Runa Alam is the co-founder and CEO of Development Partners International (DPI). DPI is a leading private equity firm investing throughout Africa, and manages over $3bn in three funds, African Development Partners I (ADP I), ADP II and ADP III. ADP I and ADP II are Cambridge-benchmarked top quartile Africa funds. The ADP funds have won numerous awards and been commended both for delivering top returns to investors while delivering top levels of ES&G and impact work. DPI is a gender balanced firm and seeks to focus its impact work on three buckets: Gender Balance, Climate Change, and Job Creation and Enhancement. ADP III was also chosen as the first “2X Challenge Gender Balance Showcase fund” by the OECD country development institutions.
Runa has decades of private equity, emerging market management and investment banking experience. She has invested in Africa for 24 years. She serves on the Boards of many African companies. She has contributed to the development of private equity in Africa as a former Chair of AVCA (the African Private Equity Association), Chair of the AVCA Sustainability Committee, and a Vice Chair and Africa Council Member of EMPEA (the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association). Runa is also on the board of CARE, and on a Future Challenge Committee of the World Economic Forum on “Investing with the UN SDGs.”
Runa has contributed to efforts in education and development through her written and pro bono work. She sat on the advisory committees at Princeton and Yale Universities and was formerly an Advisory Council member of MIDA (Mobilizing Institutional Investors to Develop Africa’s Infrastructure), NASP-USAID Investment Partnership, and USAID’s Private Sector Partners Committee. Runa started her career on Wall Street working for Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. She is a development economist and is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. She is a Harry S. Truman Congressional Scholar.
