Kestra Investment Management Team

Through Kestra Investment Management LLC (“Kestra IM”), we have access to outstanding resources to deliver timely economic and market insights, sophisticated analysis, and comprehensive investment solutions for our clients. These services include asset allocation strategies, investment ideas, and personalized portfolio analysis and construction.

About Kestra Investment Management Kestra Investment Management LLC is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kestra IM is an affiliate of Kestra Holdings. Kestra IM provides market research, commentary, and portfolio guidance to its affiliated broker-dealers and registered investment advisers.

We are dedicated investment professionals with more than a century of combined experience, having managed assets for some of the industry’s most respected firms. For more information, please reference the Kestra Investment Management LLC Form ADV disclosure brochure. Kestra IM employees are not affiliated with or employees of the independent advisory firms they provide services to nor are the independent registered representatives or registered investment advisors affiliated with or employees Kestra IM.

Kara Murphy, CFA
Chief Investment Officer

Previously serving as Chief Investment Officer at Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management and as Chief Investment Officer at AIG Funds prior to that, Kara has become a keynote speaker and regular contributor to many television, radio and new publications including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, Yahoo! Finance, TD Ameritrade Network, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Barron’s.

Earlier in her career, she was an analyst at Chilton Investment Company, a hedge fund, and at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Before joining the investment industry, she was an analyst covering international political and economic risk at Marvin Zonis + Associates, with a focus on Eastern Europe and Russia.

Kara is a member of the CFA Society of New York and the CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth. She serves on the board of directors for Welcome Home, a nonprofit, which she founded to provide support for newly resettled refugees. Kara earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. She is a passionate supporter of financial literacy and diversity within the financial services industry. Most importantly, she is a proud wife and mom of three children who keep her busy, delighted and humbled, often all in the same day.

Derek Schug, CFA
Senior Vice President, Head of Portfolio Management

Derek Schug currently serves as the SVP, Head of Portfolio Management for Kestra Investment Management.

Prior to joining KIM, Derek was a Portfolio Manager at AlphaSimplex. There he was responsible for the strategic development, delivery, research, and ongoing portfolio management of AlphaSimplex’s asset allocation products with an emphasis on the model portfolio delivery business where AlphaSimplex acts as a Portfolio Strategist. He also served as a co-portfolio manager for the AlphaSimplex Dynamic Allocation Strategy. He has over 25 years of industry experience.

Prior to this, Derek was the Founder and CEO of SandBox Investment Partners, LLC, a quantitative investment management firm focused on managing tactical ETF portfolios for Financial Advisors and Institutions. Prior to founding SandBox, Mr. Schug served as Vice President, Investment Strategist at LPL Financial, where he led a team tasked with generating investment ideas across an expansive suite of asset allocation portfolios and also led the creation and ongoing management of new asset allocation model types. Prior to joining LPL Financial in 2005, he spent over four years at Columbia Management, where he created and managed the firm’s Investment Services Team. Derek Schug began his career at Fidelity Investments in 1992.

Mouna Pyneni
Assistant Vice President, Portfolio Manager

Mouna Pyneni joined Kestra Investment Management in 2021 as a Portfolio Manager. She will help develop and manage a curated menu of investment strategies and manage the day-to-day oversight, performance measurement, attribution, and rebalancing.

Prior to joining Kestra, Mouna was a member of the Investment Management team at Goldman Sachs PFM. As an IM associate, she managed model portfolio delivery process from idea origination to implementation. She played an integral role in the post-acquisition of United Capital into Goldman Sachs, supporting $30 billion in the platform and off-platform assets.

Mouna began her career as a research analyst in 2010 with Charleton Financial, where she managed model portfolios and served as a liaison between the firm, third-party money managers, custodians, and clients. She holds a Master’s degree in Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology. After work, you'll mostly find Mouna either trying to cook without burning the house down or at a local Crossfit box.