range of advisory assignments for growth companies both public and private. Prior to joining Needham, Bobby held corporate development positions at Fidelity, Dell Technologies Capital and EMC. Over his career, Bobby has worked on 50+ completed transactions including mergers and acquisitions and private capital raises. He graduated from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College with a BS in Management, concentrating in Finance.

Ryan Walters joined Needham & Company in 2011. Ryan is a member of Needham’s Mergers & Acquisitions team and focuses on the execution of a wide range of advisory assignments for growth companies both public and private. Prior to Needham, Ryan began his career at Moody’s Investors Service. Ryan graduated from the Stern School of Business at New York University with an MBA in International Finance and Banking and from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College with a BS in Management, concentrating in Finance and Marketing.

Andrew Malik was named Chairman of Needham & Company in 2008. Prior to Needham, he spent 21 years at Lehman Brothers, where he was a partner and subsequently managing director. During his time at Lehman, Mr. Malik’s duties included serving as head of Technology Capital Markets and head of the Banking Development Group. Prior to Lehman Brothers, he ran Capital Markets and Institutional Sales for C.E. Unterberg, Towbin (which became L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin) from 1971 to 1987. Earlier in his career, Mr. Malik was a security analyst with Josephthal & Co. and a partner in charge of Institutional Sales with Muriel Siebert & Co. A well respected Wall Street veteran, he has worked on more than one thousand equity, debt, and M&A transactions. In addition, he has served on the Board of Directors of several technology companies and venture firms, including a number of years as chairman of the Audit Committee of Hummingbird, Inc. Mr. Malik also lectures extensively on college campuses on a variety of topics related to corporate finance.

Andrew Malik was named Chairman of Needham & Company in 2008. Prior to Needham, he spent 21 years at Lehman Brothers, where he was a partner and subsequently managing director. During his time at Lehman, Mr. Malik’s duties included serving as head of Technology Capital Markets and head of the Banking Development Group. Prior to Lehman Brothers, he ran Capital Markets and Institutional Sales for C.E. Unterberg, Towbin (which became L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin) from 1971 to 1987. Earlier in his career, Mr. Malik was a security analyst with Josephthal & Co. and a partner in charge of Institutional Sales with Muriel Siebert & Co. A well respected Wall Street veteran, he has worked on more than one thousand equity, debt, and M&A transactions. In addition, he has served on the Board of Directors of several technology companies and venture firms, including a number of years as chairman of the Audit Committee of Hummingbird, Inc. Mr. Malik also lectures extensively on college campuses on a variety of topics related to corporate finance.

Julie Harbey joined Needham & Company in 2015. She has over 2 decades of experience, specializing in the syndication and execution of equity offerings across a variety of sectors and geographies. Prior to joining Needham, Julie spent more than a decade at CIBC World Markets where she was a director of U.S. ECM and the U.S. Syndicate Manager. Ms. Harbey is also a former president and current board member of the Women’s Syndicate Association, an organization dedicated to promoting business knowledge, sharing industry information, and cultivating valued personal and professional relationships among women across the financial services industry. She holds a B.A. in Economics from New York University.

Matt Castrovince joined Needham & Company in 2011. Matt leads Needham’s technology capital markets efforts and focuses on transaction execution for both public and private issuers as well as their investors. He works closely with the investment banking and institutional sales and trading teams in order to help facilitate smooth and efficient transaction execution. Throughout his career, Matt has completed more than 400 transactions. Matt graduated from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business.

Brian Stollar joined Needham & Company in 2022 and has over 20 years of Wall Street experience specializing in the Life Sciences sector. Prior to Needham, Brian spent 7 years at Oppenheimer as a senior member of the Healthcare ECM team. During his tenure at Oppenheimer, Brian was responsible for deal execution as well as other investor outreach initiatives. He successfully placed over 150 book run financings, raising approximately $6B for the issuers. Before joining Oppenheimer, Brian’s financial career highlights include senior roles at Cowen, LifeSci Advisors, and B Riley. Brian holds a BS in Chemistry from Rutgers University and before joining the Wall Street ranks he enjoyed time in the lab and was a successful business development professional for several firms including Thermo Fisher, Covance and Icon Labs.

Erick Volp joined Needham & Company in 2018. He leads Needham’s Financial Sponsors coverage within the investment bank. Erick joined Needham from Crito Capital, a boutique placement agent, where he was a Director responsible for private markets fund and direct deal origination as well as institutional investor coverage. Prior to Crito, Erick was a relationship management professional at GCM Grosvenor Private Markets (formerly known as Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group), a $30 billion private equity fund of funds group. He began his career at AllianceBernstein, a global asset management firm. Erick received a B.A. in Government from Hamilton College.