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Bio

Raymond Pirtle Jr. began an investment career in 1966 at J.C. Bradford & Company in Nashville. For 21 of the 23 years spent there, he was a registered institutional salesman. From 1980 until departure in 1989, he served as a general partner. Primary focus was on portfolio managers and analysts in the United Kingdom and Europe and to a lesser degree on accounts in New York, Chicago and the Mid-Atlantic.

From 1989 until 2001, Pirtle was a director of Equitable Securities (SunTrust Equitable) and co-manager of institutional sales with account coverage in the same target areas as with the previous firm. Firm wide revenues grew ten fold during this twelve-year period.

In 2001 Pirtle, along with five partners, founded Avondale Partners, a firm dedicated to institutional research, sales and trading for small market cap companies. The other main focus of Avondale is investment banking, primarily with small cap corporations, both private and public.
Since the early 1980s, Pirtle has been actively involved in serving on the investment policy committees and commitment committees for each of these firms.

It is estimated that Pirtle has made approximately 150 trips to the UK and Europe accompanying US management teams in an effort to provide face-to-face contact with portfolio managers in these regions. Many more trips than these have been done in the USA during these 39 years. In addition, there is an untold number of one on one meetings with management teams in the offices of those brokerage firms where Pirtle was employed and at numerous investor conferences. During this period Pirtle has represented numerous industry sectors such as healthcare, industrial and financial as well as various levels of corporate size and maturity.

Since 1985 Pirtle has served at various times on the board of both public and private companies. Of importance is the fact that he currently serves on the board of a NYSE company that has recently completed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act process and related 404 compliance regulations.

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