1.   Aside from insurance, Frost said the bank would like to expand its asset management business, partly by purchasing asset management firms based in its Texas markets.

2.   Brown, a major regional stock brokerage firm based in Baltimore.

3.   EDS, the information technology services firm based in the Dallas area, launched a crisis team after the East Coast attacks to monitor its network.

4.   He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and spent seven years at Bessemer Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in Wellesley.

5.   He now runs a political consulting firm based in Alexandria, Va.

6.   Home Health Testing is a privately owned Internet marketing firm based in Grand Rapids, Mich.

7.   Ideally, firms base their hiring decisions on things like competence or credentials.

8.   Investors tend to value drug and biotech firms based on blockbuster products, Lonergan said.

9.   John A. Scoville was chairman of the Harza Cos., a privately held international consulting and engineering firm based in Chicago.

10.   Lineberger, who once owned a personnel firm based in Los Angeles, bought the inn with his wife on a lark.