Inside SEI: New Year, New Mandate | A 2026 CEO Conversation with Ryan Hicke

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.