Meet John Gesek, Founder of Optimus Capital Advisors
This Q&A interview with John Gesek shares a look into the origins of Optimus Capital Advisors, what it takes to weather recessions (from an asset allocation perspective), and a deeper window into its founder's journey, too.
Q: What’s your professional background?
Since leaving college, my professional background has been very diverse. The first ten years were spent playing professional football in the NFL with the Raiders, Cowboys and Redskins (Commanders). My post-football career involved ownership of Ace Hardware stores in the Dallas area and ventures in commercial real estate development, as well as a commercial cleaning company.
In 2002 I made the decision to start divesting of the businesses and real estate investments to focus on pursuing a career in wealth management. In 2008 I started my own wealth management firm, Optimus Capital Advisors, to serve families and small institutions.
Q: What brought you to creating Optimus Capital Advisors?
I had worked into a partnership with the company I was working for and after six years it was apparent we had grown apart philosophically and were no longer working as a team. It felt like the best thing was to pursue my own career in order to maintain our friendship. I am happy that my former business parter has been successful and we still have a close friendship.
Q: You’ve weathered some serious storms in the markets for your clients. What type of attitude and strategies are important for clients to know for weathering difficult times like these?
Challenging times in the markets, like we’ve seen in 2022, reinforce why we follow a disciplined approach to asset management. Making sure that we understand what is important to our clients and that their investment portfolios align with those desires. This year is especially difficult for many people, especially retirees, because of the steep corrections experienced in the equity and fixed income markets, coupled with high inflation.
Difficult years like we are experiencing is why we build diversified, multi-asset, risk-based portfolios that include both growth and income elements. By monitoring and adjusting the allocation strategically we feel we can capture the best of both while taking only the amount of risk necessary to meet the clients objectives.
Q: What type of client have you found you tend to work best with?
We tend to work with a small number of people with diverse backgrounds, professions, careers, and ages. They tend to share a commitment to preparation and a desire to spend their time doing the things that are most important to them and their families. Integrity and trust tend to be very important to our clients since they are typically not micro-managers and delegate a great deal of responsibility to us.
Q: What do you think makes your work with Optimus stand apart from others in the space?
There are three areas I think that make us different than many firms; being a fiduciary, independence, and embracing that there are things we can control and some that are out of our control - this equates to setting realistic expectations.
Q: What are you most proud of, professionally and personally?
It is always nice to receive affirmation that what you are doing professionally is valued and we recently received recognition locally for being voted the top wealth management firm by a local newspaper. It’s nice because most of the “Best Of” lists are really just marketing gimmicks to raise ad revenue. But we didn’t know anything about this until we were notified we won.
Personally, I am really proud that our family values learning and education, supports each other unconditionally, and commits to spending time together.
Q: How are you involved in the community?
As a local business owner for the last 25 years it seems that we have supported everything in the community at one time or another. Currently, I am focused on serving in the benevolence ministry at our church and on the Board of Directors at Happy Hill Farm, a children's home and school serving disadvantaged kids 5 to 18 years old in Granbury, Texas.
Q: How can folks get in touch with you to learn more about working together?
They can find information and set up a call or meeting on my website at www.optimusca.com or call me at 972-745-7704.
