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Dakota Live! Call

Group 29829

Dakota Live! Call 279

April 17, 2026

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11:00 a.m. EST Call 2:00 p.m. EST Call
Group 29845

279

On Dakota Live! 279

Christopher Schelling, Managing Director, Aksia

Cover all institutional accounts in the Philadelphia Metro Area

Receive a detailed breakdown of Mercer

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Key Account Highlights Mercer

Chicago, IL

Mercer Investment Consulting operates as a Consultant specializing in DC Consultant services. The firm is headquartered at 155 North Upper Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL, and serves the Chicago metro area. Mercer is a global leader in investment consulting, retirement, and health and well-being solutions, with approximately 25,000 employees across 43 countries and operations in 130 countries. It is a business of Marsh McLennan, a leading professional services firm in risk, strategy, and people management.

Mercer manages an AUM of $354 billion and maintains approximately $11 trillion in investment consulting assets globally. The firm has a $350 billion outsourced CIO business that continues to expand. Mercer has increased its focus on alternative investments, including private equity, hedge funds, real estate, private debt, and infrastructure, with alternative assets exceeding $20 billion within its OCIO practice. Its platform serves institutional clients such as insurance companies, corporate defined benefit and contribution plans, healthcare plans, and foundations and endowments. Mercer’s research process leverages a global network and cloud-based technology to conduct extensive manager due diligence and ratings, supporting its investment consulting and OCIO services.

Allocator Interview Highlights

Christopher Schelling
Managing Director at Aksia

Chris joined Aksia in May 2025 to help bridge the firm’s deep institutional research capabilities with the evolving needs of the private wealth channel. Based in Austin, Texas, he is responsible for creating research and content for wealth, building the Aksia brand, and networking with registered investment advisers to deepen their engagement with alternative investments. For those less familiar with the firm, Aksia is a specialist research and portfolio advisory firm dedicated exclusively to alternative investments. Headquartered in New York City with a global presence—including offices in London, Tokyo, and Dubai—Aksia advises on over $396 billion in assets under supervision (as of September 2025). Serving a sophisticated client base of pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, and foundations, the firm employs over 470 professionals, including more than 240 dedicated specifically to investment research and operational due diligence. This scale provides one of the industry's deepest benches for sourcing and vetting private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real assets. Chris holds a BS in Psychology from the University of Illinois, an MBA from the University of Illinois-Chicago, and a Master of Science in Financial Markets from the Illinois Institute of 4 Technology. He brings more than two decades of experience in the alternative investment industry, having allocated roughly $7 billion across hedge funds, real assets, private credit, and private equity. Before joining Aksia, Chris served as the Managing Director of Private Investments at Caprock, a multi-family office where he led the deployment of capital into private markets for ultra-high-net-worth families. Prior to his time in the wealth channel, Chris spent nearly a decade in institutional asset management. He was the Director of Private Equity at the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) and the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at the Kentucky Retirement Systems. Chris is also a well-known thought leader in the industry. He is a contributing columnist for Institutional Investor and the author of "Better than Alpha: Three Steps to Capturing Excess Returns in a Changing World," a book that challenges investors to look beyond beating benchmarks and focus on behavior, process, and governance. At Aksia, Chris is leveraging his unique background as both an institutional allocator and a wealth strategist to help advisors navigate the complex landscape of private markets.

christopher-schelling

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