John Pesce

CEO & Co-Founder

John Pesce is TCG’s visionary co-founder and manager in charge. John leads a team of experienced, principled advisors in the sustained effort to provide an unprecedented level of customer service in the finance industry.

In 1987, John started his first business managing private wealth for professional athletes across the country. After selling the business in 1990, he became a Partner and Chief Marketing Officer at a firm in Houston, TX, where he was head of their investment and marketing divisions and focused on individual wealth management and government pension plans. After he and his partners sold the company in 1995, John moved to Austin, TX. In Austin, John deepened his knowledge of government retirement plans and managing institutional money, and he was ready to use that knowledge to start something new.

John joined forces with Mike Cochran to start TCG Group Holdings LLP in 1999. Because of his passion for investing and trading options, John still manages a few portfolios in addition to overseeing the strategic direction of the entire company.

Mike Cochran

Chairman & Co-Founder

Throughout his career, Mike has managed all types of retirement plans, and served as an officer in two Fortune 500 companies before co-founding TCG with John Pesce. He works primarily with institutional investors and provides financial planning and compensation advice for most of TCG’s public sector executive clients.

Mike has worked hard to forge a customer-driven culture at TCG, characterized by consistent fairness, unrivaled expertise and outstanding service for every client of the company. He is in demand as a speaker on investment fiduciary issues and author of several articles on retirement and compensation matters in well-known trade magazines.

Jeff Montgomery

President

Jeff comes to TCG after spending 8 years as the Chairman and CEO of AFAM Capital, an institutional money manager overseeing several billion in assets. Prior to building AFAM and acquiring its Innealta ETF Division, Jeff was the CEO and COO of the operating companies of National Financial Partners for seven years—including NFP Investments, NFP Benefits, and NFP Insurance. Jeff was part of the leadership team that took the company public in 2003.

Previously, Jeff was CEO of the investment division and broker-dealers of ReliaStar—a Fortune 500 company and division of ING. Prior to that, he was General Counsel for PrimeVest Financial Services and President of PrimeVest Mortgage.

Jeff received his finance degree with honors from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his law degree from the University of Oregon.

Chris J. Jamail

Chief Marketing Officer

Chris Jamail, CFP® is the Chief Marketing Officer at TCG where he is responsible for strategic business development, managing company-wide marketing efforts, and supporting investment advisor strategy. On a mission to grow the TCG ecosystem, he is working to improve the financial situation for all clients and creating a company of enduring value.

Prior to taking on this role at TCG, Chris gained experience in working with clients and managing investment assets beginning in 2002 as a financial advisor at TCG. Throughout his career he has increased his focus on investment management and financial planning moving to an investment advisor role in 2004 with TCG Advisors, and then later named Chief Investment Officer. In these former roles, he operated as head of the investment committee, oversaw a team of professionals with responsibilities such as managing and monitoring investment activity, and directing the investment strategy for the firm’s clients.

Chris graduated from Texas A&M University in 2002 with a BBA degree in Marketing and earned the Certified Financial Planner™ designation in 2010. Chris has been recognized as a 2021 Best-In-State Wealth Advisor by Forbes, and as well as being named to the 2019 and 2020 Financial Times Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisers list.

Scott Hauptmann

Chief Operating Officer

Scott Hauptmann is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for TCG Group Holdings, LLP. and is a Partner at TCG Group Holdings, LLP. Scott is responsible for the oversight and day-to-day operations of all retirement plans administered by TCG Administrators, and he works to maintain the relationships TCG Administrators has with its clients, participants, outside vendors, and financial representatives.

Scott graduated from the University of Texas with a BBA in Finance and a minor in Sociology. He’s an active member of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA).

Dennis Bielik, CFA®, CFP®, FRM®

Senior Vice President, Managing Partner

Dennis Bielik is a Vice President and oversees the Private Wealth Division at TCG Group Holdings. He has worked in the financial services/banking industry since 2005 and has experience working at firms such as Charles Schwab & TD Ameritrade. At TCG, Dennis provides financial planning, estate planning, private banking, and investment advisory services. Dennis is responsible for the oversight and day-to-day operations of TCG Advisors, and he works to maintain the relationships TCG Advisors has with its clients, participants, outside vendors, and financial representatives.

Dennis has been recognized as a 2021 Best-In-State Wealth Advisor and Top Next-Gen Advisor by Forbes, and as well as being named to the 2019 and 2020 Financial Times Top 401 Retirement Plan Advisers list.

Brittney Valdez

Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Brittney Valdez is the Vice President – Chief Financial Officer at TCG Group Holdings where she manages the company’s financial functions and leads all human resources activities. She spent the past decade working in finance, accounting, and financial reporting roles at the company, including most recently Controller. Brittney graduated from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA degree in Corporate Finance. .

Ryan Swayze

Chief Technology Officer

Ryan Swayze is the Chief Technology Officer at TCG. Since joining the company in 2014, he has been instrumental through progressively more responsible positions with our technology department. He has played a key role during the transition to our cloud strategy and brings with him a wealth of expertise, experience, and education.

Ryan manages the technology department and oversees all data, security, networking, infrastructure and development standards and practices for the firm. He holds a number of cloud, big data and database accredited certifications and is an alumnus of Texas State University.