NEW YORK — (Business Wire) Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., a full service investment bank focused on the middle market, announced today that Charles E. Mitchell (“Charlie”) Rentschler — Wall Street’s “Harvard farmer”, a securities analyst with a Harvard MBA who also has an operating 200-acre farm in Indiana — has joined its equity research department where he will specialize in covering both machinery and agricultural companies.

“Charlie, with his extensive practical experience and knowledge, and analytical abilities, will be an important addition to our equity research team covering the industrial sector,” said David Kestenbaum, Director of Equity Research. “His expertise in both industrial machinery and agricultural companies, from rail car and tractor equipment makers to seed suppliers to fertilizer providers, an unusual dimension for a Wall Street analyst, makes him singularly valuable in the insights that he can provide. His valuable and varied 30-year background, that also includes positions as a production and materials management executive, and a fifteen year stint as CEO of a foundry and machine company, plus Wall Street, has enabled Charlie to develop a particularly valuable niche as a broad-ranging security analyst.”

Kestenbaum also announced plans for Rentschler to host an “AG Day” in New York City on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, an event that features professional farmers and agricultural and industrial company executives meeting with institutional investors. “It offers a highly exciting annual opportunity for the farm community and Wall Street to meet and learn a bit more about each other,” he commented.

Rentschler, who holds a BA from Princeton University, began his career as an investment analyst with Wertheim & Co., after receiving an MBA from Harvard University in 1964. Thereafter he embarked on an industrial career that included, among others, a two-year stint as a McKinsey & Co. management consultant, treasurer of Barber Oil Corp., controller at Buckeye Steel Castings, a maker of automotive parts, and senior executive positions at Simonds Saw & Steel and Cummins Engine. For fifteen years, from 1986 to 2001, he was President and CEO of The Hamilton Foundry & Machine Co., a maker of engine parts with facilities in Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Alabama.

He was President of Foundry Directions, a firm selling machine tools to foundries, when he returned in 2003 to securities analysis, first at Langenberg & Co., an affiliate of Soleil Securities, and later with Foresight Solutions and Wall Street Access. He maintains a hog/corn farm in southeastern Indiana.

About Morgan Joseph

Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc., a New York City headquartered full service investment bank, provides financial advisory and capital raising services including M&A and restructuring advice, and equity and debt private placements and public offerings. In addition, Morgan Joseph provides research and trading for institutional clients. Morgan Joseph’s staff of over 130 includes more than 70 investment bankers, who are highly experienced professionals mostly from major Wall Street firms and intimately familiar with the issues facing middle market companies. The firm is a member of both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investors Protection Corp. (SIPC).