Delivered with the depth of an attorney, the experience of a CCO, and the accountability of a partner. Built exclusively for hedge funds, private equity, and their allocators.
Stony Creek GRC is a boutique advisory firm founded by Daniel Dwyer, a seasoned attorney and Chief Compliance Officer with over two decades of experience inside hedge funds and private equity firms.
SCGRC serves two distinct client types: alternative investment managers who need a trusted compliance partner, and institutional allocators and family offices who need rigorous operational due diligence on the funds they evaluate. This dual-sided model gives SCGRC a uniquely comprehensive view of the alternative investments ecosystem.
For regulated enterprises facing significant change, SCGRC also provides end-to-end LGRC transformation — redesigning Legal, Governance, Risk & Compliance functions from operating model through hands-on execution.
Daniel Dwyer is the founder of Stony Creek GRC and one of the few compliance practitioners in the alternative investments space who combines active licensure as an attorney with more than two decades of hands-on CCO experience inside hedge funds and private equity firms.
Most recently, Daniel served as Managing Director, Chief Compliance Officer and Counsel at Portfolio Advisors — a global private markets firm with $85 billion in AUM — where he led end-to-end design and transformation of the firm's LGRC function, scaling infrastructure alongside AUM growth from ~$20B to $85B over 12 years. He served as primary legal and regulatory advisor to founders, CEO, and executive committee, chaired the Compliance Committee, and directed regulatory strategy across SEC, CFTC, FINRA, FinCEN, OFAC, and four international regulators simultaneously.
Prior to Portfolio Advisors, Daniel served as General Counsel and CCO at Touradji Capital Management (commodities-focused RIA), Sursum Capital Management, and AM Investment Partners — managing governance and compliance programs across commodities, long volatility, and long/short equity strategies, including international licensing and registration in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Japan.
Beyond traditional compliance, Daniel has led large-scale LGRC transformation engagements — redesigning operating models, rationalizing governance structures, and driving digital transformation within legal and compliance functions. This includes serving as a member of Portfolio Advisors' AI Committee, leading the design and build of an enterprise-wide AI governance programme and embedding cybersecurity and digital privacy obligations into the firm's compliance framework.
Daniel founded SCGRC to bring that depth of executive-level, integrated expertise to alternative investment managers and regulated enterprises who need a true compliance and governance partner — not a compliance vendor.
SCGRC's dual-sided model creates a self-reinforcing advantage: ODD work for allocators builds deep insight into what institutional investors demand — and that intelligence directly informs how we build compliance programs for funds that want to attract and retain them.
Independent ODD assessments for pension funds, endowments, family offices, and fund-of-funds evaluating alternative investment managers. We assess governance, risk controls, compliance infrastructure, and operational integrity — giving allocators the independent view they need to invest with confidence.
CCO of record, compliance program design, SEC registration, and ongoing regulatory oversight for hedge funds and private equity managers. We build programs that don't just satisfy regulators — they also satisfy the increasingly sophisticated ODD scrutiny of institutional allocators.
Five core service lines, each grounded in two decades of hands-on experience at the intersection of law, compliance, and alternative investments.
Serve as designated CCO of record for SEC-registered investment advisers. Full compliance program management, annual reviews, regulatory filings, and ongoing monitoring — all backed by legal training and two decades of CCO experience.
Independent ODD assessments for allocators evaluating hedge funds and private equity managers. Full-spectrum coverage: governance, regulatory infrastructure, risk controls, cybersecurity, and operational integrity — with initial and ongoing monitoring programs.
Learn More →Comprehensive compliance services for registered investment advisers — from SEC registration and program buildout to annual reviews, marketing rule compliance, AML/KYC, examination preparation, and AI governance.
Learn More →End-to-end transformation of Legal, Governance, Risk & Compliance functions for regulated enterprises. Operating model design, org restructure, process redesign, and hands-on implementation — led by a senior operator who has done this work at scale.
Learn More →End-to-end support for investment advisers registering with the SEC. Form ADV drafting, compliance manual, Code of Ethics, IARD filing, and post-registration implementation.
Allocators today face a more demanding operational environment than ever before. Regulatory scrutiny of managers has intensified, investor expectations around risk governance have risen sharply, and the consequences of operational failures — fraud, valuation manipulation, cybersecurity breaches — have never been more visible. Operational due diligence is no longer a checkbox. It's a core investment discipline.
Stony Creek GRC provides independent ODD services to institutional investors, family offices, funds of funds, and advisory platforms allocating across alternative investment strategies — private equity, private credit, hedge funds, real assets, and emerging managers.
Every engagement begins with a conversation, not a questionnaire. We work with you in an advisory capacity to scope the assessment — determining which managers warrant review, at what depth, and against what specific concerns or risk tolerances. Whether you're conducting initial pre-commitment diligence on an emerging manager or refreshing an existing relationship, the right scope makes the work meaningful. We don't run a standard checklist. We design the assessment around what you actually need to know.
Most ODD providers assess funds from the outside in. We've worked from the inside out. Having built, run, and transformed the compliance and legal functions that ODD assessors examine, we know what a well-constructed governance program looks like, what a CCO with real authority — rather than just a title — looks like, and which policies exist on paper but aren't followed. That inside-operator perspective is something an investigative firm or a career allocator can't replicate. It's the core of what makes SCGRC's ODD different.
No two funds are built the same way. At Stony Creek GRC, we don't apply a template — we design compliance solutions that fit your structure, your strategy, and your regulatory footprint. We work with registered investment advisers, private fund managers, and alternative investment firms navigating SEC, CFTC, FINRA, FinCEN, and multi-jurisdictional requirements.
Some compliance and legal functions need more than an annual tune-up. They need to be rebuilt. Whether a firm has outgrown its original infrastructure, is integrating an acquisition, preparing for a regulatory examination of real consequence, or simply recognizes that its Legal, Governance, Risk & Compliance function was never designed — it evolved — Stony Creek GRC provides the senior operator to lead the transformation from the ground up.
This is not a consulting engagement that produces a report. It's hands-on redesign and implementation, led by a principal with 20+ years of direct experience doing exactly this work inside regulated firms at scale.
SCGRC works exclusively within the alternative investments ecosystem — on both sides of the manager-allocator relationship.
Three engagement structures to fit different needs and stages. All engagements are conflict-free — SCGRC does not accept referral fees or third-party compensation.
Initial consultations are confidential and without obligation. Reach out to discuss your compliance needs, ODD requirements, or LGRC transformation.
ddwyer@stonycreekgrc.com