Karan Sood, a founder of Vest in 2012 and the firm’s CEO, is responsible for product development and serves as a portfolio manager.

With his patent application in 2012, Mr. Sood paved the way for Target Outcome (aka “defined outcome” or “outcome-oriented”) investments, registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, that use FLEX options to deliver targeted payoffs. He went on to build the first Target Outcome buffer index and buffer mutual fund in 2016. Mr. Sood continues to lead the industry—advancing the development, execution and regulatory framework for derivatives-based investment solutions for asset management, retirement and insurance.

Mr. Sood has over 15 years of experience in derivative-based investment strategy design and trading. Prior to founding Vest, he worked at ProShares in Washington, DC, and Barclays Capital in New York and London. As a vice president for Barclays, he was responsible for using derivatives to design structured investment strategies and solutions for their institutional clients in the Americas and Europe.

Mr. Sood received a master’s degree in decision sciences and operations research from London School of Economics & Political Science. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.