Oppenheimer & Co. Names Eric Helenek Managing Director & Head of Alternative Capital Finance

NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings (NYSE: OPY), today named Eric Helenek Head of the Alternative Capital Finance Group. He reports to Bruce McCarthy and Marc Thompson, Co-Heads of Investment Banking at Oppenheimer.

"Eric is a highly regarded product specialist with a long track record of successfully financing smaller cap public companies through a variety of transaction structures," said McCarthy.

"Eric and his team greatly enhance our financing capabilities and refine our ability to serve clients across all of our sectors of coverage," added Thompson.

Eric joins Oppenheimer from Cowen and Company where he was a Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets from 2013 to 2015. While at Cowen, Eric focused on the origination and execution of confidentially marketed equity and equity-linked offerings across all sectors excluding healthcare and was also responsible for the origination and execution of all clean technology equity offerings. Prior to Cowen, Eric was a senior member of Lazard's Alternative Capital Finance Group and was responsible for all confidentially marketed equity and equity-linked offerings in the energy and technology sectors.

"I am pleased to have the opportunity to lead Oppenheimer's Alternative Capital Finance team and deliver financing solutions to complement the platform's other financing and advisory capabilities across multiple industry sectors. Our team will provide financing solutions to predominantly smaller cap public companies and work alongside Oppenheimer's industry banking teams, equities department and corporate services team to provide the firm's smaller cap clients a complete suite of financing and after-market services," said Helenek.

In addition, Oppenheimer has continued to expand its capital markets execution capabilities with the hiring of two dedicated market specialists: Christopher Whitcomb and Brian Stollar.

Whitcomb joins Oppenheimer with more than 25 years of experience focusing on the capital needs of small growth companies, with a focus on software, hardware and technology services. He previously held roles at Lake Street Capital Markets, iamSecure Online, ThinkEquity Partners, Janney Capital Markets, William Blair, Pacific Growth Equities and Piper Jaffray.

Stollar has more than 15 years of experience as a top institutional salesperson, focused almost exclusively on the healthcare sector. He was most recently a senior member of LifeSci Advisors, an investor relations consultancy founded to provide companies in the life sciences sector with a comprehensive solution to investor communications and outreach. Prior to that he served as the Head of Healthcare Capital Markets at MLV & Co. and led the investor outreach initiative for all of the firm's healthcare clients.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. (Oppenheimer), a principal subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (OPY on the New York Stock Exchange), and its affiliates provide a full range of wealth management, securities brokerage and investment banking services to high-net-worth individuals, families, corporate executives, local governments, businesses and institutions.

Certain statements in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, as discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.