Vice Chairman
Head of Mergers and Acquisitions
michael.costa@cowen.com

Michael R. Costa is Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and Head of M&A at Cowen and Company.

For approximately 20 years, Michael was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch where he focused on mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructurings in the media and telecom industries. In his most recent position, he was Managing Director, Global Markets and Investment Banking/Mergers and Acquisitions. Michael originated and advised on more than $250 billion of transactions in his career. His most significant transactions in his last two years at Merrill included advising Comcast and Time Warner Cable as part of a group of strategic partners investing in Clearwire, engineering the sale of the Tribune Company and working with wireless carrier ALLTEL on a number of strategic transactions culminating in its sale to a private equity consortium.

Before joining Merrill Lynch in 1989, Michael was a mergers and acquisitions attorney at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York. He earned a Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Scripps Networks Interactive, a publicly traded company that owns among other things, the cable channels HGTV, Food Network and the Travel Channel. He is a trustee of the Board of Trustees of Dean College, a private educational institution, and is Chairman of the Investment Committee, overseeing Dean’s endowment.

Managing Director
Head of Consumer Investment Banking
owen.hart@cowen.com

Mr. Hart is a Managing Director and Head of Cowen and Company's Consumer Investment Banking Group as well as overseeing Cowen’s Consumer M&A practice. In his more than 24 years in investment banking, Mr. Hart has advised clients on over 200 engagements. Prior to joining Cowen, he was a Founding Partner of Thomas Weisel Partners and Head of Consumer, Business Services and Semiconductor M&A. Prior to founding Thomas Weisel Partners, Mr. Hart served as Senior Managing Director at Montgomery Securities, overseeing M&A in the Consumer and Business Services sectors. He began his investment banking career at Drexel Burnham Lambert and also worked at Lazard Freres & Co before joining Montgomery Securities in 1994.

Mr. Hart holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.L.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Tufts University.

Managing Director
mark.secrest@cowen.com

Mr. Secrest is a Managing Director in Cowen and Company’s Health Care Investment Banking Group focusing on the medical technology and life science tools sectors. He is also the Chairman of Cowen’s Fairness Opinion Review Committee. He joined Cowen in April 1998 from UBS Securities where he spent three years in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department. Prior to joining UBS, Mr. Secrest spent more than five years at Kidder, Peabody & Co.

Mr. Secrest holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from The Stern School of Business at New York University.

Director
david.istock@cowen.com

Mr. Istock is a Director focused on Technology Mergers & Acquisitions based in San Francisco. Mr. Istock has fifteen years of experience in mergers and acquisitions and the technology industry. Prior to joining Cowen and Company, he was an Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank focused on Technology M&A working in San Francisco and New York. Prior to UBS, Mr. Istock co-founded Bluefish Ventures, an early-stage technology-focused venture capital fund. Prior to Bluefish, he was a Vice President in PaineWebber’s M&A Group based in New York.

Mr. Istock received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Director
edward.rubin@cowen.com

Mr. Rubin joined Cowen and Company’s Mergers & Acquisitions group focused on Telecommunications transactions in April 2008. Prior to joining Cowen, Mr. Rubin was Director at Deutsche Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Previously, Mr. Rubin was Vice President in UBS Investment Bank’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Mr. Rubin has significant cross-border merger advisory experience over his nine years working on Wall Street. Prior to working at UBS Investment Bank, Mr. Rubin spent three years at KPMG focusing on tax consulting. Mr. Rubin’s transaction experience in telecom includes transactions for XO Communications, Deutsche Telekom, iBasis and several other communications companies.

Mr. Rubin holds a B.A., cum laude in Business from Boston University.