Wolfe roams Wall Street again

Wolfe roams Wall Street again When investment bank Bear Stearns collapsed earlier this year, investors lost one of the preeminent analysts covering the transportation stocks.
   Gone, too, was the annual transportation conference that had become a must-do event for executive suite officers in the trucking, rail, airline, ocean and logistics industries.
   But Ed Wolfe quickly resurfaced, creating his own independent firm, Wolfe Research, in a matter of weeks. Investors are now privy to some of the same insights on freight stocks that earned Wolfe a top reputation in the transport sector during the past 10 years. At Bear, he directed a team that covered the air freight and surface transportation sectors. And, on May 20-21, Wolfe hosted his first transportation conference at Fordham University Law School, where he earned his law degree.
   The venue was smaller and not as glitzy as the conferences Wolfe ran in the midtown Bear Stearns building. There, Wolfe was able to put on simultaneous sessions in three separate auditoriums, which in 2007 could barely hold the large turnout. This time there was one conference hall and panels were conducted in sequence.
   Wolfe was still able to draw on short notice a high-powered list of executives this time, including William Flynn, president of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings; Stephen Russell, chairman and chief executive of Celadon Group; David Parker, CEO of Covenant Transport; David Yeager, vice chairman and CEO of Hub Group Inc.; Scott McWilliams, CEO of Ozburn-Hessey Logistics; Greg Swienton, chairman and CEO of Ryder Systems; and a host of chief financial officers.
   Wolfe has consistently scored top rankings in polls of the best equity analysts on Wall Street, and received an award last year from Forbes magazine for consistent stock picking excellence and earnings estimating.
   Prior to his term at Bear Stearns, Wolfe was a vice president in the equity research department at BT Alex Brown and Schroder Wertheim, which he joined from Schweet Design, a private apparel and marketing firm. Among other roles, he managed the company’s warehouse in Weehawken, N.J., as well as all of the firm’s transportation and logistics needs. ' Eric Kulisch