Hamilton Clark & Co. was originally organized in Houston, Texas as McKenna & Company in 1989 by John J. McKenna. Throughout the early and mid-1990s we assisted numerous Southwest-based public and private companies that were overlooked by large Wall Street firms and by regional investment banking firms that had merged into larger financial institutions. Typically our transactions were private equity financings sourced from venture capital investors or from strategic corporate investors who were looking to extend their R&D activities by investing in promising new technologies. We also assisted private companies in selling their businesses, we helped large companies divest of non-core operations and we made a number of principal investments in early-stage companies. During this period we gained recognition of the McKenna Southwest Index as an accepted performance index of small capitalization publicly-traded companies located in the six-state region.

Due to its Houston location, we worked with a number of energy companies, including independent oil and gas companies, oil field service and supply companies and integrated oil and gas companies seeking to acquire or divest properties or businesses. Based on the prior corporate and investment banking experience of our partners, we were sought out by companies that wanted Wall Street experience but without the cost of a Wall Street investment banking engagement.

In the summer of 1996 Price Waterhouse (“PW”) acquired the assets of McKenna & Company as PW sought to build a U.S. corporate finance practice. We became the Houston-based energy practice of PW Corporate Finance, and John McKenna became the head of PW's energy corporate finance practice in the U.S. During this period, our NASD member-firm, McKenna Securities Company, was sold to Dominion Financial Partners and focused its efforts on early stage, technology-based, private equity investing.

In 1999, John moved to the McLean, Virginia office of PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities (“PwCS”) and established their Energy Technologies group. In 2000, he left PwCS and became Chief Financial Officer of STM Power, Inc., a manufacturer of low-emission, distributed energy generation equipment.

In 2003, John joined with Himesh Dhungel, PhD to establish HamiltonClark and re-acquired Dominion Financial Securities in March, 2004. Ross F. Crawford, formerly President of Dominion Financial Partners, continues to manage the Houston office and coordinate our Southwestern business activities.

Today, we have returned to our heritage of catering to the investment banking needs of small-capitalization companies and corporate spin-offs, with a focus on energy technologies (traditional, clean, sustainable and renewable). We continue to offer our clients the same commitment as we did in 1989, stressing integrity and professional Wall Street investment banking experience.