Invitation to directors' database is the latest example of Qualified Risk Directors® being sought to serve on boards

GLOBAL, ORGANIZATION, September 7, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Women’s Operating Network, an initiative launched by Avante Capital Partners in Los Angeles, California, has invited the DCRO Institute to propose women in North America who have attained permission to use the Qualified Risk Director^® designation to its new database of board-ready women for private equity owned company boards.

Avante Capital is a top quartile-performing private credit and structured equity firm with more than $900M assets under management. They partner with lower and mid-market private equity buyout funds throughout the U.S. The firm is 100 percent women and minority-owned, with a mission to increase diversity throughout the private equity industry, part of which sparked the launch of the Women’s Operating Network (WON).

“Avante has always had a strong mission around diversity,” said Jeri Harman, founder of Avante Capital Partners. “This approach allows us to add enormous value to our sponsors, and we want to pay it forward. Most private equity companies only have one or two senior women at most. Not only do we want to help women achieve board seats, but I also want to see these women further develop their own supportive networks.”

Noting the DCRO Institute’s core commitment to diversity in many aspects on boards, David R. Koenig, President and Chief Executive Officer, pointed out, “More than 50% of those who have attained permission to use the Qualified Risk Director^® designation are women. This invitation allows us to highlight some of those in North America with the backgrounds that WON seeks to refer to these opportunities.”

Highlighting Operational Excellence

“Most firms don’t know these qualified women candidates, and the women don’t know the equity funds,” Harman further explained. “This makes it incredibly hard to get on boards. While many public company boards require prior experience, private equity boards are all about what you can deliver to the value-creation process. Executives need experience – they must have functional, industry, or C-level experience that qualifies them to be on a private equity portfolio company board. But it’s all about the specific skills they bring that can add to the value creation process.”

Avante’s private equity funds tend to operate within business services, light industrial, healthcare, consumer, for-profit education, software, and tech-enabled industries. C-suite experience is valuable, but most private equity firms do not typically seek accounting or legal backgrounds.

Private equity funds typically seek independent board directors with significant operating experience and functional expertise in the specific areas they feel will drive value creation and strategy execution for their portfolio companies. They may also be seeking strong networks within a desired industry or market. It may also mean deep functional expertise in product launches, regulatory industries, digital transformation, manufacturing, and more.

Qualified Risk Directors^® have gone through a rigorous evaluation process, demonstrating their expertise across business, risk, and leadership, and having sound educational backgrounds that combine to bring skills to the boardroom, unlike most.

“Much like our recent news that the Equilar Diversity Network database now features Qualified Risk Directors^®, this news continues to show how important it is to bring a rich and robust skillset to board positions that emphasize a positive governance of risk-taking like those who come through our programs,” said Koenig.

To facilitate community-building, Avante will host a variety of regional events over the next year, serving as meet and greets between the women and private equity funds. Harman and her team at Avante are in the early stages of putting together the database. As they reach critical mass, they plan to announce the database to more than 100 private equity relationships across the United States.

About the DCRO Institute - The DCRO Institute is the home of the Qualified Risk Director^® designation. We work globally to bring risk expertise to the boardroom and c-suite. Graduates from our programs are leaders in boardrooms and c-suites on five continents. Our goal, which is emblazoned on our logo, is to help organizations Innovate, Sustain, and Create Value. Visit www.dcroi.org to learn more.

About Women’s Operating Network - WON is a database of board-qualified women executives that Avante will use to refer women to private equity board opportunities as they arise and match with specs provided by private equity fund portfolio board candidate searches. Avante is not a recruiting firm, so they collect no fees for this matching. Instead, their entire motivation is to help women rise in the male-dominated world of private equity and accelerate private equity funds’ diversification of portfolio company boards.

For more information, please contact David R. Koenig at +1.612.286.1776 or by e-mail at david.koenig@dcroi.org.

David R. Koenig
The DCRO Institute
+1 6122861776
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