Vice Chairman and Head of Investment Banking

Scott Ryles is a Vice Chairman and Head of Investment Banking of Cowen and Company. Mr. Ryles joined Cowen in February 2007 with responsibility for developing alternative investment strategies and new business initiatives.

Mr. Ryles has more than 25 years of experience working on Wall Street. He was the founder, CEO, and President of Epoch Partners, Inc., an investment bank formed by three of the largest on-line brokerages (Charles Schwab, TD Waterhouse and Ameritrade) and three leading venture capital firms (Benchmark, Kleiner Perkins, and Trident Capital). Goldman Sachs acquired Epoch for more than $200 million in 2001.

Mr. Ryles spent 18 years at Merrill Lynch in various investment banking positions including Co-Head of West Coast Investment Banking, Co-Head of Corporate Finance, Global Head of Natural Resources and Global Head of Technology. He has originated and executed private placements, IPOs, secondary offerings, convertible offerings, investment and non-investment grade debt offerings, and mergers and acquisitions for companies in the financial services, media, natural resources, retailing, information technology, and utility industries in North America, Europe and Asia. The aggregate value of these transactions exceeded $100 billion. Mr. Ryles also managed an internal fund that made investments in later-stage private technology companies. He was a member of the Merrill Lynch Investment Banking Executive Committee.

Mr. Ryles is a Director of ArcSight, Inc., a security software company, Fortify Software, Inc., a security software company, and KKR Financial LLC.

Mr. Ryles gained a Bachelors of Art from Northwestern University.