Dakota Live! Podcast

Is a traditional background in high finance, big tech, or startups required to break into venture capital? The short answer is no. Maddi Holman is living proof of that.

In today’s episode of the Dakota Live! podcast, Maddi Holman, Co-Founder of Daring Ventures and host of the Let’s Be Heard podcast, sits down with Robert Morier to discuss her unique entrance into venture capital.

Daring Ventures is an NYC-...

What does it take to earn a place in a portfolio when the default answer is no?

For Chip Caravati and Chris Dion of Brockenbrough, selectivity is not simply a feature of manager research. It shapes the way the firm allocates capital, builds portfolios, chooses partners, and thinks about its own business.

In this episode of Dakota Live!, Chip, Brockenbrough’s Chief Investment Officer, and Chris, Co-Chief Investme...

What does it actually take for a private real estate manager to earn an institutional allocation?

In this episode of the Dakota Live Podcast, host Robert Morier sits down with Liz Bell, Managing Director and Co-Head of Real Estate at Hamilton Lane, for an inside look at how institutional investors evaluate real estate managers, underwrite opportunities, manage risk, and make investment decisions.

Liz takes us behind the investment co...

Erwin Thompson, CEO of EQT Infrastructure Company (EQIC) and 17-year EQT veteran, joins Robert Morier on Dakota Live! to break down the AI data center and power build-out, a capital expenditure wave that hyperscalers are expected to push past $4–5 trillion by 2030.

Erwin explains why the U.S. is adding an estimated 15–20 gigawatts of data center demand a year against a fraction of that in new supply, why hyperscalers are...

Most CIO conversations happen years after a transition is finished, or years before one starts. This one happens in the middle of it.

Trevor Graham was named Co-Chief Investment Officer of TIFF Investment Management in 2026 as part of a planned leadership transition alongside longtime CIO Jay Willoughby. In this episode, he walks Robert Morier through a succession plan as it unfolds in real time: why a lengthy handoff is a gift rath...

GP seeding is one of the least understood corners of private equity — and one of the fastest growing.

In this episode of Dakota Live, Robert Morier sits down with Eric Zoller, Co-Founder and CEO of Taproot Capital, to break down how first-time funds and spin-out managers actually get launched, capitalized, and raised.

Eric founded SixPoint Partners in 2007, built it into one of the largest independent fund placement advisors in...

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 Busine...

In this special On the Road episode, we travel to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, to record a live, on-campus conversation with some of the most thoughtful allocators and investment leaders in the institutional investment world.

Hosted from Baylor’s campus, this episode brings together endowment leadership, OCIOs, asset managers, and students for a wide-ranging discussion on long-term investing, manager research, ris...

In this special episode of the Dakota Live! Podcast, host Robert Morier takes the show back on the road to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he sits down with Jim Dunn, Chief Executive Officer of Verger Capital Management.
From his beginnings as a first-generation college graduate and collegiate soccer goalie to leading one of the most respected OCIO firms in the country, Jim shares how formative experiences in athletics, lif...

Every allocator says they're looking for great investors.

Jason Howard argues they're actually looking for something else.

In this conversation, the founder of New Catalyst Strategic Partners introduces an idea that deserves far more attention in institutional investing: fundability.

Some investors generate exceptional returns but never build enduring firms. Others create organizations that attract capital for decades. The difference ...

Private markets are moving deeper into wealth management. But access is only part of the equation.

The harder questions are: Which managers should you invest with? How should you construct a private markets portfolio? And when does a fund of funds actually justify another layer of fees?

On this episode of Dakota Live!, Robert Morier sits down with Samir Kaji, Co-Founder and CEO of Allocate, to discuss the rapidly changing intersectio...

Few investment leaders have spent more than three decades selecting, evaluating, and overseeing the world's best investment managers. Even fewer have done it while leading one of the industry's largest multi-asset investment platforms.

In this special episode of dakota live!, Robert Morier sits down with Chris Vella, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of BNY Advisors, who oversees an investment organization responsible f...

The lines between institutional investing and wealth management are disappearing.

In this episode of Dakota Live, Robert Morier sits down with Dhruv Maniktala, CFA, Chief Investment Officer and Partner at True North Advisors and CIO of Western Alternative Strategies, to discuss how a nearly $6 billion wealth management platform evaluates private markets, constructs institutional-quality portfolios, and sources differentiated investm...

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 taught him about risk and currenc...

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 solutions. His work focu...

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 Krippaehne, Director of Inv...

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 leading university endowments.

We explore how qu...

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, and portfolio discussions from th...

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. From evaluating startup teams and identifyi...