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The University of Tennessee

College of Business Administration

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Paul Castagna - 2008 Distinguished Alumnus

Paul Castagna Paul Castagna is a longstanding member of the college’s Advisory Council to the Dean, a group which is instrumental in shaping the financial strategy and overall strategic direction of UT's College of Business Administration.

Founder of Golden Gate Financial Group, a securities broker dealer and registered investment advisor, Castagna has made his mark on the insurance, securities, and financial planning industries.

After graduating from the College of Business Administration in 1969, Castagna received his MBA from Iona College. He entered the Corporate Management Training program at Equitable Life Assurance Company, working on sales force productivity and recruitment research. His team's research developed financial models of sales force performance and recruiting that dramatically improved the company.

As district sales manager for Equitable, Castagna built one of the largest district sales organizations in the country. He led all managers in the country for two straight years and won the coveted president’s trophy.

Promoted to agency manager in 1977, Castagna continued to garner company and industry honors for his performance.  He was a pioneer in the insurance industry’s entre into the field of financial planning, developing and implementing financial planning marketing and training systems with the use of computer technology.

Castagna retired from Equitable at age 47 and started Golden Gate Financial Group, a securities broker dealer and investment advising company. Golden Gate developed statistical trading systems for managing client accounts. Using these proprietary trading systems, Golden Gate profitably guided clients through the bear market in 2000-2002. He sold his interest in the asset management business in 2003 but kept his portfolio management team together to manage his own account. Castagna lives in San Francisco, CA.