Foundation Investment Hires, Hightower, Search Updates, Pension Commitments, Fundraising Updates

In this week’s Dakota Fundraising News Podcast, Chad Oviatt joins First National Bank as CIO, Bola Olusanya is named CIO at MacArthur Foundation, and Sean Olesen heads to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Hightower Advisors makes its first 2025 deal with a strategic investment in $3.8B Lindbrook Capital, marking the final transaction under outgoing CEO Bob Oros, while Raymond James adds a $450M UBS breakaway team, and MPact Capital launches in Charlotte with a digital asset-backed impact strategy. On the institutional side, IL SURS is gathering info for diversifying strategies, Manchester approved a shift toward equities, and Kern County allocated $150M each to securitized strategies from Schroder and Guggenheim, while also investing $150M with Chilton Capital. Minnesota SBI made over $900M in commitments across Advent, Blackstone, TA Realty, TPG, and ECP, and Chicago Teachers and Louisiana School Employees’ also reported new private market allocations. Meanwhile, BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners eyes a $10B raise, DFJ Growth closed $1.2B, and Crestline wrapped up its Direct Lending Fund IV with $3.5B.Tired of fragmented data slowing you down? Book a demo of Dakota Research to centralize critical investment data and intelligence to simplify your decision-making process.