Services & Equipment

Jeff Kauffman
Head of Transportation Services & Equipment

Jeffrey A. Kauffman joined Sterne Agee in July 2009, as a Managing Director, and the lead research analyst for the Transportation, Services and Equipment group. Mr. Kauffman has over 20 years of experience in both the capital markets and transportation-related investment space. Before coming to Sterne Agee, Mr. Kauffman was the founder and Managing Partner of Siren Capital Management, LLC, a NYC-based hedge fund. Prior to forming Siren Capital, Mr. Kauffman was an analyst/portfolio manager for Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, a $3 billion NYC-based hedge fund and analyst for Omega Advisors, a $2B hedge fund, focusing on the industrial and consumer cyclical sectors. Mr. Kauffman was the lead North American Freight and Logistics Equity Research Analyst and Global Logistics Coordinator for Merrill Lynch, where he worked from 1994 to 2001. While at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Kauffman was consistently recognized as a leading analyst by the Institutional Investor, Greenwich, and Wall Street Journal research polls, ranking in the top 3 in all three polls. He has been recognized as the #1 analyst in his industries in both the Greenwich and WSJ polls. Mr. Kauffman has also worked for Sanford C. Bernstein; Fulcrum Global Partners; and Alex. Brown and Sons. Mr. Kauffman is a current Board Member for the Reese Fund at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. He received his MBA from the Kelly Graduate School of Business at Indiana University in 1993, and was conferred his BS in Accounting from Indiana University in 1989.

Salvatore Vitale
Research Analyst

Salvatore Vitale is a Vice President and Transportation, Services and Equipment analyst for Sterne Agee, having joined the firm in July 2009. Mr. Vitale has nine years of experience in the capital markets, with a primary focus on Transportation companies. Prior to joining Sterne Agee, Mr. Vitale was an analyst with Siren Capital Management, a NYC-based hedge fund. Mr. Vitale has been the U.S. Freight and Logistics analyst for Calyon Securities (USA), LLC, a subsidiary of Credit Agricole Group, an Equity Research Associate for both Deutsche Bank Securities and Fulcrum Global Partners in the Airline, Shipping, Machinery and Freight sectors, and an associate in the Transportation Investment Banking group at ING Barings LLC. Mr. Vitale received his MBA degree with a concentration in Finance and Economics from the University of Chicago in 2000, and was awarded his BS degree in Accounting from St. John's University in 1996.

Kanchana Pinnapureddy
Research Associate

Ms. Pinnapureddy joined Sterne Agee in January 2010 as an Assistant Vice President covering the Transportation, Services and Equipment industry. Prior to joining the firm, she was a Vice President – Analyst at Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, a $3 billion NYC-based long/short equity fund, where she focused on the Industrials sector. Ms. Pinnapureddy was also an investment banker at Lazard Frères, where she focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions in the Industrial Conglomerate and Packaging industries. Ms. Pinnapureddy graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a BA in Economics.