Mr. Richard Y. Smith is President of Evergreen Capital Partners Inc., a merchant banking firm that works closely with Branford Castle. Prior to founding Evergreen, Mr. Smith was a Managing Director of Chemical Bank (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), with shared responsibly for the Corporate Finance and Principal Transactions Groups. Prior to joining Chemical, Mr. Smith was a Senior Vice President of Rothschild Inc.’s Corporate Finance group. Rothschild Inc. is an investment banking, venture capital and money management firm affiliated with the world-wide Rothschild Group. Mr. Smith started his career with Blyth & Co., Inc. as a securities analyst. Mr. Smith received his B.A. degree with Honors from Wesleyan University and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A.). Mr. Smith has served as Chairman of the Wesleyan Annual Fund and as an officer and director of several other charitable organizations.