DFO Management

DFO Management, LLC (DFO) is an American family office that manages the personal wealth of Michael Dell, founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, and his family.^[1] The firm was established in 1998 as MSD Capital, L.P., and restructured as DFO Management at the end of 2022.^[1] Headquartered in New York City, DFO pursues a multi-disciplinary investment strategy across asset classes including private equity, public markets, real estate, and alternatives, emphasizing long-term value creation for the Dell family. DFO is distinct from affiliated entities like MSD Partners, which manages external capital.

Overview

Establishment and Purpose

DFO Management, originally established in 1998 as MSD Capital, L.P., was created specifically to manage Michael Dell's personal capital derived from the proceeds of Dell Inc.'s initial public offering in 1988.^[2][1] This formation addressed the need for a dedicated entity to oversee the growing wealth of the Dell family following the success of the computer company founded by Michael Dell.^[3] As a single-family office, DFO Management operates exclusively for the Dell family, handling their investments without accepting mandates from external clients or third parties.^[3] This focused structure ensures privacy and alignment with the family's specific financial objectives, distinguishing it from multi-family or institutional investment firms.^[1] The firm is headquartered in New York City at 550 Madison Avenue, with additional offices in Santa Monica, California, and West Palm Beach, Florida, to support its operations across different regions.^[4][5] DFO Management's core purpose is the long-term preservation and growth of the Dell family's capital through a multi-disciplinary strategy involving diversified investments across a wide variety of global asset classes.^[6][7] This approach emphasizes protecting capital from downside risks while seeking appreciation over extended horizons, reflecting a commitment to sustainable wealth management.^[6]

Assets and Scope

DFO Management oversees assets under management exceeding $31 billion as of early 2025, derived primarily from the Dell family's wealth, which includes proceeds from stock sales and dividends related to Dell Technologies.^[8][9] This substantial capital base positions DFO as one of the largest single-family offices globally, enabling significant scale in its investment activities.^[9] The firm maintains broad investment flexibility across various asset classes, unbound by rigid mandates, which permits opportunistic deployments worldwide.^[10] This approach allows DFO to adapt to market opportunities without predefined constraints, focusing on long-term value creation for the family's interests. Operationally, DFO employs approximately 50-60 professionals dedicated exclusively to managing these family assets, underscoring its lean yet specialized structure.^[10] As a private family office, DFO operates with full autonomy, distinctly separate from the public-facing investments and corporate activities of Dell Technologies, ensuring focused stewardship of personal family capital.^[1] This independence, established following its rebranding from MSD Capital in 2022, reinforces DFO's role in preserving and growing intergenerational wealth.

History

Founding as MSD Capital

MSD Capital was established in 1998 by Michael Dell as a private investment firm dedicated to managing his and his family's personal wealth.^[3] The firm was created to provide professional oversight of Dell's growing fortune, which had accumulated primarily from his ownership in Dell Technologies following its public listing a decade earlier. With an initial allocation of $400 million drawn from Dell's personal assets, MSD Capital began operations in New York, focusing on long-term value creation through diversified investments.^[11][12] A primary objective from inception was to reduce concentration risk in Dell Technologies stock by broadening the portfolio across various asset classes. To build the team, Dell recruited experienced professionals, including Marc Lisker, who joined in September 1999 as General Counsel after serving as an associate at Mayer Brown LLP.^[13] Lisker's role was instrumental in establishing the firm's legal and operational framework during its formative years. Additional key partners, such as Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan, were brought on to lead investment decisions, leveraging their expertise to steer the firm away from over-reliance on technology equities tied to Dell's core business.^[12] In its early phase, MSD Capital emphasized investments in public equities and venture capital opportunities within the technology sector, capitalizing on Dell's deep industry knowledge to identify high-potential deals.^[14] This approach allowed the firm to generate returns through a mix of liquid markets and early-stage tech ventures, with the initial $400 million growing steadily via reinvestments and compounding gains. By the late 2000s, these strategies laid the groundwork for further expansion, including the 2009 launch of MSD Partners to handle external capital.^[11][7]

Development of Related Entities

In 2009, the principals of MSD Capital established MSD Partners, L.P. as a separate entity registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment advisor, enabling the acceptance of third-party capital distinct from the Dell family's investments.^[15] This structure allowed MSD Partners to operate independently, pooling external funds while leveraging the investment expertise developed within the family office.^[16] Over the subsequent years, MSD Partners expanded its asset base by managing capital from non-Dell sources, including high-net-worth individuals and institutions, which facilitated co-investments and strategic partnerships alongside family office commitments.^[17] By the mid-2010s, the firm had grown its discretionary assets under management to several billion dollars, supporting diversified strategies in credit and equity.^[18] Key milestones in this period included the launch of dedicated private equity vehicles starting around 2016, through which MSD Partners deployed over $1.6 billion in commitments focused on growth-oriented opportunities.^[17] Expansion into real estate followed, with the introduction of credit-focused funds open to select institutional investors; for instance, in 2020, MSD Partners closed the MSD Real Estate Credit Opportunities Funds with $1.1 billion in commitments, exceeding its $750 million target and underscoring the appeal of its platform to external capital.^[15] These initiatives marked a progression toward broader fund offerings in private equity and real estate by the mid-2010s. The strategic rationale behind developing these related entities was to scale the family office's proven investment capabilities by attracting outside capital, thereby enhancing deal flow and diversification opportunities, while maintaining strict separation to safeguard the Dell family's core assets.^[16] This approach preserved the integrity of MSD Capital's family-focused mandate even as MSD Partners pursued external growth.^[18]

Rebranding to DFO

In late 2022, MSD Capital underwent a significant restructuring and rebranding to DFO Management, LLC, marking a strategic pivot to operate exclusively as the investment vehicle for the Dell family. This change followed the merger of MSD Partners LP with BDT & Company in October 2022, which separated the external investment platform from the family office functions previously housed under MSD Capital. The rebranding emphasized a streamlined focus on managing the personal wealth of Michael Dell and his family, free from third-party mandates. The motivations for the rebranding centered on enhancing operational efficiency after the independence of MSD Partners and capitalizing on the robust growth of Dell Technologies. As Dell Technologies experienced accelerated expansion, particularly through the 2023 AI infrastructure boom that drove substantial revenue increases and stock appreciation, DFO positioned itself to handle the family's evolving financial needs with greater autonomy. This refocus allowed for a more tailored approach to wealth preservation and growth amid these corporate dividends. Operationally, the transition involved a full separation of family office activities, including updated governance structures designed to bolster privacy, decision-making agility, and long-term strategic alignment. DFO maintained its core offices in New York, Santa Monica, and West Palm Beach, but shifted entirely to internal family interests without external client obligations, enabling more nimble responses to market dynamics. From 2023 to 2025, DFO implemented portfolio adjustments to navigate key market events, such as the 2023 technology sector rally fueled by AI advancements, while adhering strictly to its family-only mandate. For example, in 2025, DFO Management invested $130 million in Harbor Health, a primary-care clinic group, alongside other investors.^[19] These changes prioritized diversification and risk management in light of Dell Technologies' ongoing AI-driven performance, which contributed to family wealth growth without pursuing outside investments.

Leadership and Structure

Key Executives

Michael Dell serves as the founder and ultimate decision-maker of DFO Management, overseeing its strategic direction since establishing the firm in 1998 as MSD Capital to manage his family's investments.^[20] As the Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, Dell's involvement ensures alignment between the family office's objectives and his broader entrepreneurial vision, emphasizing long-term value creation across diverse asset classes.^[3] Gregg Lemkau has been Chairman of DFO Management since 2021, bringing extensive expertise from his prior role as CEO of MSD Partners and over 28 years at Goldman Sachs, where he co-headed the Investment Banking Division and advised on transactions exceeding $1 trillion in value.^[21] His leadership focuses on enhancing the firm's operational efficiency and investment capabilities, while he concurrently serves as Co-CEO of BDT & MSD Partners.^[22] Marc Lisker has held the position of President since the early 2000s, having joined DFO Management (then MSD Capital) in September 1999 as General Counsel and advancing to Partner in January 2008.^[13] With a background as an associate in the Corporate and Securities Group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Lisker specializes in legal and operational structuring, contributing to the firm's governance and compliance frameworks.^[23] Alisa Mall was appointed Chief Investment Officer in 2022, overseeing the portfolio's investment management and strategic allocation across multi-asset classes.^[24] Prior to joining, she served as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Neuberger Berman, focusing on multi-asset strategies that honed her expertise in diversified portfolio construction.^[25] The executive team's long-term stability underscores DFO Management's emphasis on continuity, with an average tenure exceeding 15 years among its key leaders, fostering consistent decision-making and deep institutional knowledge.^[5]

Organizational Framework

DFO Management, LLC, is structured as a limited liability company to efficiently manage the Dell family's private investments, featuring a flat hierarchy that promotes collaborative and rapid decision-making across functions.^[1] This organizational setup centers on investment committees led by Chief Investment Officer Alisa Mall, who oversees portfolio strategy and key approvals in coordination with senior leadership.^[26] The firm employs dedicated teams for its core operations.^[27] DFO Management maintains a compact footprint with approximately 50 staff members across its offices in New York—the primary location for deal origination and execution—Santa Monica for proximity to technology ecosystems, and West Palm Beach with an emphasis on real estate-related activities.^[28][5]

Investment Approach

Core Strategies

DFO Management employs a multi-disciplinary investment strategy designed to maximize long-term capital appreciation through opportunistic investments across a variety of asset classes and geographies. This approach emphasizes fundamental value investing, prioritizing risk-adjusted, after-tax returns while focusing on downside protection to avoid permanent loss of capital. By maintaining a contrarian perspective, the firm seeks compounding returns over short-term gains, leveraging rigorous bottom-up research and a permanent capital base to navigate market volatility.^[6][29] The firm's global mandate allows for investments worldwide, with a primary emphasis on U.S.-based opportunities in public securities, private equity, real estate, and special situations. Diversification is achieved through a broad allocation across these core areas, supplemented by selective partnerships with third-party managers when aligned with the firm's philosophy. This framework supports active management aimed at superior long-term performance, unconstrained by traditional benchmarks that might encourage short-termism.^[6][29] Risk management is integral to DFO's philosophy, defined primarily as the potential for permanent capital impairment rather than short-term fluctuations. The strategy incorporates detailed valuation analysis and a focus on process over immediate outcomes, enabling resilience in diverse economic conditions. While not a primary filter, sustainability considerations are selectively integrated into decisions, reflecting the Dell family's broader commitments through entities like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which prioritizes social impact in education, health, and economic stability.^[29][27]

Asset Allocation

DFO Management distributes its capital across a diversified set of asset classes to achieve long-term capital appreciation and risk mitigation, reflecting its flexible investment mandate. The firm invests across public equities, private equity, real estate, alternatives, and fixed income.^[1] DFO Management engages in private investments, including direct investments in private companies and special situations. In 2025, the firm participated in a funding round for Harbor Health, a primary-care clinic group.^[27][19] This approach leverages the firm's expertise in identifying opportunities within innovative industries, aligning with its multi-disciplinary strategy across public and private markets.^[6] The real estate allocation involves investments in properties, complementing the higher-risk profiles of equities and alternatives.^[1] Following its rebranding from MSD Capital in late 2022, DFO Management continues to adapt its tactics in response to macroeconomic and sector-specific developments, while maintaining overall balance across asset classes.^[1]

Activities and Portfolio

Private Equity Investments

DFO Management's private equity activities emphasize direct investments in high-growth companies, typically ranging from $100 million to $300 million per transaction, with flexibility for smaller or larger commitments as lead or co-investors in later-stage opportunities.^[30] The firm focuses on providing long-term capital to founder-led businesses with scalable models, leveraging Michael Dell's extensive network in technology and beyond to add strategic value and support expansion.^[31] This approach prioritizes control buyouts, structured equity, and significant minority stakes in sectors where operational expertise can drive outsized growth.^[5] In technology, DFO has taken early stakes in innovative firms ahead of IPOs, particularly in areas like AI analytics and cloud-adjacent computing. For instance, the firm participated in SparkCognition's funding rounds, a leader in cognitive computing analytics that aligns with scalable tech platforms.^[32] Healthcare investments center on biotech innovations, such as MSD Partners' involvement in BioTheryX's $35 million Series D financing in 2020, targeting small-molecule drug discovery for oncology and immunology.^[33] Key examples include DFO's co-investment in Fanatics' 2022 funding round, where MSD Capital joined BlackRock and Fidelity to support the sports technology platform's growth in licensed merchandise and digital collectibles, contributing to a $27 billion valuation.^[34] Similarly, in 2021, the firm invested in Dataminr's $475 million Series F round, backing the AI-driven real-time event detection company and helping elevate its valuation to $4.1 billion.^[35] These deals exemplify DFO's strategy of targeting Series B and later rounds in founder-led enterprises, with portfolio exits like the 2023 sale of Ultimate Fighting Championship demonstrating the potential for substantial returns through strategic partnerships.^[36]

Public Markets and Alternatives

DFO Management employs a concentrated approach to public equities, seeking opportunistic investments in undervalued securities through rigorous fundamental analysis and risk assessment. The firm's public markets team focuses on a limited number of positions to maximize long-term capital appreciation, often targeting mispriced opportunities across sectors such as real estate, consumer goods, and media. As of the second quarter of 2025, DFO's disclosed public equity holdings totaled approximately $155 million, comprising just three stocks: Safehold Inc. (58% of the portfolio), Hayward Holdings Inc. (38%), and Townsquare Media Inc. (4%). Historical positions have included significant stakes in PVH Corp., the owner of brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Dine Brands Global, which operates IHOP and Applebee's restaurants. This selective strategy contrasts with broader market indices, allowing flexibility in navigating volatile conditions while prioritizing intrinsic value over diversification. In the alternatives space, DFO allocates capital to non-traditional assets, including credit, special situations, and venture opportunities, emphasizing direct investments and selective co-investments for liquidity and alpha generation. The special situations team pursues distressed and event-driven strategies, exemplified by MSD Capital's participation in a 2009 consortium that acquired the remnants of IndyMac Bank for $13.9 billion amid the financial crisis, later rebranded as OneWest Bank and generating substantial returns upon resale. Allocations to external venture funds and hedge strategies are limited and primarily support the Dell family's charitable initiatives, with exclusions for high-risk categories like quantitative funds or new venture capital vehicles; instead, the firm favors direct co-investments in growth-oriented companies across technology and services sectors. Since 1998, this multi-asset alternatives approach contributed to over $17 billion in cumulative investment profits through 2019. Real estate forms a key pillar of DFO's alternatives portfolio, with opportunistic direct investments and credit facilities targeting high-quality assets for income and appreciation. The firm has committed billions to premium properties, including full ownership of the Four Seasons Resort Maui and Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii, as well as the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. In industrial real estate, DFO has pursued logistics-focused opportunities tied to e-commerce expansion, such as participation, through its affiliate BDT & MSD Partners, in a $756 million financing package in 2024 for a major warehouse development in California's Inland Empire region.^[37] These investments leverage the firm's flexible capital to capitalize on market recoveries and supply chain demands.

Related Entities

MSD Partners

MSD Partners was established in 2009 as an SEC-registered investment adviser by the principals of MSD Capital, the Dell family office, to enable third-party investors to participate alongside family capital in a separate vehicle.^[38] This structure marked an expansion from MSD Capital's original family-focused mandate, allowing MSD Partners to operate independently while drawing on established investment expertise.^[5] By early 2022, the firm had grown its assets under management to over $23 billion, distinguishing it from DFO Management's exclusive emphasis on Dell family wealth.^[39] The firm's investment approach mirrors DFO Management's multi-strategy model but extends access to institutional and high-net-worth investors through dedicated commingled funds. It concentrates on private equity, private credit, and real estate, targeting opportunities for long-term capital appreciation via direct investments, structured credit, and equity commitments in high-quality assets.^[39] For instance, MSD Partners deploys capital across senior secured loans, mezzanine debt, and opportunistic equity in sectors like technology, consumer, and real assets, often co-investing with family office allocations to leverage shared due diligence.^[40] Among its key milestones, MSD Partners successfully raised multiple dedicated funds in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including the $1.1 billion MSD Real Estate Credit Opportunities Funds in June 2020, which exceeded its target to pursue structured credit backed by commercial properties.^[41] In July 2020, it closed the MSD Special Investments Funds at $825 million, surpassing the $500 million goal for flexible opportunistic strategies across credit and private equity.^[42] These vehicles underscored the firm's ability to attract commitments from pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds seeking diversified alternatives. MSD Partners maintains independent governance through its own management team and operational infrastructure in New York City, separate from DFO Management's structure. However, the Dell family's influence persists via advisory input from founders and alignment with family investment philosophies, ensuring continuity in strategy without direct control over external capital decisions.^[5] This hybrid setup supports autonomous third-party management while benefiting from the legacy of MSD Capital's track record.

BDT & MSD Partners

BDT & MSD Partners was formed through the merger of BDT & Company and MSD Partners, announced on October 20, 2022, and becoming effective in January 2023.^[43][44] The combined entity operates as a merchant bank, providing advisory services such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital raising tailored to family- and founder-led businesses, alongside an investment platform for long-term capital deployment.^[43] With over $60 billion in assets under management as of early 2024, the firm leverages its integrated advisory and investment capabilities to support strategic growth for its clients.^[45] The firm's leadership follows a co-CEO model, with Byron Trott serving as Chairman and Co-CEO and Gregg Lemkau as Co-CEO, drawing on their respective experiences from BDT and MSD.^[46] This structure emphasizes collaborative decision-making in delivering M&A advisory and capital solutions to business owners seeking to navigate complex transactions while maintaining control.^[47] Michael Dell serves as an anchor investor through commitments from his family office, which provides foundational support to the platform, though DFO Management remains a distinct entity focused on Dell family investments.^[46][48] BDT & MSD Partners engages in strategic investments targeting family-owned businesses, particularly in consumer and technology sectors during 2024 and 2025. In the consumer space, notable activities include a minority investment in DBG Health, an Australian beauty and wellness company, valued at A$7 billion in August 2025, and the successful IPO of Alliance Laundry Systems, a commercial laundry equipment provider, raising $826 million in October 2025.^[49][50] In technology and tech-enabled areas, the firm supported growth investments such as in Global School Management, an international education platform, in June 2025, and Designs for Health, a nutritional supplement innovator, in October 2025, to fuel expansion and product development.^[51][52] These transactions underscore the firm's role in providing patient capital to high-potential enterprises.