Our Experience, Your Goals — A Winning Combination 

Jay Pestrichelli is co-founder and managing director of ZEGA Financial. He specializes in developing successful hedging strategies to protect investors’ equity positions while driving maximum returns.

Jay has over 20 years of experience in the financial markets. Prior to launching ZEGA, he spent 12 years managing and growing the online brokerage business for TD Ameritrade. During this time, he led this business unit to become #1 in trade volume among U.S. brokers. Before joining TD Ameritrade, Jay was Vice President of Customer Support for Datek Online, where he oversaw customer relations for many of Datek’s 2.4 million active trading clients. He also instituted Datek’s first CRM system.

At ZEGA, Jay leads the development and execution of the firm’s investment strategies, which are designed to help investors successfully navigate volatile and uncertain markets through innovative hedging strategies. Some of these strategies include HiPOS (High Probability Options Strategy), Buy & Hedge and ZBIG. In 2018, ZEGA’s HiPOS strategy posted an 11.5% return, compared to 4.5% decline in the S&P 500.

ZEGA’s founding principles grew out of the bestselling book Jay co-authored entitled “Buy and Hedge, the Five Iron Rules for Investing Over the Long Term.” His book highlights how to bridge the complicated nature of options investing with the needs of the everyday investor.

Outside of ZEGA’s day-to-day work for its clients, the firm actively supports multiple not for profit organizations throughout the year. Some of these organizations include the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Samaritan’s Feet, CIA Officers Memorial Foundation, and Decoding Literacy.

Jay has been a regular contributor on NASDAQ Trade Talks and the TD Ameritrade Network and is a regularly quoted in top news outlets including Bloomberg, TheStreet, MarketWatch, US News and World Report, Fox Business and CNBC.

He is an active golfer, sailor, traveler, and avid life-long NY Giants fan. 

Jillian runs the show. Client service, operational systems, Advisor support and communications are her primary areas of responsibility.

Jillian started her financial career in Luxembourg with BNY Mellon as a senior trust accountant, adapting to a multi-lingual operation involving futures, FX, time deposits and more. Returning stateside led to her increased responsibilities supervising client accounting and reporting. She became the client resource on trade settlements, valuations, financial statements and accruals.

Jillian studied international business at Merrimack College. She’s a huge Boston sports fan, but because she is such a team player, nobody really holds it against her.

Derek manages ZEGA’s Registered Investment Advisor relationships, specializing in option strategies for income and protected growth. He helps advisors — and their retail clients — understand the calculus behind each strategy and how it best fits their investment goals.

Derek has over 21 years of experience as a trader and educator in options, futures and technical analysis. As TD Ameritrade’s director of national education, he criss-crossed the country sharing his knowledge of risk management and volatility. He also understands the challenges facing Registered Investment Advisors, having previously managed his own book of clients. Derek started his financial career as a manager with Charles Schwab.

Derek is a full-on IronMan triathlete, in addition to running numerous marathons and resides in Arizona.

Mike has worked in the investment business for over 15 years. He got his start as a trader in New York on the New York Mercantile Exchange trading Commodities.  As of April 2021, Mike is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, or CRPC® .

Prior to joining ZEGA Financial, Mike worked for a Registered Investment Advisor where he built a wealth management and financial planning platform servicing over 200 high net worth clients. Mike was also a Vice President at JP Morgan Chase and Senior Financial Consultant with TD Ameritrade. Both organizations he achieved the award of Presidents Club. 

Mike has participated in multiple charitable foundations including the Humane Society and Habitat for Humanity. He is proud to have raised over $50,000 in one year for the Humane Society of Broward County.  

Mike and his fiancé reside in South Florida where they enjoy scuba diving, paddle boarding and racing in triathlons.

John McDevitt, CFA from Tidal Investments LLC currently serves as Chief Compliance Officer bringing deep experience in developing and implementing regulatory compliance and credit risk management controls.  John is known for his ability to effectively communicate technical regulatory and legal requirements in a clear, understandable framework that is actionable at executive levels and is backed by the vast compliance guidance and legal resources of Tidal Investments LLC.  

Mr. McDevitt has both an MBA from Drexel University's LeBow College of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from West Chester University.  He is is also a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder from the CFA institute.

Edwin Berrios joined ZEGA Financial in May 2024 as Chief Technology Officer.

Prior to joining us he held positions as Sr. Director of IT and VP of Information Technology for 777 Partners and their portfolio of companies including Signal Financial Holdings,  a consumer legal finance group in the litigation finance vertical where he was responsible for managing technology operations, IT processes and procedures to support business needs and enterprise growth, the implementation and execution of new/upgraded information systems, design, implementation, management and support of technology infrastructure as well as enterprise cloud-based business solutions.

Prior to that, Edwin worked at First Data Corporation (now Fiserv), where he was a key part of business technology leadership and implementation teams tasked with the development, deployment and support of secure, innovative and accelerated payment network business solutions and integrated platforms including ACH, eComm, merchant mobile, security & fraud for large corporations, financial institutions and high-value portfolios of merchant processing banks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mr. Berrios has forged a successful career in high technology for over 30 years in startups and Fortune 500 companies working across many industry sectors including systems and networks integration, non-profit world standards organizations, international banking, industrial manufacturing and fintech.

Mr. Berrios earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Fordham University in New York.

Soupy Chum is a seasoned professional with a successful career in finance. She spent 15 years at BNYMellon, where she excelled in working with futures, options, equities, and bonds. During her time at the company, Soupy received numerous awards for her outstanding performance. Aside from her work achievements, Soupy is also a proud mother, values family time and enjoys spending quality time with her daughter. With her extensive experience and personal values, Soupy is a valuable asset to our ZEGA team.

Therese keeps ZEGA’s onboarding and client service operations running smoothly with a positive and bubbly attitude. She works directly with new and existing wealth management clients to ensure seamless service requests. She also provides support to the rest of the ZEGA team whenever needed.

Therese started her career in Omaha at First Data (now FiServ) with over 10 years of experience in Client Services. Continuing her career and gaining Financial Management experience at Monahan Financial and Renaissance Financial, has moved her to over 15 years in Client Services.

Therese graduated from Bellevue University with a BS in Business Administration.

Therese is a golfer, plays tennis and enjoys cycling.  She is originally from Florida, and currently lives in Nebraska with her son and daughter.