Thomas Sy

Thomas Sy is an investment professional who is currently Managing Director and Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at New York Life Investment Management, where he also co-leads the firm's digital asset growth strategy, following previous roles in alternatives at the firm and experience at Bridgewater Associates, Morgan Stanley, Van Kampen Funds, and BlackRock. ^[4]

Education

Sy graduated from Fordham Gabelli School of Business with a BS in Finance in 2004. ^[2]

Career

Sy began his career at BlackRock in the Reinsurance Solutions Group from 2002 to 2004. From 2004 to 2006, Sy worked at Van Kampen Funds in Institutional & Retail Investments Product Development, focusing on developing investment products for institutional and retail clients. Sy joined Morgan Stanley in 2005 as part of its Alternative Investments Product Development team before moving to Global Strategic Acquisitions and Alliances in 2006, where he remained until 2009. From 2010 to 2011, Sy worked as a Management Consultant at Bridgewater Associates. Sy joined New York Life Investment Management in 2011 as Director of Alternative Investments and became Director of Alternatives Product Development in 2012, holding the latter position through 2015. In 2016, he became Managing Director and Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, where he leads a team developing global investment strategies across multiple asset classes and customized solutions for strategic partners, while also co-leading the firm’s digital asset growth strategy. ^{[1] [2]}

Interviews

Personalized Portfolios

In a July 2026 interview with CoinDesk, Sy discussed tokenization’s potential to enable more personalized investment portfolios at scale, arguing that blockchain could allow asset managers to embed customization directly into investment products rather than managing it through complex operations across ETFs, bonds, private credit, and other assets. He also noted that tokenization could reduce administrative and settlement costs while improving portfolio construction, and identified stablecoins as an important entry point for traditional financial institutions adopting blockchain, particularly for cross-border payments and treasury management. Sy said that growing stablecoin adoption could create demand for yield-generating tokenized investment products, while institutional use of DeFi would likely depend on further development of infrastructure such as tokenized collateral, central clearing, and prime brokerage services. ^[3]