Meet the Dakota Team

Dan has been with Dakota since 2008 and serves as President, overseeing day-to-day operations, product development, and sales strategy for all partner engagements. Beyond leadership, Dan remains an active member of the investment sales team, maintaining direct relationships with institutional consultants, independent broker-dealers, banks, and RIAs. He brings deep experience in both capital raising and compliance, having managed the firm's regulatory infrastructure alongside its commercial growth. Dan brings the operational rigor that keeps The Dakota Way functioning at scale — building systems, setting standards, and holding the team accountable to the process every day.

Jerry Kling brings decades of the highest-level institutional investment experience to Dakota. He is the Co-Founder and former Managing Director of CBRE Clarion Real Assets Securities, one of the leading real asset securities investment management firms in the world, where he served as a Principal and member of the Management Committee. Jerry's career spans investment banking in New York in the 1980s through senior leadership at one of the most prominent institutional investment firms in the country. As Vice Chairman, Jerry brings strategic guidance, institutional relationships, and industry gravitas that serves as a significant asset for Dakota's most senior partner engagements.

Tracy Rogers serves as Chief Administrative Officer, overseeing the organizational and human capital infrastructure that allows Dakota's sales team to operate at full capacity. With a background spanning financial services, healthcare operations, and human resources leadership, Tracy brings a rare combination of operational depth and people-first leadership. She has served in SVP and Chief Integration Officer roles at major health systems and in senior HR leadership at leading organizations, giving her the institutional experience to build and sustain the kind of high-performance culture Dakota is known for. Tracy is an essential force behind Dakota's team stability, career development philosophy, and operational excellence.

Tim Brown serves as Dakota's Chief Financial Officer, overseeing the firm's financial operations, reporting, and strategic financial planning across both the investment sales and marketplace businesses. As Dakota has grown from a boutique fundraising firm into a multi-product data and services platform, Tim has been a steady hand ensuring the financial infrastructure keeps pace with the firm's ambitions. His role touches every dimension of Dakota's business — from managing partner economics and compliance cost structures to supporting the capital allocation decisions that allow the firm to invest in its technology, data, and team.

Catherine Begier rose through Dakota from Marketing Associate to Manager to Chief Marketing Officer — a trajectory that reflects both her talent and the depth of institutional knowledge she has built along the way. As CMO, Catherine leads all marketing and communications strategy for Dakota, including brand development, content creation, digital presence, and investor-facing marketing programs for partner managers. She is responsible for translating The Dakota Way into compelling brand communication — ensuring that Dakota's unique positioning, philosophy, and capabilities reach the right audiences in the right voice. Catherine brings creativity, marketing discipline, and a deep understanding of the investment management world to everything she produces.

Tim Mitchell leads Dakota's technology infrastructure as Senior Director of Technology, overseeing the systems and platforms that power both the investment sales operation and the Dakota Marketplace data platform. As Dakota has evolved from a third-party marketing firm into a data and intelligence company, Tim's role has expanded significantly — encompassing CRM architecture, data pipeline management, AI integration (including the Claude-powered intelligence layer), and the technology backbone that supports 16+ team members and thousands of external platform users. Tim's work ensures that Dakota's technology is not just functional but a genuine competitive advantage.

Tim Dolan was Dakota's first sales hire, joining in 2011 — a milestone that Gui Costin describes in The Dakota Way as the catalyst for documenting and codifying the Dakota sales process. Tim has been instrumental in building and refining the Investment Sales culture, running The Dakota Way alongside Gui from the firm's earliest days of scaling. He covers institutional channels including pension funds, endowments, foundations, and RIAs, applying the same discipline and process that has driven Dakota's results for over a decade.

Eliza Breed leads Dakota's Private Funds practice, overseeing capital raising efforts for Dakota's private alternative investment partners — including private equity, venture capital, private credit, and real estate strategies. As institutional and wealth channel allocations to private alternatives have grown dramatically, Eliza's practice has become a critical and expanding part of Dakota's business. She brings a sophisticated understanding of LP decision-making, private fund structure, and the specific due diligence requirements that institutional investors apply to alternative investment managers.

Andrew O'Shea is one of Dakota's most experienced investment sales professionals and a key contributor to the development of The Dakota Way. Mentioned directly by Gui Costin in The Dakota Way as the voice who reminded him to include "Setting Expectations" as the first core principle, Andrew's instincts and judgment have shaped the firm's sales philosophy. He covers institutional channels with a focus on both long-only and alternative strategies, bringing a deep understanding of LP expectations, consultant dynamics, and the relational dimensions of institutional fundraising that only come from years on the front lines.

Ryan Creighton began his relationship with Dakota as a summer intern in 2012 and joined full time in 2014 — a trajectory that reflects both his commitment to the firm and the firm's investment in his development. A UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School graduate and former student-athlete, Ryan brings competitive discipline and intellectual rigor to his institutional sales practice. He focuses on RIA account management, new business development, and the analytical work of studying product trends, market differentiators, and historical performance across multiple investment channels to generate insights for the team.

Steve Aitken joined the Dakota investment sales team in May 2020, bringing institutional sales experience from Macquarie, where he developed a strong foundation in the mechanics of capital raising and investor relationship management. Steve covers multiple institutional channels across the US and Canada, and also supports Dakota's alternative strategies channel. He has built a reputation for thoroughness, follow-through, and the kind of consistent outreach discipline that The Dakota Way demands. Steve is a Penn State marketing graduate who brings the same competitive energy to capital raising that he brings to snowboarding, golf, and pickleball.

Nick Butz joined Dakota in 2019, bringing a distinctive analytical background from his time as a Fixed Income Investment Analyst at Vanguard. That experience — understanding how institutional allocators think about fixed income and multi-asset portfolios from the inside — gives Nick a unique perspective when representing both alternative and long-only strategies to institutional capital pools. He holds his Series 7 and 63 licenses and a double major in Finance and Management from Christopher Newport University, and applies a rigorous, research-oriented approach to identifying and qualifying the right investors for each partner strategy.

Jack Barber joined Dakota in May 2024, bringing over 30 years of capital raising experience from some of the most respected institutions in the industry. Prior to Dakota, Jack was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sutter Post Advisors, a boutique capital raising firm he built over 10 years focused on alternative investment strategies and private companies. His earlier career included roles at Goldman Sachs, Dresdner RCM Global Investors, Barbary Coast Capital Management, and Harvest Capital Strategies — giving him a breadth of institutional relationships and asset class experience that is rare at any firm. Jack is a Hampden-Sydney College graduate who played three varsity sports and brings that same competitive discipline to the investment sales floor.

Chase Stitzer joined Dakota in June 2024, bringing a background that sets him apart on any sales floor: four years of service as a Battalion Adjutant in the United States Marine Corps (2019–2023), followed by a role as Senior Policy Associate at Cargill where he developed and delivered messaging to members of Congress and U.S. Senators on complex sustainability and geopolitical issues. That combination of military leadership, strategic communication, and high-stakes persuasion translates directly into the discipline and credibility required for institutional fundraising. Chase also interned at Edgewood Management, one of Dakota's longest-standing partners, giving him a distinctive first-hand view of concentrated equity investment management.

Raechel Mullan joined Dakota in July 2023 as an Investment Sales Administrator and was promoted to Vice President of Operations in 2024 — a rapid rise that reflects her exceptional ability to create order, structure, and forward momentum across complex organizational projects. In her current role, Raechel works closely with both the Investment Sales and Software Sales teams to organize and oversee new initiatives, ensure their successful implementation, and keep the entire operation running with the kind of precision that The Dakota Way demands behind the scenes. Her background as a bilingual educator at Valley Forge Middle School — teaching Spanish and French — speaks to her communication skills, patience, and ability to build understanding across different audiences.

🤝 Growing Our Team

Dakota is always looking to add hardworking, enthusiastic people who are ready to embrace The Dakota Way.