Renae Griffin on New Beginnings: From Consortium’s Impact to Partnering at Awani Capital

PEWIN executive director Emily Mendell introduces Moments That Made Her and host Kelly Williams, PEWIN founding chair and former founder of Customized Fund Investment Group. In Season 5’s “new beginnings” theme, Kelly interviews longtime friend Renae Griffin, now a partner and head of investor relations at Awani Capital. Renae recounts growing up in Fresno in a tight-knit African American community shaped by entrepreneurial parents and civil-rights consciousness, her first job washing school desks at 12, and her early focus on finance. She traces a nontraditional career path through Bankers Trust, Capital Guardian, Progress Investment Management (a pioneering manager-of-managers platform advancing diverse firms), launching RGN Associates (2001), and founding the Consortium (2004), whose impact she hears through LP and GP success stories. Renae explains joining Awani as a full-circle move to build an institutional-quality, women- and Black female-owned GP known for performance, not categorization, and shares reflections, challenges, and a brief lightning round.