NEW YORK, March 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Capital IQ, a business line of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) offering global multi-asset class data solutions, market research and portfolio risk analytics to global investors, today announced the hiring of seven new equity analysts in New York, London, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. 

Three of the equity analysts, Robert Dezego, Eric Hugel, and Westcott Rochette, are based in New York.  Mr. Dezego, most recently a Vice President with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., joins S&P Capital IQ as an integrated telecom services equity analyst.  He has 11 years of experience on the sell side and four years of experience on the buy side.  He was a top ranked analyst in the 2011 Wall Street Journal Best on the Street Analysts Survey*. 

Rob holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Tufts University and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Eric Hugel was most recently a Managing Director at Stephens and joins the S&P Capital IQ as an aerospace and defense equity analyst.  He has over 15 years of fundamental equity research experience and has been recognized multiple times for his stock picking and earnings forecasting skills.  Mr. Hugel is a CPA and has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Lehigh University. 

Westcott Rochette, CFA, most recently an equity analyst with Kacela Capital, has 15 years of investment experience. He joins S&P Capital IQ as an advertising and publishing equity analyst.  He has a bachelor's degree in economics and German literature from Swarthmore College and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

In London, Roderick Bridge joins S&P Capital IQ as an autos and automotive supplies equity analyst and Unai Franco joins as a capital goods equity analyst.  Mr. Bridge, most recently an equity analyst with Evolution Securities, has over 30 years of equity research experience.  He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. 

Mr. Franco was most recently an equity research vice president at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  He has a master's degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad de Navarra in Spain and an MBA from the London Business School.

Chok Wai Lee, CFA, joins S&P Capital IQ as a real estate and consumer staples equity analyst in Singapore.  He previously worked as a fund manager in Malaysia and Singapore and as a senior equity analyst with Standard & Poor's.  He holds a bachelor's degree in corporate finance from Adelaide University and a master's degree in advanced finance from University of New South Wales, both located in Australia. 

Benjamin Lee joins S&P Capital as an infrastructure and building materials equity analyst in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  He was most recently a sell side analyst at ECM Libra Investment Bank Berhad, now merged with Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad.  He graduated from Oxford University with a Masters of Mathematics degree. 

"The fact that we are continuing to hire experienced equity analysts in four different offices reflects the growing globalization of equity research and the need for our independent research," said Barbara Reguero, Managing Director of Cross-Asset-Class Research at S&P Capital IQ.   "These moves reinforce our commitment to superior fundamental research and delivering the highest quality research to our clients."

These new analysts join a team of 70 highly-experienced equity analysts who cover over 1,500 stocks worldwide.  S&P Capital IQ U.S. equity analysts have placed in the top ten of the Wall Street Journal's Best on the Street Analysts Survey in seven of the last ten years.*

About S&P Capital IQ's Equity Research
As one of the world's largest producers of independent research, S&P Capital IQ licenses its research to global institutions for their investors and advisors. S&P Capital IQ's team of experienced U.S., European and Asian analysts use a fundamental, bottom-up approach to assess a global universe of equities across industries worldwide. S&P Capital IQ's award-winning research can be found on MarketScopeAdvisor® and S&P Capital IQ. These online platforms provide financial advisors and investors with actionable investment intelligence on multiple asset classes including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, fixed income and workflow tools that enable advisors to stay connected to the market and their investments. For more information, visit www.spcapitaliq.com.

About S&P Capital IQ
S&P Capital IQ, a business line of the McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is a leading provider of multi-asset class and real time data, research and analytics to institutional investors, investment and commercial banks, investment advisors and wealth managers, corporations and universities around the world. We provide a broad suite of capabilities designed to help track performance, generate alpha, and identify new trading and investment ideas, and perform risk analysis and mitigation strategies. Through leading desktop solutions such as S&P Capital IQ, Global Credit Portal and MarketScope Advisor desktops; enterprise solutions such as S&P Capital IQ Valuations and Compustat; and research offerings including Leveraged Commentary & Data, Global Markets Intelligence, and company and funds research, S&P Capital IQ sharpens financial intelligence into the wisdom today's investors need.  For more information, visit www.spcapitaliq.com.

*Survey rankings are based on the U.S. equity analysts' stock picking skills for stocks ranked in S&P Capital IQ's STock Appreciation Ranking System. The Wall Street Journal identifies those analysts among the top three analysts with the best performance for the prior calendar year in its 2012 "Best on the Street" Analysts Survey in each of 44 industries, based only on stock-picking skill in the prior calendar year. The data were assembled by FactSet Research Systems Inc., a Norwalk, Conn. company that tracks analysts' recommendations and their earnings estimates. FactSet identified more than 2,000 analysts at nearly 200 firms who qualified for inclusion in the survey. Past performance is not indicative of future results and will vary from year to year. S&P Capital IQ's equity research analysts have been included in The Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" equity research surveys since 2002. For more information the survey, please visit http://spbestonthestreet.com

In the United States, research reports are prepared by Standard & Poor's Investment Advisory Services LLC ("SPIAS"). In the United States, research reports are issued by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC ("S&P"); in the United Kingdom by McGraw-Hill Financial Research Europe Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and trades as Standard & Poor's; in Hong Kong by Standard & Poor's Investment Advisory Services (HK) Limited, which is regulated by the Hong Kong Securities Futures Commission; in Singapore by McGraw-Hill Financial Singapore Pte. Limited (MHFSPL), which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore; in Malaysia by Standard & Poor's Malaysia Sdn Bhd ("S&PM"), which is regulated by the Securities Commission; in Australia by Standard & Poor's Information Services (Australia) Pty Ltd ("SPIS"), which is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission; and in Korea by SPIAS, which is also registered in Korea as a cross-border investment advisory company.

S&P Capital IQ keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P Capital IQ may have information that is not available to other S&P Capital IQ business units. S&P Capital IQ has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.

SOURCE S&P Capital IQ