Tidal Financial Group

Guillermo Trias

Managing Partner & CEO

Mr. Trias has over 15 years of experience in financial services and management responsibilities, focused on growth initiatives, product launches, and sales management. He also has direct experience with startup companies and corporate build outs. He is responsible for Toroso’s key initiatives and strategic relationships.

Guillermo is CEO of Toroso Investments and Tidal Growth Consultants. Prior to Toroso, Guillermo led the sales and business development efforts at Global X Funds, helping the company reach approximately US$4 billion in AUM. Previously, he was the founder and managing partner of two venture capital firms (MC Capital and GT Capital) dedicated to the incubation and growth of start-ups in the US and Latam. Prior to that, he was founder and CEO of a pioneer food distributor in the US. Mr. Trias began his career in the area of M&A investment banking with Bankers Trust & Deutsche Bank. He has a degree in Business Administration from CUNEF (top finance college in Spain) and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University) in Chicago.

Michael Venuto

Co-Founder & CIO

Mr. Venuto has almost two decades of experience in asset management. Prior experience include head of investments at Global X Management, and business development, investment strategy, and strategic initiatives at Horizon Kinetics. At Toroso, he is responsible for investment management, research, and trading.

Mr. Venuto is an ETF industry veteran with over a decade of experience in the design and implementation of ETF-based investment strategies. Most recently, he is behind the launch of the Toroso ETF Industry Index (TETF Index), which measures and monitors the performance of publicly traded companies that derive revenue from the Exchange Traded Funds ecosystem. The Toroso ETF Industry Exposure & Financial Services ETF (TETF) tracks this index.

Mr. Venuto was instrumental in the establishment of multiple strategic investments and partnerships related to ETFs, Exchanges and Indexation. In 2014, he was chosen as one the ETF.COM All Stars for his research and is often quoted as an ETF expert in publications such as Reuters and Barron’s. Mr. Venuto studied Philosophy and Religion at NC State University and is an avid Chess player.

Dan Carlson

Co-Founder & CFO

Mr. Carlson has 30 years of 401(k) and financial services experience with Buck Consultants, Lincoln Financial, and Avatar. He developed and launched mutual funds, collective trusts of ETFs, 529 plans, and multi-manager 401(k) platforms. At Toroso, he is responsible for all operational and financial aspects of the company.

Mr. Carlson is Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Toroso Investments and Tidal Growth Consultants. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Avatar Associates in New York City where he lead the business development efforts as Avatar grew assets in managed portfolios of ETFs to represent over 80% of the Firm’s assets under management.

Previously, he headed the marketing and product development efforts at Delaware Investments in Philadelphia. Mr. Carlson has served on a national industry board and heads a non-profit educational foundation. He started his career in Chicago, first with BMO Harris and then as a partner at Buck Consultants, serving large pension and retirement programs. Mr. Carlson holds a BS degree in Accountancy from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana.

Michael A. Gayed

Portfolio Manager

Michael A. Gayed, CFA is Portfolio Manager at Toroso Investments, an investment management company specializing in ETF focused research, investment strategies and services designed for financial advisors, RIAs, family offices and investment managers.

Prior to Toroso Investments, Michael was the Co-Portfolio Manager and Chief Investment Strategist at Pension Partners, LLC, an investment advisor managing mutual funds and separate accounts. He is the co-author of four award-winning research papers on market anomalies and investing. Michael is an active contributor to MarketWatch and has been interviewed on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business, as well as the Wall Street Journal Live for his unique approach to interpreting market movements. His analysis has also been featured by Marc Faber of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report.

Michael earned his Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Finance & Management at NYU Stern School of Business. Michael became a CFA Charterholder in 2008.

David Dziekanski

Portfolio Manager

Mr. Dziekanski is the Portfolio Manager of Toroso Investments. Before joining Toroso, he was Vice President & Portfolio Strategist at Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management (LTAM), where he researched, analyzed, and recommended Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), Mutual Fund (MF), Money Manager, and Hedge Fund investments for the LAMP model portfolios and customized accounts. He was part of the team that raised assets under management from approximately $75MM to over $1.6 Billion in just over six years for the Ladenburg Asset Management Program (LAMP), Ladenburg Thalmann Investment Consulting Services (ICS), and the Ladenburg Thalmann 401(k), which service over 2700 advisors.

Previously, he held positions in Wealth Management, Fixed Income and Securities trading in world leading organizations such as Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, AIM Securities and Smith Barney.

Mr. Dziekanski holds a Master of Science in Finance from the Washington University Olin School of Business and a Bachelors of Science in Applied Mathematics, Finance and Economics from the Washington University College of Arts & Sciences. He holds the Series 7 and Series 66.

Dan Weiskopf

Portfolio Manager

Dan Weiskopf joined Toroso in May as a portfolio manager and member of its investment committee. He has over 30 years of portfolio Mangement experience with the past 15 years as an ETF Strategist, often quoted as saying "Structure Matters" in selecting an ETF more than simply fee. Prior to focusing on ETFs he founded MH CApital, a small cap hedge fund and worked at American Diversified Enterprises, a family office.

David Armstrong

Sr. Vice President & Portfolio Manager

David Armstrong is a Sr. Vice President & Portfolio Manager At Toroso Investments.

Prior to Toroso David was a Portfolio Manager at Cedar Capital, LLC. He provided portfolio optimization services to Advisors using a multi-asset portfolio framework to enhance the risk and return characteristics of their existing models.

David is a graduate of the University of Chicago (MBA), and Knox College (B.A.).

Margaret Burgdorf

Systems Coordinator / Consultant

Margaret began working with Toroso in late 2017 as a systems consultant. She now works with several teams across Toroso focused on creating, implementing and managing data and processes that make the most useful and efficient use of systems and data.

She has 26 years of experience working with systems in many areas of the financial services industry.

Margaret earned her degree in Systems Analysis from Miami University and her Financial Paraplanner Certification from the College for Financial Planning.

Nadine Mosco

Vice President of Operations

Nadine is Vice President of Operations at Toroso Investments since March 2021. She was previously Vice President and Manager of Private Client Group at Horizon Kinetics LLC.

She was responsible for analyzing and an improving workflows and proposing solutions for operational consistency and quality control.

She has more than 20 years of experience in the Financial industry.

Charles A. Ragauss

Portfolio Manager & Head of Trading

Charles Ragauss is both the Head of Trading and a Portfolio Manager at Toroso Investments leading our strategy implementation and trade execution team.

Previously Charles served as COO at Exponential ETFs, having joined the firm in April 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Ragauss was Assistant Vice President at Huntington National Bank, where he was Product Manager for the Huntington Funds and Huntington Strategy Shares ETFs, a combined fund complex of almost $4 billion in assets under management.

Ragauss served as a member of the Investment Company Institute’s ETF Advisory Committee from 2013 to 2016.

Qiao Duan

Portfolio Manager & Trader

Qiao Duan is a portfolio manager at Toroso Investments focused on strategy implementation and trade execution.

Previously, Qiao was an execution Portfolio Manager at Exponential ETFs, where she manages research and analysis relating to all Exponential ETF strategies.

Ms. Duan graduated in 2016 from the Quantitative Finance and Risk Management Program at the University of Michigan, where she won the Quantitative Program Merit Scholarship.

Eric Kelly

Portfolio Manager & Trader

Eric Kelly is a portfolio manager at Toroso Investments focused on strategy implementation and trade execution.

Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Exponential ETFs, where he managed trading and reporting responsibilities relating to all ETF strategies.

Mr. Kelly attended the University of Michigan Dearborn where he received degrees in Finance and Accounting, with a minor in International Economics. He is a candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst Program.