James J. Duplessie
Co-Founder, Komod.ai
James Duplessie has spent 35 years as a hedge fund manager, principally focused on the debt of financially distressed companies.
He began as an investment banker at Plaza Securities, the Asher Edelman companies, and joined O'Connor & Associates in 1991. At UBS, following its acquisition of O'Connor, he was Executive Director and co-managed a distressed debt fund with peak assets under management of over $1 billion.
In 2001 he co-founded Epic Asset Management, a distressed debt fund that Citigroup acquired in 2008. He then served as Managing Director running distressed strategies at CITI and at Napier Park Global Capital.
He has served on company boards, including Consolidated Hydro (CHI Energy, after its 1997 reorganization) and Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex), and on creditors' committees in major restructurings, including Texas Petrochemicals, Trico Marine and Edison Mission Energy.
In 2019 he co-founded Pangea Blockchain Fund, an early seed investor in Axie Infinity. The fund's net asset value rose 230% in 2021, per its audited annual report. Investors have received more than they invested, per the liquidator's published reports, and the fund is winding down in an orderly way under a Liechtenstein liquidator.
He is a co-founder of Komod.ai, an AI close platform for commercial real estate, and lives in Miami.
Education:
JD, Wake Forest University School of Law; MBA, Tulane University; BA Economics, Washington and Lee University.