John Barragan

John Arthur Barragan is a longtime broker-dealer and RIA operations executive whose FINRA registration history spans nearly three decades. He entered the securities industry in 1997 at Merrill Lynch in New York, followed by Prudential Securities (1999), and then a series of independent and regional firms through the 2000s — including Invest Financial Corporation, Tricor Financial, SCF Securities, and Securities America. He passed his Series 7 in 1997 and later added principal/supervisory licenses (Series 24, 28, 53) and the Series 65/66 adviser exams, though he is not currently registered as a broker per BrokerCheck.

His most defining early-career role was at Girard Securities, Inc. in San Diego, where he served as Chief Operations Officer from September 2012 to roughly 2017–2018. Girard, an independent broker-dealer/RIA, was acquired by Cetera Financial Group in 2014 and folded into Cetera's networks (Cetera Advisor Networks / First Allied), which is where the legacy "girardsecurities.com" email originates. Barragan continued in operations leadership through the Cetera integration (registered with Cetera Advisor Networks and Cetera Investment Services, 2017–2020), reportedly rising to Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Operations.

He then moved through United Capital Financial Advisors and Goldman Sachs & Co. (2020–2021), where he led shared-operations work for Goldman's Personal Financial Management unit (the former United Capital business). In November 2021 he joined Kestra Investment Management as Chief Operating & Compliance Officer (based in Dana Point, CA). In spring 2024 he briefly departed to become Chief Operating Officer of Realta Wealth (April–July 2024), reporting to CEO Kevin Keefe, before returning to Kestra Investment Management as Chief Operating Officer in July 2024, the role reflected as current in his most recent Form U4 (Austin, TX; kestraim.com; ~40 hrs/week).

Educationally, trade-press coverage reports an MBA from Westminster University, executive/business certificates from Harvard Business School and The Wharton School, and (per one account) an M.S. in Cyber Security Operations and Leadership from the University of San Diego.

• His professional "thesis" is about wealth-management operations and advisor experience, not venture investing. On joining Realta he framed his motivation around service and firm culture: *"At a time when many of the larger enterprises in our industry are losing their cultures and diverting their attention away from quality service…"* (PR Newswire, May 2024).
• His mandate in these roles is strategic direction and oversight of operating, service, and technology offerings for financial advisors and their clients — i.e., building the platform, not writing angel checks.
• No verifiable angel/seed investment thesis, check size, or target-company criteria exists for him. Any "Seed Round" / angel framing in the stub could not be substantiated and should be treated as unconfirmed.
• The only "other business activity" he discloses to FINRA is a single-family rental property in Dripping Springs, TX (held through an LLC) — real estate, not startup equity.