Dakota Live! Podcast

On this episode of Dakota Live! , host Robert Morier sits down with Tim Yates, President & CEO of Commonfund OCIO , whose path to leading an $18 billion investment platform is anything but typical — he started out teaching Spanish and Italian at Fordham Prep in the Bronx. Tim shares how a rotational analyst role pulled him into private equity, what emerging markets investing in Latin America t...

On this episode of Dakota Live!, Robert Morier sits down with Chris Brimsek, Founder and Managing Partner of CAB Advisory, for a deep discussion on one of the most important—and underexplored—topics in private markets: how great investment firms are built. Chris advises founders and senior leadership teams across private equity, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure, private credit, and GP...

The RIA landscape is changing fast. Today’s top wealth advisors are doing far more than traditional portfolio management. They’re acting as investment committees, tax strategists, coaches, and long-term partners helping families navigate increasingly complex financial decisions. In this episode of dakota, we sit down with Fulcrum Capital’s Kathryn Fisher, Chief Wealth Strategist, and Hans Krippaeh...

Stephen Chase, Associate Director of Investments at Drexel University, joins host, Robert Morier to discuss how a three-person investment office oversees approximately $1.25 billion across the university's endowment and investment portfolio. In this conversation, Stephen shares his unconventional path from studying anthropology at Trinity College to helping manage one of Philadelphia's l...

What happens when you leave the conference stage and sit down with investors where they actually work? Over the past year, Dakota Live! has traveled the country, recording conversations with CIOs, investment office leaders, consultants, OCIOs, foundations, endowments, family offices, and institutional investors. This special episode brings together the most important themes, market observations, a...

Melody Koh, Partner at NextView Ventures, joins the Dakota Live Podcast to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping venture capital, startup building, company scaling, and the future of work. As both a seed-stage investor and the leader of NextView's AI and data initiatives, Melody offers a unique perspective on what separates winning founders from the rest in an AI-native economy. Fr...

What happens when one of the world’s largest asset managers starts rethinking portfolio construction in the age of AI? On this episode of Dakota Live!, Robert Morier sits down with Michael Gates, Managing Director and Head of Model Portfolio Solutions for the Americas within BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions platform. The conversation explores how BlackRock is thinking about: • Mo...

Tax used to sit downstream from the investment process. Today, it’s moving upstream. In this episode of Dakota Live!, Robert Morier sits down with Dave Sekula, CEO of GTM (Global Tax Management), to discuss how tax strategy, technology, operational complexity, and institutional investing are becoming increasingly intertwined. The conversation comes at a timely moment, following the SEC’s recent pr...

On this episode of the Dakota Live Podcast, we sit down with Andrew Deck, Vice President and Head of Alternative Investments at LPL Financial , alongside his colleague Matt Doyle, Head of Investment Due Diligence, for an inside look at how one of the largest advisor platforms in the country is thinking about alternatives, manager research, sourcing, and portfolio construction today. LPL Financial...

In this special on-the-road edition of the Dakota Live Podcast, host Robert Morier brings the show to Atlanta for a live recording at Georgia State University in front of students from GSU's Student Managed Investment Fund and Drexel University. Joining Robert on the podcast: Holly Sailers — Interim CFO and Comptroller, Georgia State University Foundation Markus Krygier — Co-Chief Investment...

Before something becomes an asset, a platform, or a strategy, it has to become a habit. And it's exactly why this conversation matters for allocators, investors, and operators alike. On this episode of Dakota Live, Robert Morier sits down with Chris Doody, founder of Piada Italian Street Food, and Lance Juhas, the company's CEO, to go inside one of the most disciplined growth stories in...

In a market where allocators are increasingly focused on healthcare innovation, growth equity discipline, and the role of operators in driving outcomes, this episode sits directly at the intersection. This conversation with Sal DeTrane of Empactful Capital extends a theme we’ve been hearing consistently from CIOs, OCIOs, and allocators across the Dakota Live platform: the next wave of value creati...

Join Dakota Live! as we sit down with senior leaders from one of the largest investment consultants in North America, Callan, for a deep dive into private markets, hedge funds, and their process behind manager selection. Ashley Kahn leads private equity manager research at Callan. Her work lives at that intersection of pattern recognition, judgment, and repetition, seeing enough deals to know what...

Join dakota Live! as we sit down with Jeff Croteau, Founder & CIO of Tide Cycle Resources, to discuss building durable portfolios, the evolution of the OCIO model, and why patience—not prediction—drives long-term success. We explore what it means to step away from a traditional institutional consulting career and launch a focused, high-conviction investment platform designed for families and f...

This episode starts as a parody. An April Fool’s take on private equity, financial media, and the way we position ourselves in the investment industry. It’s exaggerated. It’s intentional. And it might feel too familiar. Then we shift. Because behind the character is a real conversation about something that matters— how content is created, how differentiation actually works, and why most financial...

What does it look like to sit in the CIO seat? This episode of Dakota Live was recorded on campus at West Virginia University, bringing students directly into the room with institutional investors responsible for billions in capital. Rob Morier sits down with: Jim Bethea, CIO of the WVU Foundation Craig Slaughter, CIO of the West Virginia Investment Management Board Josh Hall, Dean of the WVU Busi...

Instead of sitting across from an allocator, this week we flip the table—and sit in the seat of an emerging manager building a firm from the ground up. In this conversation with Brandon Ladoff, Founder & Portfolio Manager of Denmark Capital, we explore what it actually looks like to launch a boutique investment firm in today’s market—where every decision mirrors the exact questions allocators...

What does it really take to back the next generation of investment managers? In this special live recording of the Dakota Live Podcast from Drexel University’s Boathouse Row, host Robert Morier moderates a rare discussion on GP seeding across three different asset classes—hedge funds, venture capital, and lower-middle-market private equity. While GP seeding is often discussed within a single asset...

In this episode of dakota Live!, we step into a space where venture capital meets operator realism. While we often sit with allocators and emerging manager gatekeepers, today we turn the lens toward the managers themselves — and examine how early-stage consumer investing mirrors the same discipline allocators demand in emerging manager due diligence. Robert Morier sits down with Sean Kelly and Chr...

In the latest episode of dakota live!, we step into a part of the market that rarely gets explained well — the mechanics of volatility trading. As equity markets move through higher dispersion, regime shifts, and increasingly systematic flows, some of the most interesting price discovery is happening in derivatives. Volatility isn’t just a hedge or a headline metric. It’s an asset shaped by positi...

In this special “On the Road” episode of the Dakota Live! Podcast, Robert Morier travels to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for a live CIO panel discussion on endowment management, private equity, private credit, asset allocation, and manager research & due diligence. Featuring: Rip Mecherle , CIO, University of Tennessee System ($1.8B endowment) Cathy Ulozas , CIO, Drexel University...

Retail and wealth management platforms inside large banks are increasing exposure to private markets —but not through hype, shortcuts, or “democratization” headlines. They’re doing it through institutional-grade manager research, governance, and due diligence . In this episode of Dakota Live , host Robert Morier sits down with Scott Lavelle , Managing Director and Head of Investment Advisor Resear...

In this episode of Dakota Live!, host Robert Morier sits down with Scott Schweighauser, Managing Partner of Borealis Strategic Capital Partners, for a wide-ranging conversation on GP seeding, hedge fund history, and why now is such a compelling moment to back emerging managers. Scott brings decades of experience across trading, fund-of-funds investing, and early-stage hedge fund seeding to unpack...

In this episode of the Dakota Live! Podcast , host Robert Morier welcomes back Chris Schelling for his second appearance on the show—and his first since joining Aksia . Aksia is one of the world’s leading alternatives research and portfolio advisory firms , advising on approximately $400+ billion across private equity, private credit, real assets, and hedge funds.  With deep institutional roots an...

In this episode of dakota live, host Robert Morier sits down with Stephanie Szymanski, Chief Investment Officer of Lakeview Capital Management, for a wide-ranging, practitioner-level conversation on how single-family offices actually invest. Stephanie pulls back the curtain on what it means to run portfolio construction inside a single-family office, covering how family office CIOs think different...