The people behind Pernas Capital.

Deiya Pernas, CFA

Co-Chief Investment Officer & Analyst

Deiya has over a decade of experience in investment management. He began his career as an analyst in Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division before joining The Bahnsen Group, a boutique wealth management firm in Newport Beach, California, as a founding team member. He became a partner in 2017 and later served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer, overseeing the team responsible for stock selection, portfolio construction, and trading. During his tenure, the firm grew assets under management from $500 million to more than $3.5 billion. He left in 2022 to found Pernas Research and later co-founded Pernas Capital in 2026. Deiya is a U.S. Air Force veteran, and his interests include golf, poker, and chess.

EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley — BA Economics

Dean Pernas

Co-Chief Investment Officer & Analyst

Dean is a chemical engineer by training and first worked at Procter & Gamble and Schlumberger before joining Monsanto/Bayer as Lead Production Engineer at a U.S. manufacturing site from 2016 to 2020. His work focused on three-phase reactors with nonlinear dynamics — concepts he believes have strong parallels to financial markets. Dean left chemical engineering in June 2020 to pursue investing full-time, later co-founding Pernas Research with Deiya and Pernas Capital in 2026. His interests include tennis, chess, and going on safaris.

EducationUniversity of California, Davis — BS Chemical Engineering

Stiles McCauley

Analyst

Stiles brings over a decade of experience in C#, Python, T-SQL, and platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Snowflake. He spent seven years at Meyers Research, followed by five years at Zonda, where he advanced to Director of Software Engineering. His work spans expanding alternative-data capabilities, driving AI-based workflow optimizations, and contributing thematic research. Outside of work, he enjoys golf, fishing, and spending time with his family.

EducationTulane University — BA Economics