David Chiang

David has more than 29 years of investment experience working for some of the world’s leading family offices and financial institutions. David is the founder of and chief investment officer for Idyllic Partners, an outsourced CIO firm focused on alternatives. David most recently served as CIO for the Pritzker Family Foundations. Prior to that, he was head of external funds at Soros Fund Management. David also held senior positions with Wilshire and the GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund). He began his career at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s investment banking group. David earned dual B.A. degrees from Brown University and an MBA from UCLA.

CIO: What is one principle from your career that has proven especially relevant in today’s environment, and how have you applied it recently?

Chiang: One principle that has consistently proven valuable throughout my career is intellectual honesty—particularly when evaluating private markets against public market alternatives. In today’s environment, where private asset valuations and liquidity assumptions are under greater scrutiny, it is more important than ever to assess whether investors are truly being compensated for illiquidity, leverage and complexity.

I’ve applied this recently by framing portfolio decisions through a relative value lens, rather than a “private vs. public” mindset. Instead of assuming that private equity or private credit inherently deserve premium allocations, I compare expected net returns, downside risk, duration and liquidity against what can be achieved in public markets today. With public equities and credit offering more attractive yields and return potential than they did several years ago, the hurdle rate for committing capital to long-duration private investments has materially increased.

That discipline has led and continues to lead me to be more selective, emphasize manager differentiation and alignment, and avoid deploying capital simply to maintain target allocations. Intellectual honesty helps Idyllic build conviction and find the most attractive risk-adjusted returns.

CIO: Which asset classes, sectors, or strategies are most attractive today (e.g., credit, infrastructure, secondaries, real assets), and what is driving your conviction?

Chiang: Today, I am most constructive on middle market private equity, particularly in business services and in aerospace and defense. The attraction is not simply that these are “hot sectors,” but that they combine durable demand, fragmentation, operational improvement potential and multiple ways to create value beyond financial engineering.

In business services, I continue to see compelling opportunities in subsectors in which demand is nondiscretionary, customers outsource because of complexity or labor scarcity, and the market is fragmented enough for buy-and-build. The best PE firms target asset-light companies with recurring revenue driven by regulation, compliance and safety.

In aerospace and defense, the conviction is driven by increased defense spending; reshoring and supply chain resilience; aging platforms that require maintenance and upgrades; and strong demand for mission-critical components and services. Many attractive companies are founder-owned or subscale, creating opportunities for professionalization, add-on acquisitions and margin expansion.

Across both sectors, the middle market is especially interesting because inefficiencies remain. I believe specialized managers can still source proprietary opportunities, underwrite complexity and drive operational value in ways that are harder to replicate in larger, more intermediated markets. Furthermore, these midsize companies have more exit alternatives, as they can sell to larger companies.

CIO: How is AI changing the way you generate insights, provide advice or otherwise work with clients—and where do you see its greatest limitation today?

Chiang: AI is changing our work primarily by increasing the speed and breadth of insight generation. I can now consolidate market data, research, manager commentary and macro views much more efficiently, which helps me form a “consensus view” across asset classes and then compare that against how client portfolios are actually positioned.

That is particularly useful when advising clients because it allows me to identify gaps, concentrations or areas where a portfolio may be out of sync with current market conditions. AI also makes it easier to compare performance across multiple asset classes, managers and benchmarks, helping me frame decisions more objectively and quickly.

That said, I view AI as a tool to enhance judgment, not replace it. Its greatest limitation is that much of the data on which it relies are backward-looking. For example, rankings of private equity firms often reflect past performance and historical reputation. That information is useful, but it does not necessarily tell you who will outperform in the next cycle. Teams can change, strategies can shift, and some firms may not adapt to new market dynamics. In private markets, qualitative judgment of team quality, alignment, sourcing, discipline and adaptability remains critical.