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 for more than $175 billion in client assets across institutional investors, RIAs, wealth managers, family offices, and intermediaries worldwide.

Chris rarely appears on podcasts, making this an uncommon opportunity to hear directly from one of the industry's most respected allocator voices.

Chris shares how BNY approaches manager research, portfolio construction, asset allocation, and private markets—and why the future of investing will be shaped as much by artificial intelligence as by traditional investment skill.

Topics include:

• How BNY evaluates nearly 900 investment strategies and builds its high-conviction manager list
• What separates exceptional asset managers from average ones 
• Why consistency often matters more than brilliance 
• The future of OCIO, manager research, and institutional due diligence 
• AI's impact on investment research, operations, and portfolio management 
• Active ETFs, model portfolios, and the evolution of wealth management 
• Democratizing private markets while managing liquidity risk 
• Building investment organizations that scale without sacrificing research quality

Whether you're an asset manager, allocator, investment consultant, family office, RIA, institutional investor, or finance student, this conversation offers a rare look inside the investment philosophy of one of the industry's leading CIOs.

If you enjoy conversations with the people behind investment decisions, subscribe for weekly interviews with CIOs, manager research leaders, consultants, endowments, foundations, pensions, family offices, and the investors shaping global capital markets.