| Duke University, B.A. | |
| University of Maryland, MBA | |
| Business |
Mona DeFrawi’s unique career belies a passionate belief that true wealth creation is rooted in successful long term investing, which also grows strong economies and societies. Having triumphed over war, communism & third world poverty to very gratefully earn the privileges of becoming an American citizen, Mona has been honored to serve the entrepreneurial companies that contribute most to U.S. economic growth, job creation, technological leadership & improving the quality of our lives. Devoted to economic development & capital formation for over 20 years, Mona has offered support in fundraising, IPOs, corporate development & investor relations, & loved every minute!
From helping establish one of the first University Tech Transfer offices, to founding four companies, to serving four IPO companies over 10 years as Director of IR or VP of Corp Dev, to raising a $500M first-time private equity fund, to authoring legislation & lobbying it into law, unleashing over $3B of venture investment, & more – Mona sees her greatest opportunity to deliver value still ahead through Equidity. Asked by VC leaders to help fix the broken IPO markets in 2007, Mona founded InsideVenture, which was acquired by SecondMarket in 2009 as the foundation of their private markets division for secondary trading. Seeing economic conditions deteriorate & knowing that primary liquidity & IPOs are key to the venture capital ecosystem that is the US economic growth engine, Mona was compelled to found Equidity, a pre-IPO platform for successful IPOs, aftermarkets, fundraising & liquidity.
Mona is an honors graduate of both Duke University (BA) & the University of MD (MBA), & created & taught the graduate level Entrepreneurship course for Johns Hopkins University, School of Engineering. She was honored in 2010 as a “Woman of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, & by Forbes in 2011 as one of four “women to watch in technology” for their “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.”
