Caroline Stewart has joined Piper Jaffray & Co. (Minneapolis) as a vice president and senior healthcare research analyst covering biotechnology companies. She will be based in the company's New York office. Stewart joins the firm from Morgan Joseph & Co./IRG, where she was a senior research analyst covering small- to mid-cap development-stage and early-product biotechnology companies. Piper Jaffray & Co. is the chief operating subsidiary of Piper Jaffray Companies, a focused securities firm dedicated to delivering superior financial advice, investment products and transaction execution within selected sectors of the financial services marketplace.

Steve Fargis has been selected by Underwriters (Reston, Virginia), a wholesale commercial insurance broker focused on the healthcare industry, to direct the company's new national medical malpractice insurance division. Fargis most recently served as chief operating officer of NCRIC Group, a medical malpractice insurance company that was acquired by ProAssurance in August 2005. Underwriter's new division was created to help retail insurance agents and healthcare entities secure medical malpractice coverage for risks that may not be insurable within the standard physician and healthcare markets.