OUR TEAM
Todd Raarup | CEO & Co-Chief Investment Officer
Todd Raarup serves as the CEO & Co-Chief Investment Officer (Co-CIO) for Najarian Family Office, LLC. Todd is also the CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Rebellion Capital Advisors, LLC, where he is responsible for the Firm’s investment process, trading strategies, and risk management.
Beginning his trading career on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), Todd helped lead the expansion of trading firm Mercury Trading into a Designated Primary Market Making business as head trader.
After leaving Mercury Trading, Todd held various senior management and trading positions Knight Trading Group and its predecessor Arbitrade including head of Exchange Floor Trading, European Options Trading, and CBOE floor trading. Todd led Knight Execution Partners from 2002 to 2004 and was an early pioneer in developing option execution and liquidity provision strategies for Knight’s Broker-Dealer clients.
Todd was Managing Director in Citi Global Equities for eight years until 2012. He was Co-Head of Electronic Derivative Execution Services and later led Citi’s Global Trading Analytics and Technology Strategy Group.
Todd has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion and Economics from Gustavus Adolphus College.
Jeff Melgard | Co-Chief Investment Officer
Jeff Melgard serves as the Co-Chief Investment Officer (Co-CIO) for Najarian Family Office, LLC. Jeff is also the President and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Rebellion Capital Advisors LLC, where he is responsible for the Advisor’s investment process, trading strategies, and risk management.
Beginning his career as an independent market maker on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), Jeff later traded as a Designated Primary Market Maker in various equity options listed on the CBOE floor. During this time, he was a member of the CBOE Product Development Committee and was instrumental in the development of products such as VIX.
In 2003 Jeff co-founded and was the managing member for SMC Options Holdings until 2012. SMC was a proprietary trading firm that provided liquidity in equity and index options as a Designated Primary Market Maker.
Jeff has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Pearl Manieri | Principal and COO
As COO, Pearl is responsible for all aspects of operations and trading at the firm. She is a strategic leader who has over 27 years of financial industry experience. Before joining Najarian Family Office Pearl was a Vice President of Implementations and Project Management at Northern Trust.
She started her career in 1988 on the Pacific Options floor (PCX) working for Pershing DLJ’s trade desk and eventually rose to become a market maker for TD Securities.
In 2004, she joined E*TRADE Securities where she performed several diverse roles including managing foreign corporate client accounts, FX trading, options risk management, as well as serving as a senior project manager for the operations team. She maintained the “top contributor” designation there year after year.
In 2007, Pearl joined tradeMONSTER to assist in the retail brokerage platform build and was a key contributor to its on-time launch and success. She served as the Director of Operations to several high performance teams, such as Risk, Margins, Cashiering, AML / Fraud, and Account Opening to name a few.
Pearl holds a B.A. degree from DePaul University and is FINRA 7, 3, 4, 24, 55, and 63 licensed.
Alan Charach | Vice President – New York
Alan Charach has been appointed the VP of the New York branch for Najarian Family Office, LLC. Mr. Charach will oversee all business development in the Northeast. He will be working closely with the trading team on implementing trading strategies for all New York based clients while cultivating new relationships and maintaining current ones.
Alan’s most recent accomplishments, prior to joining Najarian Family Office, entailed managing multi-million dollar accounts at Merrill Lynch while supporting both clients and the teams’ portfolio managers. His proven results with creating portfolios using sophisticated options strategies and enhanced risk/reward solutions make him a competitive force in today’s market.
In 2012, he worked as an Associate Trader for Olympia Asset Management where he honed his skills in US equities and interest rate strategies. He also headed research analysis in interest rates and commodities, directly reporting to the lead portfolio manager. That year he completed his Series 7, and Series 63. Later while at Regal Securities Alan, specialized on building and leveraging corporate client relationships, implemented effective sales strategies from inception to completion.
From 2014-2015 he served as a consultant in the technology industry for multiple technology companies. Projects included creating a multi-functional digital accounting system for a gaming technology company, performing regular data analysis on revenue, EBITDA and EPS as well as overseeing website development and company graphics for small businesses.
In 2016, at David Lerner Associates, Alan served as VP of investments where he built new relationships through referral based strategies and operated the fixed income book with the Municipal Bond trading desk while obtaining at the same time his Series 65 and Real Estate license. His skills also include Bloomberg, R, STATA, MATLAB.
Alan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Georgia in Athens, where he became a member of the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity and the Georgia Ice Hockey team. He still participates in alumni events throughout the country. Alan enjoys playing golf and tennis in his free time. He is also active in numerous charities like the Susan G. Komen Cancer Research.
Arielle Choyce | Relationship Manager
As Relationship Manager, Arielle Choyce is dedicated to providing day-to-day support and coordination for Najarian Family Office clients. She gained experience for the role having most recently served as a Client Service Associate for UBS Financial Services, Inc.
Arielle is FINRA Series 7 and Series 66 licensed. She graduated from University of Wisconsin – Madison with a degree in English.