We’re kicking off 2026 the same way many investors are setting their New Year’s resolutions: by going straight to the source.
In our first episode of the new year, Dakota Live goes on site to SEI’s headquarters in Oaks, Pennsylvania to sit down with Ryan Hicke, CEO of SEI Investments (NASDAQ: SEIC).
These on-location CEO episodes consistently generate the strongest engagement across our audience of allocators, asset managers, advisors, and institutional sales professionals—and this one delivers on every front.
What This Episode Covers (and Why It Matters in 2026)
As a publicly traded, global financial services firm operating at the intersection of asset management, technology, operations, and advice, SEI offers a unique lens on where the industry is headed. In this wide-ranging conversation, Ryan Hicke and his colleagues Michael Lane, Head of Asset Management and Sean Lawlor, Head of Strategic Growth Initiatives share how SEI is thinking about:

• Growth vs. Risk: Why SEI focuses on accelerating good outcomes rather than merely avoiding bad ones
  
  
• Culture as Strategy: How SEI’s open, meritocratic culture drives innovation and accountability
  
  
• Private Markets & Alternatives: What the future portfolio really looks like beyond the traditional 60/40
  
  
• Tokenization, AI, and Technology: Why SEI wants a “courtside seat” to emerging technologies instead of watching from the sidelines
  
  
• Stratos Wealth Acquisition: How integrating advice reshapes SEI’s long-term strategy across administration, asset management, and client outcomes
  
  
• Public Company Discipline: Balancing quarterly earnings pressure with long-term shareholder value creation
  
  
• Leadership in a Changing Market: What it actually means to lead through complexity, regulation, and rapid industry change
  
  

This is not a headline-driven discussion. It’s a candid look at how a public company CEO thinks about decision-making, capital allocation, talent, and culture when the stakes are real and the time horizon matters.
A New Year Perspective from the C-Suite
We close the episode with a New Year reflection—professional and personal—on leadership, judgment, balance, and what it means to build durable organizations in a world that rewards speed but punishes shortsightedness.
If your 2026 resolution includes:

• Understanding how publicly traded investment firms think strategically
  
  
• Gaining insight into where asset management, alternatives, and advice are converging
  
  
• Learning how CEOs actually weigh growth, risk, and culture behind closed doors
  
  

This episode is for you.

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, risk, character, and relationship-driven decision-making—the things that actually matter when capital is on the line.
Joining the conversation:

• Dave Morehead, Chief Investment Officer, Baylor University
  
  
• Renee Hanna, Managing Director of Investments, Baylor University
  
  
• Chris Dion, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Brockenbrough
  
  
• Michael Holmberg, Senior Portfolio Manager, Neuberger Berman
  
  

Together, they explore how real investment decisions are made—not in theory, but in practice.
What this episode covers

• How institutional investors think about risk, conviction, and portfolio construction
  
  
• Why relationships and trust are competitive advantages in manager selection
  
  
• The role of character in underwriting GPs, OCIOs, and long-term partners
  
  
• Emerging managers vs. scale managers: where alpha really comes from
  
  
• Why Baylor has avoided private credit—and what that says about discipline
  
  
• How allocators collaborate with one another while still competing
  
  
• What “wearing risk” actually means inside an investment office
  
  
• Advice for students entering asset management, investing, and finance careers
  
  

The episode opens with personal travel stories—missed flights, first road trips, international misadventures—that set the tone for a broader theme: learning happens on the road, through experience, mistakes, and shared perspective. From there, the conversation moves deep into the realities of endowment management, OCIO partnerships, and strategic alignment between LPs and GPs.
This recording is also part of an experiential learning initiative that brought Drexel University students to Baylor through a competitive writing contest, giving them firsthand exposure to institutional investing, allocator thinking, and professional dialogue in action.
If you’re interested in:

• Institutional investing
  
  
• Endowments and foundations
  
  
• Manager research and due diligence
  
  
• OCIO models
  
  
• Private markets and portfolio construction
  
  
• Teaching finance through real-world experience
  
  

…this episode offers a rare, candid look inside how thoughtful investors think, collaborate, and lead.
Recorded live at Baylor University | Waco, Texas.
Part of the On the Road series.

In this episode of dakota live!, Robert Morier welcomes Scott Perry, Partner and Head of OCIO Portfolio Strategy at NEPC, one of the largest investment consulting firms in the industry.

Scott brings nearly two decades of institutional experience and a candid perspective on how the OCIO model is evolving — from portfolio construction and liquidity management to alignment of incentives, pacing, and risk.

We cover what it really takes to be an effective discretionary partner in a world defined by complexity, compressed alpha, and a rising demand for private markets access.

Scott breaks down NEPC’s “secret sauce,” including second-level thinking, cross-asset research collaboration, 250-point due-diligence checklists, and the importance of doing the “dirty work” — the legal, operational, fiduciary, and back-office responsibilities that clients often underestimate.

We also dive into the strategic acquisition wave sweeping the investment landscape. Scott offers an inside look at NEPC’s partnership with Hightower, why the RIA channel represents a major growth opportunity, and how private market capabilities and model portfolios will increasingly blur the lines between institutional and wealth.

And, because relationships are still the game behind the game, we talk basketball. NEPC’s legendary Friday-morning runs, the roots of the Year Up Charity Tournament, and how the same court-sense — knowing when to pass, when to take the shot, and how to read the room — translates into durable client partnerships and long-term trust.

Topics Covered:
• OCIO evolution and what institutions should look for in a partner
• Democratizing the endowment model — and why access still matters
• How NEPC evaluates managers (and why attribution beats storytelling)
• Strategic acquisitions & the Hightower partnership
• Private markets pacing, venture vs. buyout dispersion, and niche lending
• The rise of active ETFs and the future of manager-client alignment
• Relationship building, committee dynamics, and managing emotion

Whether you’re a CIO, allocator, manager, RIA, or an emerging professional in the field, Scott offers one of the clearest views into how OCIO decisions get made — and how the industry is changing in real time.

Watch, learn, and subscribe for more insights from the people shaping institutional investing.