Press Releases

"Joe is one of the best consumer and retail bankers in the business, and his joining our team is great news for our clients," Blue said. "His diverse experience across advisory, equity and debt markets, along with the strong client relationships he has built in both the restaurant and retail spaces, makes him perfectly suited to lead this team. Joe will be a tremendous asset to our platform."

Kennedy has more than 15 years of industry experience. He has been intimately involved with the restaurant segment since 2000. Kennedy comes to Wachovia from Banc of America Securities, where he most recently served as managing director and co-head of Retail Investment Banking. Before that, he spent five years in senior positions in the firm's Consumer and Retail Investment Banking Group, including leading the Restaurant practice. Prior to Banc of America Securities, Kennedy worked in Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking Group. He began his career at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. He holds a master's in business administration from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester.

Wachovia Securities' Investment Banking practice provides a complete range of financing and advisory services to financial sponsor groups and corporate clients through eight industry groups: Consumer and Retail; Energy and Power; Financial Institutions; Healthcare; Industrial Growth; Media and Communications; Real Estate; and Technology.

Wachovia Securities is the trade name for the corporate, investment banking and capital markets businesses of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries, including Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (WCM) and Wachovia Securities International Limited. Wachovia Securities is also the trade name for the retail brokerage businesses of WCM's affiliates, Wachovia Securities, LLC, Wachovia Securities Financial Networks, LLC, Wexford Clearing, LLC, and First Clearing, LLC.  Wachovia's proprietary research is branded Wachovia Research.

About Wachovia:
Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, with assets of $782.9 billion and market capitalization of $75.3 billion at December 31, 2007. Wachovia provides a broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services to customers through 3,400 retail financial centers in 21 states from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California, and nationwide retail brokerage, mortgage lending and auto finance businesses. Globally, clients are served in selected corporate and institutional sectors and through more than 40 international offices. Our retail brokerage operations under the Wachovia Securities brand name manage more than $1.2 trillion in client assets through 17,900 registered representatives in 1,500 offices nationwide. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com; and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com.