Leigh Sansone is the Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of Paceline Equity Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm currently investing out of Paceline Equity Partners Opportunity Fund II with $780 million in commitments. Paceline is based in Dallas, TX and focused on special situations across three primary verticals: corporate credit, private equity, and real assets. The founding partners have worked together for over eighteen years, and including their experience together at a prior firm, have deployed over $20B across several economic cycles. 

Leigh also serves on the Advisory Board of all Paceline’s currently active private equity portfolio companies. Prior to forming Paceline, Leigh spent 20 years at Lone Star Funds beginning her career there in Fund I and leaving at Fund X in 2018 – along with five of her other founding partners to start Paceline. 

Leigh was involved in the formation and is still involved in the continued strategy of Gradus, an organization focused on investing in non-profit organizations in North Texas and New York City that provide children and their families with the tools needed to live lives of meaning. In 2023, Leigh was named to Pensions & Investments list of “Influential Women in Institutional Investing”, which celebrates women who are having an outsized impact on the investment market as well as driving positive change across the industry. Leigh graduated with honors from Texas A&M University with a BBA in Finance and is a CFA charterholder.