Daphne Dufresne is the Founder and Managing Partner of Awani Capital. She leads the firm’s strategic direction, investment decisions, and value creation initiatives across the portfolio. With over 25 years of private equity experience, Daphne has a long-standing track record of building scalable businesses in the business and industrial services sectors. She plays an active role in all phases of the investment process—from deal sourcing and thesis development to portfolio company growth and exit strategy.
Before founding Awani, Daphne was a Managing Partner at GenNx360, a $2.2 billion middle-market private equity firm based in New York. She served on the investment, valuation, and exit committees, and led direct investments in GenServe, Precision Aviation Group, Aero 3, and Whitsons Culinary Group, completing 31 add-on acquisitions across these platforms.
Daphne was also a founding Managing Director at RLJ Equity Partners. Earlier in her career, she also held senior roles at Parish Capital Advisors, Weston Presidio, and the Bank of Scotland’s Structured Finance group, and began her career at Accenture.
Daphne is on the board of directors of NYSE (UNFI) where she chairs the Compensation Committee.
Daphne earned a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.