Who We Are

Daniel is a Southern California native, originally from Fullerton in Orange County. A graduate of Whittier College with a History and Political Science degree, Daniel began his career in Geneva, Switzerland working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Starting in September 2001, he worked as a wealth manager for Edward Jones Investments and, in 2005, founded his first investment management company, Redwood Investments. From Redwood Investments’ success grew the Golden State family of companies; firms built to empower fellow advisors through supported independence, asset management, and practice ownership.

As well as acting as the personal Chief Financial Officer for successful families across the country, he serves as Chief Executive Officer of Golden State and has over 20 years of industry experience. He was recently named a Top 40 Financial Advisor Under 40 by Investment News. He is a private pilot with a master’s degree in Theology, and lives with his wife Jennifer and their four children on a family farm near Cody, Wyoming.

John is a Southern California native, born in San Diego and raised in South Orange County. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, John began his career in financial services as an Internal Wholesaler for Metlife Investors in 2001. He was soon promoted to External Wholesaler and has worked with financial advisors in Philadelphia, New York City, and Los Angeles.

John is Founder and President for Golden State. In addition to his role as a wealth manager, John oversees both firm growth and advisor growth initiatives. He recognizes opportunities to work with and help advisors achieve their vision, paying close attention to their personal and business goals. From the initial recruiting process, to completing a successful transition, and forward-looking business planning, John remains attentive to each member of the Golden State team.

John lives with his wife Jennifer and son Jayden in Long Beach, CA. In his free time, he enjoys surfing, skiing, mountain biking and sailing. He is also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Alumni association, the National Eagle Scout Association, and the Long Beach Yacht Club.

Patrick finds himself wearing many hats as both the Golden State Chief Compliance Officer and as a talented transitions expert. Levelheaded with a naturally calm demeanor, Patrick is happy to act as an open ear and sounding board for any anxious advisor. Patrick’s specialty is in providing advisors joining Golden State with personalized transition support. Preforming dozens of successful transitions across the Golden State universe, he has built a knowledge base extremely useful to an advisor looking for a smooth and efficient transition. Experienced assisting with transitions from wirehouses, broker-dealers and banks including Raymond James, Wells Fargo, LPL Financial, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Merrill Lynch to name a few, Patrick has built a strong repertoire of processes to conduct these seemingly effortless transitions. While each advisor and each transition is unique, Patrick has an uncanny way of connecting with advisors and representing their interests with clients. Patrick believes an advisor should spend their time strengthening their client relationships and building a successful practice, while, at full advisor direction, he and his team proudly address the time-consuming operations necessary to facilitate a successful transition.

Patrick and his family live in Los Angeles, CA. While travel isn’t as easy now with a toddler in tow, travel and food are some of his greatest passions. If not amid supporting an advisor transition, it isn’t uncommon to hear he has set flight for some distant location across the globe. Patrick also devotes much of his time and energy in supporting The Foundation Fighting Blindness, helping to build a social network for anyone impacted by this invisible disease.

Kyle serves as the company’s Chief Investment Officer and oversees the asset management operations. He began his career in 2005 working for Investors Bank & Trust and State Street where he focused on institutional investing. Kyle later partnered with Redwood Investments where he continues to practice wealth management. Shortly thereafter, he assumed the additional role with Golden State. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Finance with a minor in Economics.

Living on the Mendocino Coast in which he is a 4th generation native with his family, Kyle enjoys spending time with his two children and their many activities, including golfing and mountain biking.

Jennifer serves as Golden State’s Chief Marketing Officer and is responsible for all marketing efforts for the company. Born and raised in Los Angeles county, Jennifer has spent over 20 years in financial services between Orange County , CA and New York City.

Before joining Golden State in 2019, Jennifer was Vice President of Marketing for Griffin Capital where she was responsible for all marketing and public relations efforts for the parent company as well as the distribution arm for their alternative investments. Prior to her role at Griffin Capital, Jennifer spent nearly 10 years in New York City supporting annuity distribution for AXA Equitable and MetLife. Serving as Assistant Vice President at AXA Equitable, Jennifer was responsible for developing and merchandising marketing material for new and existing products. She played a similar role at MetLife, but also focused two years of her tenure on global brand and advertising efforts during a key transitional time for the company. She boasts a wealth of brand, public relations and marketing knowledge within the financial services industry and has a knack for creating collaborative team environments.

Jennifer lives with her husband John and son Jayden in Long Beach, CA. When not spending time on the water with family, she enjoys painting and teaching her son appreciation for art. She is a member of the Long Beach Yacht Club and Long Beach Museum of Art.

Joining Team Golden State Summer of 2020, Matt brought with him 15+ years experience in the advertising and marketing industry. While studying at Cal State Fullerton for his degree in Criminal Justice, he also worked in the Automotive Publishing Business. After graduating in 2005, Matt was offered a position as Marketing & Events Manager and served in that role for a short time at Primedia Publishing. From there, he was hired as an Account Executive with The Los Angeles Times and built a successful career, which spanned 15 years. He served as Executive Director of Entertainment Advertising for his last 2 years, managing the company’s #1 category by revenue.

Matt’s role at Golden State is Executive Vice President, Business Strategy. He works with Advisors on a daily basis, helping them meet or exceed the needs of their clients. His focus for Golden State is to market tools, create efficiencies and collaborate with Advisors putting them at the cutting edge of the industry for their clients. He prides himself on problem solving and finding solutions and emphasizes these traits to achieve successful outcomes.

Matt lives with his wife Melissa and two daughters in Brea, CA. He enjoys spending time with his family, going to the beach, building and restoring classic cars, and working on home improvement projects.

Eric Ripley serves as Executive Vice President of Business Development focusing on advisor recruiting. He communicates the benefits and value of joining the Golden State community and sets the path for new recruits to seek independence, transparency and efficient business strategies.

Eric is a long-standing financial industry veteran with nearly 20 years of experience and has held various key positions at LPL Financial, where his most recent roles were Senior Core Internal Regional Director and Vice President Relationship Manager. He also served as Golden State’s dedicated relationship manager since 2013, giving him a thorough understanding of the company, its operations and its mission, knowledge critical to his position as principal relationship manager.

Eric resides in San Diego where you’ll find him surfing the local breaks or heading out of town on his next travel adventure. Aside from the coastline, he enjoys being in San Diego because it keeps him close to family.

Jill joined Golden State in 2016 to assist with advisor transitions and on-boarding. During her tenure, she took on additional compliance responsibilities. Jill now serves as the Transition and Administrative Director and oversees all transitions. While moving multi-million-dollar books of business during the onboarding process, Jill coordinates the necessary activity between advisors, clients and custodian back office personnel to ensures a smooth, hassle-free experience. Additionally, Jill works directly with the firm’s advisors on issues relating to compliance oversight, regulatory reviews and audits.

Prior to joining Golden State, Jill traveled a unique career path that includes Executive Assistant to the President of Zaro’s Bread Basket in New York City and Sous Chef for a Sodexo Marriott corporate dining facility. As an active volunteer, she served as an executive board member for seven years in the PTA, ending her tenure as president and served on the executive board of the Temecula Valley Time Machine, a youth running club. Throughout her career, Jill developed and strengthened her commitment to customer service. Jill received her Culinary Arts diploma from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York and her BS in Social Sciences from California Polytechnic State University.

Jill resides in Orange County, California and when not working, she enjoys time with her family. Food still remains a huge passion and she is an avid and adventurous cook. Friends prefer her kitchen to restaurants! She also loves to knit and has many projects going at once.

Leigh Jeter joined Golden State in October 2020 in dual role of Wealth Manager and Compliance and Administration Manager. With over 25 years of industry experience with firms such as Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab, Leigh brings with her a solid book of business and a wealth of experience to this brand-new role. While she continues working with her clients, her background in Branch Management, Operations and Compliance brings added value to assist with the day-to-day compliance and administration needs at Golden State.

Leigh started her career in 1995 after graduating with a degree in finance. She began as a financial advisor with Dean Witter (before it became Morgan Stanley) and had the privilege of training at the World Trade Center in New York City. In 2003, she relocated to Monterey, CA, where she still resides, and moved into operations, compliance and management roles with Morgan Stanley and then UBS. In 2011, Leigh took an opportunity to break away from the wirehouses to work with a regional CPA/TPA/Wealth Management group followed by the role of Assistant Branch Manager with Hilltop Securities Inc (formerly Southwest Securities/ML Stern) several years later.

In Leigh’s spare time, she enjoys traveling with her husband Wes and daughter Emilee. Leigh enjoys playing competitive tennis, skiing with her family, and creating stained glass art projects with her daughter. She is currently the board president for the Animal Friends Rescue Project and a committee member for the Salinas Animal Shelter. She currently has three Great Pyrenees Mountain dogs.

Clint joined Golden State in 2015 during an integral time of the company’s growth. He has supported the firm in many capacities and was promoted to Systems Manager in 2020. He focuses on supervision of internal computer related-activities, information security and continually ensures hardware and software meet industry and FINRA standards. Additionally, he oversees client billing and advisor payroll.

During his tenure at Golden State, Clint completed his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration at California State University, Fullerton in 2018. After studying an additional two years at St. Gregory the Great Seminary, he earned a second degree, Bachelor of Philosophy in 2020. His hometown is in Eureka, California and now resides in Powell, Wyoming.

When not working, Clint spends his time around the Wyoming landscape where he cycles, runs, and skis. He also takes his computer skills to a charitable level and helps local Catholic parishes build their websites.

Susan Broxon serves of Administrative Assistant for Golden State. She joined the firm in 2013 and has assumed increased responsibilities over the years. Her duties include home office management, accounting and advisor support as well as assisting in transitions.

Prior to Golden State, Susan served as a recruiter and placed individuals for employment. She also spent time in human resources acting as Employee Relations Consultant for Union Bank Corporate in San Francisco.

When not in the office, Susan enjoys taking walks on the beach and soaking in the southern California sun. She is an avid swimmer and writes fiction and non-fiction stories. In fact, she has been published! Her volunteer time has been spent caring for elderly and helping the homeless.