Runa Alam

Co-Founding Partner and Chair

Runa co-founded DPI in 2007. Before DPI, Runa was CEO of KZAM, a joint venture between Zephyr Management of New York and Kingdom Holding Company, which managed PAIP-PCAP, sponsored by the International Finance Corporation and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Runa also acted as CEO of ZMAIF (known as the New Africa Fund prior to Zephyr Management taking over the management in 2000 and Runa’s involvement), sponsored by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, where she helped implement a successful turnaround of the fund.

Runa was formerly a director of the AIG Africa Infrastructure Fund, managed by Emerging Market Partnership in Washington, and has “on-the-ground” management experience in emerging markets having founded and managed both Peregrine Bangladesh and Union Capital Bangladesh in the 1990s. Runa started her career in New York working for investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in mergers and acquisitions and corporate and tax-exempt finance.

Runa has more than 30 years of private equity, emerging market management, and investment banking experience. She serves on the board of several African companies which are investee companies of the DPI funds. Mrs. Alam holds a B.A. in International and Developmental Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She is the former Chair and a current Board Member of AVCA and Chair of the AVCA Sustainability Committee, and a Board and Africa Council Member of EMPEA.  Runa is a citizen of Britain and the US.