Daphne Dufresne has had an illustrious 25-year career in private equity. She credits her success to a hardworking immigrant mother who demonstrated a strong work ethic and extraordinarily high expectations. Daphne is the Founder and Managing Partner of Awani Capital, a firm she launched in 2024 with the mission of providing capital and strategic resources to middle-market companies, with a particular focus on business services companies. She and her team have developed a four-step process for delivering transformative growth in portfolio companies. Prior to founding Awani Capital, Daphne was a Managing Partner at a New York middle-market private equity firm with $2.2BN under management. She was involved in all aspects of the firm’s investment activities, portfolio management, and fundraising, serving as a voting member of the firm’s Investment Committee. She led the investment in four platforms that also executed 31 add-on transactions. For over a decade, she led, as one of the founders, a $230MM middle-market private equity fund where she was instrumental in raising the fund, building the team, and investing in a portfolio of 12 companies. Prior to that, she was a Partner in a $1 billion fund of funds, where she led their co-investment program. Before that, she was a Principal at Weston Presidio, a diversified private equity firm managing $4.4 billion in assets under management. She began her investment career in Europe, working in structured finance for European buyout transactions. She currently serves on the board of UNFI (Nasdaq:UNFI) where she chairs the Compensation Committee. Daphne earned her B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. She is also very involved in the Washington DC/Baltimore chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO). Daphne is happily married with three children.