Silber covers the educational and business services sectors. His primary focus is writing research reports and making stock recommendations for the company's larger institutional clients, such as Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.

He was recently named to the Institutional Investor All-American Research team for his coverage of the Business Services sector. In addition, he has been listed as one of the top business services analysts by the annual Reuters survey of small- and mid-cap fund managers as well as being named a Zacks.com All-Star Analyst.

Before joining Harris Nesbitt Gerard in 1996, Silber was with Deloitte Consulting for six years, working on numerous financial, operations, marketing and strategy engagements in various industries including sports and entertainment, consumer products, retail and real estate. In addition, he directed Deloitte's PeerScape business, a group devoted to creating financial benchmarking products and services. Earlier, Silber worked in the Audit and Tax departments at KPMG Peat Marwick for four years. A certified public accountant, Silber received a bachelor's degree from Yeshiva University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Odening covers Knowledge Services companies as an analyst. Before joining Jefferies earlier this year, he was a led the education services research effort at JP Morgan Securities from 1999 to 2002. Between 1993 and 1999, Odening launched research on the emerging education industry at Salomon Smith Barney, where he was a member of the Institutional Investor magazine All-America Research Team.

He has been a securities analyst for over two decades. Odening is a frequent conference speaker on the business of education and has testified before a congressional panel on Web-based education. He graduated from Occidental College with a bachelor degree in English.

Larson founded Career Education in Jaunary 1994, and he has been CEO and president ever since. He became chairman six years later.

He spent six months at Heller Equity Capital to establish Career Education, after more than 13 years in the private, for-profit, post-secondary education industry. From January through May 1993, Larson was the eastern regional operating manager of Educational Medical, Inc., which provides career-oriented postsecondary education. From 1989 until 1993, he was senior vice president of college operations for Phillips Colleges, overseeing a nationwide system of 58 schools offering a wide range of academic programs. From March through September 1989, he worked as senior vice president of operations for the Geneva Companies, a mergers and acquisitions firm. From 1980 to 1989, Larson was vice president of marketing at National Education Centers, a subsidiary of National Education, where he managed the entire admissions program, including marketing and advertising efforts, with a team of about 500 employees. Larson has also served in marketing positions with DeVry at its Chicago and Kansas City campuses.

Larson received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley and has completed the Executive Management Program at Stanford University. In 2000, he was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Illinois and Northwestern Indiana region in the service category.