“We are excited to have Paul join our leadership team. His success in the European and Asian markets, along with his specialization in trade logistics is the type of high-caliber talent we need to support our worldwide growth goals,” stated CEO and co-founder David Fowler.

Prior to joining Niche Exports, DeFries owned and operated a diverse portfolio of Indonesian assets with direct experience in transshipping bulk products to clients in China and India with high member yields.

DeFries was also the Trading Head of Dry Bulk at JPMorgan in Singapore responsible for developing the bank’s physical presence throughout Asia and served as Group Head of Risk and Head of Macro Training at Noble.

While at Noble, DeFries developed a comprehensive understanding of all exposures associated with the commodity and logistics business, including quantification of risks, analysis of counter parties and streamlining of operations. He drove modelling and trading in non-normally distributed and illiquid markets such as freight and iron ore and executed strategies focused on asymmetric cross-commodity correlation. 

 In addition, DeFries was directly involved in the purchase and operation of a European-based global agricultural business which later sold for over USD $2 billion to Cofco in Beijing.