John Prior joined Needham & Company in 1996. Mr. Prior currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of The Needham Group, Inc. Formerly, Mr. Prior was the co-head of Investment Banking for the firm and directed all financial advisory activities from 1996 through 2004. He came to Needham from Lehman Brothers, where he was a managing director in the Investment Banking Division. Previously, Mr. Prior had been a general partner of Scully Brothers & Foss, an investment bank, which provided financial advisory services to a number of well-known clients. He began his career at Salomon Brothers, where he was a banking officer in the Communications and Technology Group. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.