Brean Murray & Co., Inc. Continues Expansion of Retail/Consumer Practice

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Brean Murray & Co., Inc. announces today that Eric M. Beder has joined the company as a senior analyst in the equity research department.

Eric Beder, formerly of JB Hanauer & Co., joins as Vice President within our Retail/Consumer practice. Mr. Beder's focus will be on the kids, teens, and luxury sectors, in addition to special situations. Mr. Beder brings over 9 years of experience publishing on the Retail/Consumer sector.

"Bringing Eric aboard as our third senior analyst in the Retail/Consumer sector clearly validates our growth strategy of increasing our depth and breadth of coverage of small cap concerns within this dynamic sector," stated Michael L. Perica, Director of Research at Brean Murray.

Brean Murray, Carret & Co., (www.breanmurraycarret.com) is a full service institutional research, investment banking, brokerage and asset management firm with $3 billion in combined assets under management. The firm specializes in small-cap growth companies.