The Consumer Edge Research Team

Bill Pecoriello has been ranked the number one Beverage Analyst by Institutional Investor for the past six years (2003-2008) and has been ranked in the Top two for the past eleven years. Bill has also been a runner up in Institutional Investor in the Household/Personal Care and Tobacco sectors. Bill has also been top ranked in other surveys such as Greenwich Associates, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Reuters. In 2008, Bill was #1 in stock picking as reported by StarMine for the Beverage sector and #2 in the HPC sector. Bill was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley covering Beverages and Household/Personal Care sectors for over seven years. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Bill spent over five years at Sanford Bernstein, where he was a Partner and covered the Beverage and Tobacco sectors. Prior to joining Sanford Bernstein, Bill was a project manager and strategic management consultant at Mars & Co, for five years where he consulted to the senior management teams of consumer product companies on strategic issues the companies faced. 

John Argenti is COO and Director of Sales, and has over twenty years of equity sales & trading experience. Prior to joining the Firm he was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he spent ten years in institutional equity sales. During the last five years he created, managed and grew the Hedge Fund Sales and Global Product Groups. Prior to Morgan Stanley John was in institutional equity sales at Lehman Brothers for five years.  While his product experience includes multiple equity derivative, credit, rate and structured products, the core focus and foundation of his client coverage has been fundamental, bottoms-up equity research. John started his career at JP Morgan in fixed income sales and foreign exchange trading.  He has a BA from Tulane University and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Faye Landes heads up the firm’s retail sector coverage, and brings the unique perspective of 8 years on the buy-side, 10 years as a top ranked sell-side analyst, and 6 years working in industry.  Faye was formerly Director of Research and a Senior Analyst at Dawson-Herman Capital Management. From 2007-2008, she was a Portfolio Strategist, responsible for the US retail and consumer sectors at Moore Capital Management. Previously she was Retail Sector Head at Ziff Brothers Investments, which she joined in 2002. From 2000-2001 she was Senior Research Analyst e-commerce, footwear and apparel at Sanford C. Bernstein and Company. She was a Founding Partner at Thomas Weisel Partners from 1999-2000. From 1993-1999, she was a Managing Director covering footwear and apparel at Salomon Smith Barney, and previously was a research analyst covering footwear and apparel at PaineWebber. Ms. Landes previously she held positions as Product Manager at Slim-Fast Foods, CPC International and House of Seagram. Ms. Landes was educated at New York Stern School of Business where she received an MBA and at Princeton University.

Eric is Executive Director and lead Food Analyst, and has over 10 years of experience as an equity analyst. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, Eric was a Senior Director at Merrill Lynch covering the Food sector for the past four years. He was ranked “Best Up & Comer” in the Food category of the Institutional Investor poll in 2008. He was ranked #1 Earnings Estimator in the Food category by FT/StarMine, and also ranked highly in the Greenwich Associates poll. Prior to being named Merrill’s lead Food analyst, Eric was a member of the commodity and agricultural chemicals research team at Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan for seven years. Eric earned a BA from Dartmouth College and is a CFA charterholder. 

Brett is a VP Analyst focused on the Beverage sector. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, he was a vice president at Morgan Stanley, spending seven years covering the Beverage sector. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was at Sanford Bernstein helping to cover the beverage and tobacco sectors. Brett earned his BA from Bucknell University in Economics and Finance and is a CFA charterholder. 

Kurt Meyerhoff is a Vice President and the Consumer Sector Specialist. Kurt brings over nine years of buyside experience with direct global consumer sector expertise. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, he was a Vice President and Portfolio Manager with Deephaven Capital Management. Earlier in his career, Kurt was a Portfolio Manager at Citadel Investment Group and LevelGlobal Investors and served as an analyst with Morgan Stanley Investment Management – in each role focusing primarily on investment selection within the Global Consumer space. Mr. Meyerhoff graduated from Bradley University with a BS in Business Marketing and has a concentration in International Business and Economics from IT-Universitetet i Kobenhavn in Denmark.

Rob is a VP Analyst co-covering the Food sector. He brings to Consumer Edge Research over ten years of experience in the retail, consumer discretionary, and consumer products sectors, with experience in investment banking, corporate strategy, and sell-side and buy-side research. Most recently, Rob focused on the consumer discretionary and mass merchant/discount retail spaces at Alliance Growth Equities, a unit of AllianceBernstein LP, and Morgan Stanley Investment Research, respectively. Previously, Rob worked on strategic development and acquisition execution for Brazil’s largest general merchandise retailer, Lojas Americanas S.A.. He started his career with Banc of America Securities’ Retail and Consumer Products Investment Banking Group in New York.  Rob earned a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Columbia Business School. 

Peter is a VP Analyst at Consumer Edge Research focused on the Household Products sector. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, he worked for several years in management consulting  at the Monitor Group, focusing extensively on the consumer product and retail sectors, particularly in the beer, personal care, gourmet coffee, and cable / telecommunications industries. Peter earned his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and received his BA cum laude in Economics and International Studies from Yale University. Prior to earning his MBA, Peter worked at a boutique real estate investment firm at American Properties Corporation in New York City, where he was in charge of valuing potential acquisitions of distressed commercial assets. Peter recently relocated to Stamford, CT, and in his spare time, is an avid Red Sox fan and a poker enthusiast.

Tal is a VP Analyst focused on the Retail sector. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, Tal was an analyst at Dawson-Herman Capital Management where he focused on Consumer and Retail, as well as related sectors such as retail REITs and for-profit education.  Earlier in his career, Tal was the lead associate on a #1 II-ranked team at Sanford C. Bernstein focusing on technology services, and a Principal at JVP, a venture capital firm. Tal graduated as a Palmer scholar from the Wharton MBA program, and also earned his MSc in Computer Science and BSc in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University, both magna cum laude.

Rob is a member of the institutional equity sales group. Prior to joining Consumer Edge Research, Rob was an institutional equity sales professional at Morgan Stanley on the Global Product Group covering both Long Only and Hedge Fund clientele. Before Morgan Stanley Rob spent more than four years at Brinker Capital as an analyst performing investment manager research and due diligence. Rob also had portfolio management responsibilities on the firm’s discretionary funds of funds product and served on the firm’s investment committee. He has a BA from St. Lawrence University and has completed level 1 of the CFA Program.

James is a member of the Consumer Macro research team and also provides research support to the sector analysts. Prior to joining Consumer Edge, James was a strategic management consultant at Mars & Co, where he consulted to the senior management teams of consumer product companies in the US, Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rica. Before joining Mars & Co, James was on the buy side with Friess Associates (Brandywine Funds) where he worked directly with firm founder and chairman Foster Friess. After graduating with a BA from the Catholic University of America, James spent 2 years as a volunteer, working with youth leadership programs throughout North America.