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Our Team

WHERE EXPERIENCE AND DIVERSITY MEET

20+
Years

 

Average Experience
Among Traders
100+
Years

 

Combined Experience
in the C-Suite

Vincent Butkevits, CEO

As Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Butkevits oversees all aspects of Zeus’ dealer and institutional businesses. He has been in the financial services and investment banking industry for 40 years, holding positions in operations, sales, trading and business development.

In 2000, prior to starting Zeus, Mr. Butkevits co-founded JVB Financial Holdings, serving as President and CEO of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, which included JVB Financial Group. Mr. Butkevits eventually sold JVB in 2010 and is now dedicating his efforts towards his new venture at Zeus. He continues to serve his clients and employees with professionalism and excellence.

Early in his career, Mr. Butkevits had tenures with Primary Dealers: Dean Witter, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers. Then he transitioned from operations to trading while at Exchange National Bank of Chicago.

Gary C. Galarpe, COO|CRO|CCO

As the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Galarpe is dually responsible for overseeing the administrative and operational functions of the business as well as mitigating trading and business risks that can impact the firm’s profitability. He works closely with other executives and managers to execute organizational strategy, promote opportunities for growth, foster a culture of teamwork, identify enterprise risk management issues, and develop strategies to reduce those risks.

Mr. Galarpe has over 30 years’ experience in various capacities in the financial industry. Mr. Galarpe was the Head Fixed Income Trader at LPL Financial, before becoming the Senior Fixed Income Trader at Girard Securities. The skills he acquired in retail banking, trading, operations, compliance, finance, and IT were most recently employed as the COO|CFO|COO of Nathan Hale Capital. Mr. Galarpe earned his BA in Business Administration from California State University at Fullerton.

Steven Singer, CFO/FinOp

Steven Singer has spent over 20 years in the financial services arena. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree with concentrations in Accounting and Management Information Systems, Steven successfully passed the CPA exam in New York. He then spent 3 years in the financial services audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand). Steven spent the next 10 years working his way up the accounting and finance ladder first as an assistant controller, then as a controller, and eventually as a CFO in the securities brokerage arena. Early on in his broker-dealer years, Steven obtained his FINRA Series 27 FINOP license. Prior to starting Maven Strategic in 2004, Steven spent 2 years as the President and CEO of a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, which provides core financial services to small businesses.

PARDEEP KUMAR, MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mr. Kumar brings over 12 years of industry experience as a Fixed Income Trader with an exceptional track record of successfully positioning, pricing, and trading fixed-income products in competitive environments. He has held several roles within Bank of America Merrill Lynch; most recently as Vice President trading Agency MBS. He graduated from Baruch College with a BBA in Finance and Economics.

Mr. Kumar is a Co-Founder of Orchid Bay Financial Holding, LLC (Parent company of Zeus Financial, LLC) and a partner at Zeus Financial, LLC.

Rachel Telvi

RACHEL TELVI, DIRECTOR OF TRADING & BROKERAGE OPERATIONS

In her capacity, Ms. Telvi is responsible in directing the daily brokerage and trading operations for Zeus Financial. She also oversees and manages trading compliance for our desk.  Her proficiency and dedication in this area drives operational efficiencies.

Ms. Telvi began her career over 16 years ago as a Relationship Manager for the Institutional Sales department of TradeStation Securities. Meeting the needs of equity, futures, and forex institutional clients, as well as serving as a direct liaison to the clearing firm, developed the foundation of her operational skills. She was later named Institutional Sales Operations Manager. In 2006, she joined vFinance Investments, an OTCBB & Pink Sheets equities market maker, as the Trading Operations Coordinator & Trading Assistant to the Head Trader. She has held positions with Network1 Financial, FMS Bonds, and Independent Portfolio Consultants. During her career, Ms. Telvi has acquired an in-depth knowledge of trading, compliance, and back office operations across all asset classes and products.

Ms. Telvi graduated in March 2016 with a BS in Legal Studies from Kaplan University. She is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.

AMBER KENNY, CONTROLLER/CAO

As the firm’s Controller and Chief Administrative Officer, Mrs. Kenny brings over 25 years of experience working with entrepreneurs in a broad range of service and financial companies. Her skills reach through finance, accounting, budgeting, human resources, and organizational behavior. Her diverse experience provides stability in the building of a strong organizational infrastructure for Zeus’ rapidly growing endeavor as she oversees financial and business operations for both Zeus Financial, LLC and its parent company, Orchid Bay Financial Holdings. Mrs. Kenny’s financial services career began as Administrator of Slavic Mutual Funds Management Corp, a predecessor of Slavic401k.com. She earned a BBA in Marketing and Finance from Southern Arkansas University and an MBA from the University of Mississippi.

OMELIO ARMAS, EXECUTIVE VP OF MUNICIPALS

As Executive VP of Municipals, Mr. Armas commits firm capital to buying and selling municipal securities from institutional and broker-dealer firms. He has been in the financial services industry for over 25 years holding positions in equity and fixed income market making and execution services.

Prior to joining Zeus Financial, Mr. Armas began his trading career at JW Charles as an equity execution clerk and later moved on Spear, Leeds, & Kellogg as a NASDAQ market maker. In 2002 he moved on to become trading manager at First American Capital & Trading overseeing execution services for correspondent clients in equities and fixed income securities. In 2010, he became a Vice-President and Trader at JVB Financial Group until his move to Zeus Financial.

PETER BRANDEL, JR., SVP OF MUNICPALS

Mr. Brandel has over 20 years of experience as a fixed income trader. For the past 10+ years he has focused on trading municipal bonds with an institutional client base. He most recently worked at Nathan Hale Capital, LLC where he was Senior Vice-President and co-founder of the Institutional Municipal Bond Trading Department. Prior to that, he worked in various roles at Advisors Asset Management, Banc of America Securities and Quick & Reilly/Fleet Securities. Mr. Brandel earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Siena College.

DANIEL FRIEL, SR. EVP OF MUNICIPALS

Dan Friel is a 30+ year veteran of the Municipal bond industry who has been involved in various aspects of trading, underwriting, sales, public finance, buy-side trading, and management. Dan began his career at Adams McEntee, which went through a series of mergers (Norstar Bank, Fleet Bank, Quick & Reilly, etc.) from 1987 to 2004, prior to being hired away by UBS from 2004 to 2009. Dan joined First NY in 2009 as a buy-side trader, and subsequently worked at First Southwest and Stifel Nicolaus before moving to Nathan Hale Capital in 2017 where he became a partner. Dan joined Zeus Financial, LLC at the start of 2022. Dan holds the following licenses: Series 7 (9/19/87), Series 63 (9/24/87), Series 24 (8/2/90) and Series 53 (12/8/93) as well as the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials Exam) (10/1/18). Dan has a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia (1986) and an MA in Theology from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception (2007). Dan resides with his wife Karen in Charlotte, NC and they have four children.

JOHN C. HATTON, EVP OF MUNICIPAL TRADING & UNDERWRITING

John has been working in the municipal bond market for more than 32 years, the last twelve as the SVP of Municipal Trading for at JVB Financial Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Institutional Financial Markets, Inc.

Before JVB, John was associated with Bank of America Investment Services and its predecessors in several different roles ranging from Trading and Underwriting municipal securities to managing the fixed income trading and middle office for a sales force of over 2,000 registered representatives. Mr. Hatton started in the bond business as a back-office clerk in the bond department of First Equity Corp of Fl advancing into a trading role there.

MARTIN FLYNN, SVP INSTITUTIONAL SALES

Marty has over 30 years experience in Fixed Income Trading and Sales. Marty started his career at Prudential Securities on the Municipal trading desk but shortly thereafter moved to Fidelity Capital Markets in Boston. After spending 10yrs as a senior municipal trader at Fidelity, Marty transitioned his career onto Fidelity’s Institutional Sales team where he spent 20years. Marty holds the series 7,6, & 53 licenses.

MARK McCABE, SR. EVP OF MUNICIPAL SALES, ZEUS FINANCIAL, LLC

Mark McCabe is a 36 year veteran of Institutional Municipal Bond Sales.  He began his career in March of 1986 at Adams, McEntee & Co. after spending 5 years selling high-end Diagnostic Medical Equipment.  Mark was with Fleet Securities until they merged with Bank of America. He went to work for Stone & Youngberg out of San Francisco assisting them in opening a New York office.  Mark became a partner in 2006 and was with S&Y until they merged with Stifel. He worked for First Southwest, Janney Montgomery and 280 Securities/InspereX until moving over to Zeus Financial in July of 2022.

Mark has been covering primarily Tier 1 and Tier 2 municipal bond accounts selling them both tax exempt and taxable municipal bonds.  He also has accounts that he works with that trade Investment Grade Corporates, Agencies and US Treasury Bonds.  He has a BA in Psychology from Iona University (1979). Mark has been married to the same woman for 40 years (her nickname is Super St. Beth).  They have four children and 5 grandchildren.

GERARD McNAMARA, SR. EVP OF MUNICIPAL SALES, ZEUS FINANCIAL, LLC

Gerard “Jerry” McNamara began his career in Operations at Bache & Company, later becoming Prudential Securities. He began trading Municipal Bonds at Prudential Securities in 1985. Jerry traded NY, NJ paper & Puerto Rico, and managed that desk starting 1986. He then traded long “dollar” bonds and became Institutional Trading Desk Manager in 1995 before leaving for Alex Brown in 1996 as Head of Trading Sales and Syndicate. After Alex Brown merged with Bankers Trust he left for Rauscher Pierce in Dallas, TX in the same role, out of their NY office. Rauscher then merged with Dain Bosworth in 1997 and Jerry became the Municipal Sales Manager at the merged entity. Jerry then went to Paine Webber as a High Yield Trader and later became a Head Trader at UBS (which bought Paine Webber). UBS closed Municipal Institutional Trading and Banking in 2008. Jerry then went on to start PFB, LLC, a municipal trading firm and in 2017 joined a family office, Watermill Asset Management, where he was the Trader/Portfolio Manager until June of 2021. He then started at Manteio Capital, a fixed income hedge fund, where he headed Municipal Trading. Jerry joined Zeus Financial in July of 2022. Jerry lives and works in NYC and has 3 children and a Yorkie. He is a graduate of Fairfield University, CT.

ROBERT KURSAR, SVP OF INSTITUTIONAL MUNICIPAL GROUP

Bob has over 30 years of Fixed-Income trading experience. After starting his career as a retail generalist at Invest Financial in Chicago, he joined the Institutional Agency desk at Kemper/Everen Securities. He then spent eight years as a market maker of Agency debt and MBS Pass-throughs for the Institutional Fixed-Income group at Wachovia Bank. Most recently, he spent eight years trading Municipal debt at Nathan Hale Capital. Mr. Kursar received a BS in Finance from DePaul University.

ROBBE UHRHAMMER, DIRECTOR OF CD TRADING

Robbe started in the financial industry over 12 years ago and for the most part focused on trading Certificates of Deposits. Robbe brings a wide base of knowledge having dealt with Municipals, Treasury, Agency, and Corporate debt throughout his career. Prior to joining Zeus Financial, Mr. Uhrhammer facilitated trades in all products for over 150 reps at Advisors Asset Management. He then moved on to trading Certificate of Deposits at Nathan Hale Capital. Robbe has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Colorado.

Vincent Butkevits
CEO

+

As Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Butkevits oversees all aspects of Zeus’ Dealer and Institutional business. He has been in the financial services and investment banking industry for 40 years, holding positions in sales, sales management, and business development.
Prior to joining Zeus, Mr. Butkevits has experienced a great level of success in many aspects of the financial industry. His career began in 1979. Over the years, he gained an expertise in front and back office operations while working with Dean Witter, Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers. Later, he became the Head Trader of Fixed Income Securities for LaSalle National Bank and JW Charles Securities. Upon opening a Florida office for R Seelaus and Company, Mr. Butkevits served as Principal and was responsible for overseeing trading, compliance, systems and personnel. In 2000, Mr. Butkevits co-founded JVB Financial Holdings, serving as President and CEO of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, which included JVB Financial Group. Mr. Butkevits eventually sold JVB in 2015, and is now dedicating his efforts towards his new venture at Zeus. He continues to serve his clients and employees with professionalism and excellence.

Gary C. Galarpe
COO|CRO|CCO

+

As the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Galarpe is dually responsible for overseeing the administrative and operational functions of the business as well as mitigating trading and business risks that can impact the firm’s profitability. He works closely with other executives and managers to execute organizational strategy, promote opportunities for growth, foster a culture of teamwork, identify enterprise risk management issues, and develop strategies to reduce those risks.
Mr. Galarpe has over 30 years’ experience in various capacities in the financial industry. Mr. Galarpe was the Head Fixed Income Trader at LPL Financial, before becoming the Senior Fixed Income Trader at Girard Securities. The skills he acquired in retail banking, trading, operations, compliance, finance, and IT were most recently employed as the COO|CFO|COO of Nathan Hale Capital. Mr. Galarpe earned his BA in Business Administration from California State University at Fullerton.

Steven Singer
CFO/FinOp

+

Steven Singer has spent over 20 years in the financial services arena. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree with concentrations in Accounting and Management Information Systems, Steven successfully passed the CPA exam in New York. He then spent 3 years in the financial services audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers & Lybrand). Steven spent the next 10 years working his way up the accounting and finance ladder first as an assistant controller, then as a controller, and eventually as a CFO in the securities brokerage arena. Early on in his broker-dealer years, Steven obtained his FINRA Series 27 FINOP license. Prior to starting Maven Strategic in 2004, Steven spent 2 years as the President and CEO of a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, which provides core financial services to small businesses.

PARDEEP KUMAR
MANAGING DIRECTOR

+

Mr. Kumar brings over 12 years of industry experience as a Fixed Income Trader with an exceptional track record of successfully positioning, pricing, and trading fixed-income products in competitive environments. He has held several roles within Bank of America Merrill Lynch; most recently as Vice President trading Agency MBS. He graduated from Baruch College with a BBA in Finance and Economics.
Mr. Kumar is a Co-Founder of Orchid Bay Financial Holding, LLC (Parent company of Zeus Financial, LLC) and a partner at Zeus Financial, LLC.

RACHEL TELVI
DIRECTOR OF TRADING & BROKERAGE OPERATIONS

+

In her capacity, Ms. Telvi is responsible in directing the daily brokerage and trading operations for Zeus Financial. She also oversees and manages trading compliance for our desk.  Her proficiency and dedication in this area drives operational efficiencies.
Ms. Telvi began her career over 16 years ago as a Relationship Manager for the Institutional Sales department of TradeStation Securities. Meeting the needs of equity, futures, and forex institutional clients, as well as serving as a direct liaison to the clearing firm, developed the foundation of her operational skills. She was later named Institutional Sales Operations Manager. In 2006, she joined vFinance Investments, an OTCBB & Pink Sheets equities market maker, as the Trading Operations Coordinator & Trading Assistant to the Head Trader. She has held positions with Network1 Financial, FMS Bonds, and Independent Portfolio Consultants. During her career, Ms. Telvi has acquired an in-depth knowledge of trading, compliance, and back office operations across all asset classes and products.
Ms. Telvi graduated in March 2016 with a BS in Legal Studies from Kaplan University. She is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.

AMBER KENNY
CONTROLLER/CAO

+

As the firm’s Controller and Chief Administrative Officer, Mrs. Kenny brings over 25 years of experience working with entrepreneurs in a broad range of service and financial companies. Her skills reach through finance, accounting, budgeting, human resources, and organizational behavior. Her diverse experience provides stability in the building of a strong organizational infrastructure for Zeus’ rapidly growing endeavor as she oversees financial and business operations for both Zeus Financial, LLC and its parent company, Orchid Bay Financial Holdings. Mrs. Kenny’s financial services career began as Administrator of Slavic Mutual Funds Management Corp, a predecessor of Slavic401k.com. She earned a BBA in Marketing and Finance from Southern Arkansas University and an MBA from the University of Mississippi.

OMELIO ARMAS
EXECUTIVE VP OF MUNICIPALS

+

As Executive VP of Municipals, Mr. Armas commits firm capital to buying and selling municipal securities from institutional and broker-dealer firms. He has been in the financial services industry for over 25 years holding positions in equity and fixed income market making and execution services.
Prior to joining Zeus Financial, Mr. Armas began his trading career at JW Charles as an equity execution clerk and later moved on Spear, Leeds, & Kellogg as a NASDAQ market maker. In 2002 he moved on to become trading manager at First American Capital & Trading overseeing execution services for correspondent clients in equities and fixed income securities. In 2010, he became a Vice-President and Trader at JVB Financial Group until his move to Zeus Financial.

PETER BRANDEL, JR.
SVP OF MUNICIPALS

+

Mr. Brandel has over 20 years of experience as a fixed income trader. For the past 10+ years he has focused on trading municipal bonds with an institutional client base. He most recently worked at Nathan Hale Capital, LLC where he was Senior Vice-President and co-founder of the Institutional Municipal Bond Trading Department. Prior to that, he worked in various roles at Advisors Asset Management, Banc of America Securities and Quick & Reilly/Fleet Securities. Mr. Brandel earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Siena College.

DANIEL FRIEL
SR. EVP OF MUNICIPALS

+

Dan Friel is a 30+ year veteran of the Municipal bond industry who has been involved in various aspects of trading, underwriting, sales, public finance, buy-side trading, and management. Dan began his career at Adams McEntee, which went through a series of mergers (Norstar Bank, Fleet Bank, Quick & Reilly, etc.) from 1987 to 2004, prior to being hired away by UBS from 2004 to 2009. Dan joined First NY in 2009 as a buy-side trader, and subsequently worked at First Southwest and Stifel Nicolaus before moving to Nathan Hale Capital in 2017 where he became a partner. Dan joined Zeus Financial, LLC at the start of 2022. Dan holds the following licenses: Series 7 (9/19/87), Series 63 (9/24/87), Series 24 (8/2/90) and Series 53 (12/8/93) as well as the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials Exam) (10/1/18). Dan has a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia (1986) and an MA in Theology from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception (2007). Dan resides with his wife Karen in Charlotte, NC and they have four children.

JOHN C. HATTON
EVP OF MUNICIPAL TRADING & UNDERWRITING

+

John has been working in the municipal bond market for more than 32 years, the last twelve as the SVP of Municipal Trading for at JVB Financial Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Institutional Financial Markets, Inc.
Before JVB, John was associated with Bank of America Investment Services and its predecessors in several different roles ranging from Trading and Underwriting municipal securities to managing the fixed income trading and middle office for a sales force of over 2,000 registered representatives. Mr. Hatton started in the bond business as a back-office clerk in the bond department of First Equity Corp of Fl advancing into a trading role there.

MARTIN FLYNN, SVP INSTITUTIONAL SALES

+

Marty has over 30 years experience in Fixed Income Trading and Sales. Marty started his career at Prudential Securities on the Municipal trading desk but shortly thereafter moved to Fidelity Capital Markets in Boston. After spending 10yrs as a senior municipal trader at Fidelity, Marty transitioned his career onto Fidelity’s Institutional Sales team where he spent 20years. Marty holds the series 7,6, & 53 licenses.

MARK McCABE
SR. EVP OF MUNICIPAL SALES, ZEUS FINANCIAL, LLC

+

Mark McCabe is a 36 year veteran of Institutional Municipal Bond Sales.  He began his career in March of 1986 at Adams, McEntee & Co. after spending 5 years selling high-end Diagnostic Medical Equipment.  Mark was with Fleet Securities until they merged with Bank of America. He went to work for Stone & Youngberg out of San Francisco assisting them in opening a New York office.  Mark became a partner in 2006 and was with S&Y until they merged with Stifel. He worked for First Southwest, Janney Montgomery and 280 Securities/InspereX until moving over to Zeus Financial in July of 2022.
Mark has been covering primarily Tier 1 and Tier 2 municipal bond accounts selling them both tax exempt and taxable municipal bonds.  He also has accounts that he works with that trade Investment Grade Corporates, Agencies and US Treasury Bonds.  He has a BA in Psychology from Iona University (1979). Mark has been married to the same woman for 40 years (her nickname is Super St. Beth).  They have four children and 5 grandchildren.

GERARD McNAMARA
SR. EVP OF MUNICIPAL SALES, ZEUS FINANCIAL, LLC

+

Gerard “Jerry” McNamara began his career in Operations at Bache & Company, later becoming Prudential Securities. He began trading Municipal Bonds at Prudential Securities in 1985. Jerry traded NY, NJ paper & Puerto Rico, and managed that desk starting 1986. He then traded long “dollar” bonds and became Institutional Trading Desk Manager in 1995 before leaving for Alex Brown in 1996 as Head of Trading Sales and Syndicate. After Alex Brown merged with Bankers Trust he left for Rauscher Pierce in Dallas, TX in the same role, out of their NY office. Rauscher then merged with Dain Bosworth in 1997 and Jerry became the Municipal Sales Manager at the merged entity. Jerry then went to Paine Webber as a High Yield Trader and later became a Head Trader at UBS (which bought Paine Webber). UBS closed Municipal Institutional Trading and Banking in 2008. Jerry then went on to start PFB, LLC, a municipal trading firm and in 2017 joined a family office, Watermill Asset Management, where he was the Trader/Portfolio Manager until June of 2021. He then started at Manteio Capital, a fixed income hedge fund, where he headed Municipal Trading. Jerry joined Zeus Financial in July of 2022. Jerry lives and works in NYC and has 3 children and a Yorkie. He is a graduate of Fairfield University, CT.

ROBERT KURSAR
SVP OF INSTITUTIONAL MUNICIPAL GROUP

+

Bob has over 30 years of Fixed-Income trading experience. After starting his career as a retail generalist at Invest Financial in Chicago, he joined the Institutional Agency desk at Kemper/Everen Securities. He then spent eight years as a market maker of Agency debt and MBS Pass-throughs for the Institutional Fixed-Income group at Wachovia Bank. Most recently, he spent eight years trading Municipal debt at Nathan Hale Capital. Mr. Kursar received a BS in Finance from DePaul University.

ROBBE UHRHAMMER
DIRECTOR OF CD TRADING

+

Robbe started in the financial industry over 12 years ago and for the most part focused on trading Certificates of Deposits. Robbe brings a wide base of knowledge having dealt with Municipals, Treasury, Agency, and Corporate debt throughout his career. Prior to joining Zeus Financial, Mr. Uhrhammer facilitated trades in all products for over 150 reps at Advisors Asset Management. He then moved on to trading Certificate of Deposits at Nathan Hale Capital. Robbe has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Colorado.