Bryan Armstrong, CFA
Partner
Ashton Partners

Bryan Armstrong has been with Ashton Partners, a strategic investor relations and crisis management firm, for over nine years currently serving as one of the firm’s three Partners. In addition to business development, client oversight and execution, Mr. Armstrong leads the Quantitative and Fundamental Research group and is part of the Crisis and Transaction group at Ashton.

Mr. Armstrong regularly provides commentary on topics such as shareholder activism and hedge funds to respected national financial media outlets including the Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, First Business, Investment Dealers Digest, Financial Week and Investor Relations Business. In addition, Mr. Armstrong has published several articles in national publications and has presented at numerous conferences including the NASDAQ IR Seminar, the National Directors Institute (NDI) and the NIRI National conference.

Prior to joining Ashton Partners, Mr. Armstrong was an investment analyst at Merrill Lynch conducting security research and analysis, portfolio allocation schemes and retirement planning for high net worth clients and small businesses.

Mr. Armstrong received his BBA in Finance at the University of Wisconsin Madison, with a concentration in International Business. In addition, Mr. Armstrong holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago (IASC) and the CFA Institute.

Steven A. Kohl
Partner
Matador Capital

Steven A. Kohl has served as a Partner for Matador Capital, a St. Petersburg-based hedge fund, from 1995-2007. In addition to acting as Head Trader, he served as an assistant portfolio manager responsible for identifying investment opportunities, performing due diligence on portfolio companies, and assisting in portfolio management. Since its founding, Matador Capital grew its asset base from $4M to a peak of over $900M while never posting a losing year. Since 2007, Mr. Kohl has been an independent investor, advising and holding positions in several hedge funds, as well as managing his own stock portfolio.

Kohl graduated from the University of Massachusetts with high honors in 1987, where he majored in Finance and received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. On graduating, Mr. Kohl joined Centum Financial Management, an investment advisory firm based in Hartford, Connecticut, as an assistant portfolio manager, where his responsibilities included trading and administration of the firm’s managed accounts. Additionally, Mr. Kohl had research responsibilities for the environmental, consumer products and emerging growth areas. In January 1990, Mr. Kohl joined Raymond James as a securities analyst in the environmental services group, where he specialized in companies in the clean air, instrumentation and hazardous waste treatment sectors, and where during his 5-year tenure, he became recognized as a leading authority in these areas. In 1995, he left Raymond James to join Matador Capital as a Partner.