Mona DeFrawi, MBA ’88 is CEO & Founder Equidity in Redwood City, California.

 DeFrawi's career was founded on 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 in her childhood, to very gratefully enjoy the privileges of being an American, she 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, she has offered support in fundraising, IPOs, corporate development & IR -- and loved every minute!

 From helping establish one of the first University Tech Transfer offices, to serving four IPO companies over 10 years as Director of IR or VP of Corp Dev, to founding four companies, 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, she 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, she was compelled to found Equidity, a pre-IPO platform for successful IPOs, aftermarkets, fundraising & liquidity.

 DeFrawi 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."

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