Merriman Capital Hires Five Industry Veterans to Strengthen its Trading Execution and Capital Markets Services Groups

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Merriman Capital, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: MERR), today announced that it has made senior hires to fill five key revenue-generating roles in the firm's Trading Execution and Capital Markets Services Groups.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100914/SF64919LOGO)

"We are focused on opportunistically adding top revenue generators in a very difficult brokerage environment," said Jon Merriman, CEO of Merriman Capital. "We believe these producers will help us strengthen our institutional investor and corporate client relationships, while we remain mindful of overhead discipline and delivering sustainable profitability."

Capital Markets Services Group:

Joel Achramowicz, Managing Director of Research and Advisory Services, joins the firm's Capital Markets Services Group with 18 years of experience analyzing and writing on technology companies on behalf of Wall Street firms, such as Blaylock Robert Van, MDB Capital Group, Investec-PMG Capital and Preferred Capital Markets. Prior to his Wall Street career, he worked with small and large technology companies, including Hewlett Packard and General Electric, as an electrical engineer and sales and marketing executive. Achramowicz holds a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He earned his master's degree in computer architecture from the University of Southern California. Achramowicz is based in Merriman's San Francisco office.

Trading Execution Group:

Anthony Stamos, Managing Director, was most recently at BGC/Cantor Fitzgerald and Direct Access Partners where he achieved great success through technical trading of specific industry trends. He has more than 15 years of financial industry experience helping to rapidly grow financial brokerage and technology businesses. Stamos began his career on the Boston Stock Exchange and is based in Merriman's New York office.

Anthony LaBella, Vice President, was most recently Director of International Trading at Direct Access Partners. He previously held sales trading positions at European Securities Network and ITG Inc. LaBella has more than 15 years of experience working with hedge fund and mutual fund clients. He earned a B.S. in economics and finance from Wagner College. LaBella is based in Merriman's New York office.

Kimberly Opiatowski, Vice President, was most recently at Pali Capital where she covered institutional hedge fund and long only accounts.  Prior to joining Pali Capital, she worked on JP Morgan's Corporate Stock Repurchase Desk and at Furman Selz as an Institutional Sales Trader. Opiatowski has more than 15 years of institutional sales trading experience. Before beginning her career on Wall Street, she worked as a chemical engineer designing oil refineries for Foster Wheeler USA. Opiatowski earned her M.B.A. in finance from Fordham University and a master's degree in chemical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Davidson College. Opiatowski is based in Merriman's New York office.

Wayne Yu, Vice President, was most recently Vice President of International Equities Trading at Jefferies & Company (NYSE: JEF), where he focused on trading Asian and Canadian ADRs, foreign ordinary and dually listed shares on behalf of institutional investors. He began his career as an International Equities Trader at Merrill Lynch, where he focused on trading Asian ADRs. Yu is a Chartered Financial Analyst and earned a B.B.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He is based in Merriman's New York office.

About Merriman Capital, Inc.

Merriman Capital, Inc. is an investment banking firm providing equity and options execution services, market making, and differentiated research for high growth companies. We also provide capital raising, advisory, and M&A services. Merriman Capital, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: MERR) and is the leading investment banking firm for OTCQX companies. For more information, please go to http://www.merrimanco.com/.

Merriman Capital, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer and member of The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) http://www.finra.org/ and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) http://www.sipc.org/contact.cfm. 

Note to Investors

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of the Company. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which include the risk factors disclosed in our Form 10-K/A filed on April 28, 2011 and our Form 10-Q filed on November 14, 2011. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," and "would" or similar words. We assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The Form 10-K/A filed on April 28, 2011 and 10-Q filed on November 14, 2011, together with this press release and the financial information contained herein, are available on our website, www.merrimanco.com. Please click on "Investor Relations."

                                         

SOURCE Merriman Holdings, Inc.