Employee Bios
Management
Avi Cohen 
Managing Partner – Head of Research, Head of Compliance
Avi is the Founder, Head of Research, and Managing Partner of Avian Securities, LLC. He began his Wall Street career in the Kidder Peabody & Co. Capital Markets Training Program where he was rapidly awarded responsibility for Kidder's domestic US Listed Option Customer Facilitation Book. Following Kidder, Avi joined a medium sized hedge fund focusing on opportunities in the technology marketplace. As a partner there, he developed the experience necessary for successful stock picking as well as the fundamental analysis skills essential for long term investing. It is also where he identified the need for an unbiased and a more channel probing research product. In 1998, Avi founded Avian Securities, LLC to deliver just such a product to Institutional Investors.
Avi graduated from the University of Chicago in 1993 where he studied Theoretical Mathematics and Economics. He was awarded an AB in Economics.
Managing Partner – Head of Sales & Trading
Larry joined Avian Securities, LLC, in August of 2002 bringing a wealth of Wall Street experience to further Avian's Independent Research effort. After starting his career on the derivatives desk at Kidder, Peabody & Co., Larry headed a trading desk at a New York based money manager. He then moved into Sales & Trading, progressing from Instinet; to Lynch, Jones & Ryan; and then to Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Capital Markets. Larry has consistanty been a top producer in Institutional Sales and Trading. As Principal and the Head of the New York office, Larry brings Avian's unique research perspective to an increasingly larger Institutional presence.
Larry graduated from Bradley University.
Partner – Head of Information Technology and Operations
After spending 10 years in biomedical research and education in such prestigious laboratories such as the Ben May Institute at the University of Chicago and the Visual Neuroscience Laboratory at New York University, Vanda Cohen was recruited to lay the groundwork for the network systems and backoffice operations at Avian Securities upon its formation in 1998. Vanda currently heads Avian's Information Technology efforts and is Controller.
Vanda holds a Bachelor's Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago as well as Master's Degrees from New York University and University of Massachusetts
Research
Senior Research Analyst – LCD/RFID and Special Situation
Andrew joined Avian in August 2004 after spending 13 years on
the buy side as Portfolio Manager with a medium sized hedge fund and a long-short technology based fund.
Previous to his buy side experience, Andrew spent 10 years on the sell side with such firms as LF Rothschild,
Prudential - Bache, and DQ Securities (Dataquest) as an Institutional Salesman with a bias toward technology based accounts.
Previous to Andrew's extensive career on Wall Street, he was a recording engineer with two major recording studios and participated
in a family owned electronics business, Emerson Radio. Currently, Andrew covers the LCD and AIDC/RFID (Automatic Identification)
spaces.
Senior Research Analyst – Storage
Matt joined Avian in January 2001. Matt was influential in developing Avian's bottom up analysis of distribution channel trends that underlies the company's work in the PC component space. In his own storage coverage, he augments this work with information from the extensive network of industry contacts he has developed during his tenure at Avian. Prior to Avian, Matt held a Research Analyst position at Charles River Associates, a Boston based economic consulting firm where he first honed his skills in financial modeling and company analysis working with the metals & minerals team.
Matt graduated Cum Laude with Honors from Williams with Bachelors Degrees in Economics and History.
Senior Research Analyst – Enterprise Software
Joining Avian in April 2003, Jeff Gaggin has worked on Wall Street for over 14 years in both asset management
and the sell-side. For the past 4 years, Jeff has been covering the Enterprise Software sector at
Avian Securities, LLC. He started his career in the research department at Goldman, Sachs, & Co and was
hired by Smith Barney Asset Management as an analyst for The Special Equities Fund, which was one of the
top small cap funds in the U.S in 1996. Jeff then went to work for The Galleon Group to cover Enterprise Software
as both an analyst and a portfolio manager. After his success at Galleon he went on to join First New York as
a full time portfolio manager focusing on the software market until he was hired by Sigma Capital,
a division of S.A.C, to manage a portfolio for them.
Jeff graduated from The State University of New York at Plattsburgh with a B.S. in Economics (Finance). He enjoys playing ice hockey, skiing, surfing, and tennis.
Senior Research Analyst – Telecom
Matthew Thornton joined Avian in April 2008 covering the wireless telecommunications equipment industry. He brings with him more than five years of experience in equity research. Matt came to Avian from FTN Midwest Securities, where he was Research Associate covering the wireless equipment group. Prior to moving to the sell-side, Matt spent four years as a buy-side analyst with Bainco International Investors with responsibility for equity coverage across several sectors. Matt holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the Boston Securities Analysts’ Society, and is an active participant in the CFA Institute’s Professional Development program. Matt received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Northeastern University and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Degree from Western Connecticut State University.
Senior Research Analyst – Telecom
Catharine joined Avian in October 2008 focusing on communications infrastructure and information security. She brings more than 20 years of industry and investment research experience to her role with the Firm. Catharine has extensive experience in the communications industry, including senior-level business development and product management roles at Time Warner Telecom, Lucent Technologies, ICG Communications and AT&T. Before joining the firm, she was a Technology Research Analyst specializing in IP Networking and information security sector with America’s Growth Capital and prior to this a research associate at ThinkEquity Partners. Catharine holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Chicago and a BS (Chemistry) from the University of Maryland.
Senior Research Analyst – Semiconductor
Dunham joined Avian in March 2008 to cover the semiconductor sector. Prior to Avian, Dunham had been a research associate at a number of other Wall Street firms including Citigroup, W.R. Hambrecht, and most recently at Cowen covering the semiconductor space. Before he began his sell-side career Dunham had worked as an internal consultant at Silicon Graphics and Ford Motor Company. Dunham had also been a business owner where he built up a list of clients as a financial services representative with the Farmers Insurance Group.
Dunham graduated from the University of Washington with an M.B.A. and the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
Sales and Trading
Matthew Barrett
Institutional Sales and Trading
Matt joined Avian in November 2009. He had spent previous four and a half years at BTIG, LLC where he was a senior sales trader focusing on bringing his clients high-touch trading and institutional brokerage services. Matt offers 11 years of Wall Street experience at such firms as Raymond James and RBC-Dain Rauscher.
Matt graduated with a B.S. from American International College and received his J.D. from Suffolk University in Boston.
Chris Carrano
Institutional Sales
Chris joined Avian Securities in October of 2007 as an Institutional Equity Salesman. He brings with him a technical analysis perspective gained at The Brogan Group and operational experience gained at Fidelity and State Street Bank. Chris splits his efforts between sales and as a valuable member of Avian’s research team, charged with conducting some of the ongoing handset surveys. This additional expertise allows Chris to leverage his knowledge base and provide a further value add when covering his institutional accounts. Chris graduated from Saint Anselm College.
Robert Dymkowski
Institutional Sales / Technical Analyst
Joining Avian in August 2008, Robert is a 14-year veteran of the financial markets. He started at a Midwest regional broker working with high net worth clients to identify and invest in small- and micro-cap equities. In 1998, he moved to Chicago and worked on the trading desk of Penson Financial. He was a market maker in a variety of over-the-counter stocks before moving to the firm’s proprietary trading desk where he traded the firm’s own capital. In 2005, Robert Dymkowski joined Gradient Analytics’ institutional sales force, an institutional research firm focused on earnings quality and equity incentive based research, among other things. Since then he has worked for two regional institutional broker dealers on the research and sales side.
Robert joined the Boston office for institutional sales, as well as perform top down and sector specific research. He prefers stocks that are technically attractive and/or catalyst driven. In addition, Mr. Dymkowski runs a few quantitative models, which he uses in his top-down and sector-specific analysis.
Robert Dymkowski received his BA from the University of Michigan, was a member of the Securities Traders Association of Colorado and Illinois.
Jonathan Eliot
Institutional Sales
Jonathan joined Avian in June of 2008 as a Institutional Equity Salesman. He brings more than 12 years of equity experience to Avian having held trading and sales roles at Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Capital Markets and most recently JP Morgan.
Jonathan has degrees in Economics and History from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Brad Ketover
Institutional Sales
Brad joined Avian Securities in March of 2007 as an Institutional Equity Salesman. Brad has been an Equity Salesman for the past 6 years focusing primarily on Technology, Media and Telecom Industries. Prior to his sales role, Brad was a Portfolio Manager for a $100 Million hedge fund in New York City. Brad started his career at Prudential Securities in the equity research department working with the Utilities Team and then moved over to Lehman Brothers and initiated coverage on the Supermarket and Drug Store Industries. Brad lives in Vermont with his wife and 2 children.
Nat Lovell
Institutional Sales and Trading / Technical Analyst
Nat spent several years working in various credit-related positions in industry and banking before transitioning to trading in 1993 with Turan Corporation, a dealer specializing in emerging market debt. Along the way he attained both his CFA and CMT certifications. At present, Nat is a Technical Analyst for Avian Securities in Boston where he develops high tech equity trade ideas for institutional clients based on both fundamental and technical analysis.
Nat graduated from Washington & Lee University with a BA degree in economics in 1982.
Mark Pfeiffer
Institutional Sales and Trading
Mark joined Avian in October of 2002. Prior to joining Avian, Mark was in Institutional Sales at Ladenburg Thalmann, LLC. Mark covers a wide variety of accounts across the country as both a key player on the sales and trading front.
Mark graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.S in Business Economics.