Joseph Besecker

Mr. Besecker is Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of Emerald Asset Management, Inc., parent company to Emerald Advisers, Inc.  He has nearly 30 years of experience in the money management business.  Mr. Besecker has led Emerald from a start-up investment/research firm in 1991 to a diversified asset management firm with over $2 billion under management today, listed by Pensions & Investments as one of the largest money managers in the U.S. ranked by institutional tax-exempt assets.  From an initial three employees in 1991, Emerald and its subsidiaries have grown to more than 40 employees located in offices in King of Prussia, Pittsburgh, and its new corporate headquarters in Leola, PA.  Mr. Besecker has been a key investor and provided expertise to a number of early-stage venture capital projects and has been recognized for his achievements in the venture capital community with nominations as a finalist of both the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Enterprise Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  Mr. Besecker appears frequently in the national financial media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today and has been a regular contributor to CNBC, Fox Business News and Bloomberg.  He has received national recognition for his work as an investment analyst, including being named as a Home Run Hitter by Institutional Investor magazine and lecturing at Oxford University.  Mr. Besecker strongly believes in giving back to the community and has served as a National Trustee and Past President of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and as a board member of the Boys and Girls Club (Lancaster, PA).  Under his leadership Emerald was named the Corporate Citizen of the Year in 2005 by the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal.  Mr. Besecker and his wife Martha have four children: Jeb, John, Liam and Lily.