Jason Fertitta

Jason is currently Chief Executive Officer / Founding Partner of Americana Partners. Jason was a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Division for eleven years. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 after six years with Lehman Brothers High Net Worth Division. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Jason worked six years for Texas Direct. Jason serves on the Board of The Good Samaritan Foundation and Endowment and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Jason attended St. Edwards University in Austin.

Robert Wellington

Robert is currently a Managing and Founding Partner of Americana Partners. Robert was a Senior Vice President Private Wealth Advisor in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Division for eleven years. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 as an analyst, also in the Private Wealth Group. Robert holds a B.B.A. in Sociology with a certificate in Markets and Management from Duke University. He also was a four-year letter winner for the Duke Men’s Lacrosse team, which had three Final Four appearances during that time.

Securities offered through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Member FINRA/SIPC. Headquartered at 80 State Street, Albany, NY 12207. Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments and the Firm are not affiliated companies. Investments through PKS or the Firm are: NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED, MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPAL, NOT INSURED BY ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY.

David M. Darst, CFA®

David is currently the Chief Investment Officer for Americana Partners. David served for 17 years as a Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, with responsibility for Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy; was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group; and was founding Chairman of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Asset Allocation Committee. After 2014, he served for several years as Senior Advisor to and a member of the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 from Goldman Sachs, where he held Senior Management posts within the Equities Division and earlier, for six years as Resident Manager of their Private Bank in Zurich.

David is the Author of twelve books: (i) The Complete Bond Book (McGraw-Hill); (ii) The Handbook of the Bond and Money Markets (McGraw-Hill); (iii) The Art of Asset Allocation, Second Edition (McGraw-Hill); (iv) Mastering the Art of Asset Allocation (McGraw-Hill); (v) Benjamin Graham on Investing (McGraw-Hill); (vi) The Little Book that Saves Your Assets (John Wiley & Sons), which was ranked on the bestseller lists of The New York Times and Business Week; (vii) Portfolio Investment Opportunities in China (John Wiley & Sons); and (x) Portfolio Investment Opportunities in Precious Metals (John Wiley & Sons). His works have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, Korean, Italian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Romanian, and Vietnamese. Seapoint Books published David’s eleventh book in 2012 , Voyager 3, containing his creative writing, and in 2016, his twelfth book, Flim-Flam Flora, a children’s book coauthored with his daughter.

David appears as a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, FOX, PBS, and other television channels, and has contributed numerous articles to Barron’s Euromoney, The Money Manager, Forbes.com, The Yale Economic Review, and other publications. He has broadcast and written extensively on asset allocation in the Morgan Stanley biweekly Investment Strategy and Asset Allocation Commentary and in the Firm’s Wealth Management monthly publication, Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy Digest, the predecessors of which he launched in 1997.

David attended Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tennessee, graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, was awarded a BA degree in Economics from Yale University, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. David serves on the Investment Committee of the Phi Beta Kappa Foundation and the Advisory Boards of the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom and the Black Rock Arts Foundation. David has lectured extensively at Wharton, Columbia, INSEAD, and New York University Business Schools, and for nine years, David served as a visiting faculty member at Yale College, Yale School of Management, and Harvard Business School. In November 2011, David was inducted by Quinnipiac University in their Business Leaders Hall of Fame. David is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute.

Alex Zengo

Alex Zengo is the Chief Compliance Officer for Americana Partners. In this role, he leads our compliance organization, which is responsible for developing the compliance governance framework, and ensuring that risks generated by the business are measured, reviewed and monitored on an ongoing basis alongside our regulatory requirements.

Prior to joining Americana Partners, Alex worked at Morgan Stanley for more than 20 years where he recently served as an Executive Director and bank officer responsible for the firm’s operational risk coverage for Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Private Bank N.A.  Prior to this most recent role he served in various supervisory risk related roles in the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management organization.

Originally from Boston, Alex graduated from Boston College High School and Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, earning his B.A. in Political Science. He resides in The Woodlands, Texas with his wife Amy and their two children.

Securities offered through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Member FINRA/SIPC. Headquartered at 80 State Street, Albany, NY 12207. Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments and the Firm are not affiliated companies. Investments through PKS or the Firm are: NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED, MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPAL, NOT INSURED BY ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY.

Fatina Benjamin

Fatina is currently the Executive Director of Human Resources for Americana Partners. Prior to joining Americana Partners, Fatina was a Wealth Management Associate with Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Division since 2008. She has held various associate roles with Lehman Brothers, Vaughan Nelson, and Neuberger Berman over her 18 year career in the financial services field. Originally from New York, Fatina attended St. John’s University and received a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Houston. Fatina lives in Houston with her husband, Kirk and daughter, McKenzie.

Shannon Griffin

Shannon is the Executive Director / Office Management & Technology for Americana Partners, and prior to joining the firm was a Senior Wealth Management Associate with Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management for 11 years. Shannon has a strong operational background with over 25 years professional experience in financial services including Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Ameritrade, and First Southwest Company. She is a native Houstonian and attended the American University of Paris and University of Houston.

George Biggs

George is currently the Executive Director of Sales and Business Development for Americana Partners and joins the company after over twenty years with Morgan Stanley where he was most recently the Market Manager overseeing several Houston branches. An additional and exciting part of his tenure in this role included recognizing the growth opportunities available in the Latin American market, and he was responsible for recruiting 18 Latin American focused advisors to Morgan Stanley’s downtown branch.

While at Morgan Stanley, George also worked in the role of Chief Operating Officer of the central region which consisted of fifteen states and included over 2,000 financial advisors and 4,000 total employees and served in this capacity for 5 years.

A lifetime Houstonian, George lives with his wife of 23 years, Katherine and they have two adult children, Braden and Piper. George is a member of The Houston Racquet Club and has served several terms on the Health and Fitness Committee, and enjoys travel, scuba diving, skiing, and cooking.

Benjamin Athens

Ben is currently a Vice President/Private Wealth Advisor at Americana Partners.  Prior to joining Americana in April 2019, he was an Analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management division for five years. Ben recently earned his M.B.A. from Rice University, where he graduated as a Jones Scholar. He received a B.B.A. from the Business Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin. In his free time Ben enjoys playing golf, spending time with friends and family, and volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Gabe Cassell

Gabe is currently a Vice President/Private Wealth Advisor with Americana Partners. Gabe was a Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley since 2017. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Gabe worked in sales management for 5 years. He earned a B.S. degree from Stephen F. Austin State University where he also lettered two years for the Baseball team.

Securities offered through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Member FINRA/SIPC. Headquartered at 80 State Street, Albany, NY 12207. Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments and the Firm are not affiliated companies. Investments through PKS or the Firm are: NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED, MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPAL, NOT INSURED BY ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY.

Ben Davidson

Ben Davidson comes to us from JP Morgan, where he began as an analyst on the Mortgage Solutions team and was most recently named an Associate/Mortgage Specialist. Ben began his education at the University of South Carolina and graduated with a B.B.A in Finance from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Britton Daugbjerg

Britton Daugbjerg is an Associate in Private Wealth Services with Americana Partners. Britton started with the firm in the summer of 2022 as an intern and continued working for Americana Partners through her last year of undergrad.  She earned her Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University in May of 2023 with a major in Economics and a minor in Business Administration.  Originally from Dallas, Britton enjoys volunteering with DKMS, spending time outdoors with her friends and family, and getting to know the Houston area. 

Tamara Dupont

Tamara joined Americana Partners in October 2022 as an Associate / Private Wealth Services and is dedicated to enhancing the client experience by working closely with clients to take care of their administrative and servicing needs. She began her career in financial services in 2005, focusing on assisting clients in holistic wealth planning strategies, and holds the Series 7, 66, and 3 licenses, and is also a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy.

Tamara received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston, and she and her husband Jean-Christophe, along with their son Jacques, enjoy spending time exploring the outdoors.

Securities offered through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, Member FINRA/SIPC. Headquartered at 80 State Street, Albany, NY 12207. Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments and the Firm are not affiliated companies. Investments through PKS or the Firm are: NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED, MAY LOSE VALUE, INCLUDING LOSS OF PRINCIPAL, NOT INSURED BY ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY.

Bonnie Green

Bonnie Green is currently an Associate, Office Management & Technology for Americana Partners.  Prior to joining Americana, Bonnie was a contract employee in Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management division, assisting with Investment Banking accounts. She has worked for Southwestern Savings Association as a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Processor, as well as held various positions in the Electronic Data Systems department of Continental Airlines. Bonnie holds her B.B.A in Business Administration from Texas Southern University.

Daniel Harrison

Daniel Harrison was previously with Avalon Advisors. He has a B.B.A in Finance from TCU and is involved with Champions for Children benefiting Texas Children’s Hospital. In addition to being an Eagle Scout, Daniel enjoys traveling, hunting, fishing, and snow skiing.

Bobby Jones

Bobby is currently a Managing Director/Private Wealth Advisor with Americana Partners. Prior to joining Americana, Bobby was Chief Investment Officer for a Texas-based family office. His prior work experience include T.A. McKay & Co., a distressed credit hedge fund, Morgan Stanley, and the United States Department of the Treasury. He graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.B.A. and earned an M.B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin.