Ryan A. Hughes, MBA
Founder & Portfolio Manager
Education
M.B.A., UCLA Anderson School of Management
B.S., University of Southern California
Experience
UCLA Anderson – Finance Teaching Assistant
Morgan Stanley – Financial Advisor
U.S. Navy – Second Class Petty Officer
Professional Bio
Ryan A. Hughes is the Founder & Portfolio Manager at Bull Oak. Since launching the firm in 2014, Ryan has been named to InvestmentNews’ 40 Under 40, and Bull Oak has been recognized by Wealth Management magazine as one of the fastest-growing firms in the industry. He built the firm he would want to hire himself: independent, pragmatic, and data-driven, designed to simplify the most complex parts of clients’ financial lives.
Ryan brings experience from both the institutional and private-wealth sides of the industry, including equity research at Wedbush Securities and advisory roles at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab.
He is also a proud U.S. Navy veteran, having completed two deployments to the Persian Gulf as a member of the VBSS team aboard the USS Jarrett.
Ryan earned his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was a GAP Fellow, served as Chief Investment Officer of the Anderson Student Asset Management program, and received the J. Fred Weston Award for academic excellence in finance. He earned his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Personal Bio
Ryan lives in the Del Sur community of San Diego with his wife and their two children. When he’s not working, you’ll usually find him juggling youth sports schedules, keeping up with USC football, or trying (and failing) to convince his family that his music playlists are still relevant. Ryan was born and raised by his grandparents in Pueblo, CO. After graduating from high school in 2000, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the USS Jarrett, completing two deployments to the Persian Gulf. He served on the ship’s Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) team, conducting high-risk maritime boarding operations.
After separating from the Navy, Ryan attended the University of Southern California, where he studied business and entrepreneurship and came of age during the Pete Carroll era, a time when USC football was unavoidable, and optimism still existed in the financial system. His first job after graduation in 2008 was at Merrill Lynch, just as the Global Financial Crisis was unfolding. He later worked at Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, and Wedbush Securities long enough to know that while finance was the right field, the Wall Street culture wasn’t.
In 2012, Ryan left the industry to pursue an MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he immersed himself in academic finance and portfolio construction. The result was Bull Oak, founded in 2014 to build the kind of independent, fiduciary firm he would want to hire himself: thoughtful, disciplined, and free of the conventional Wall Street vibe.
