James DePalma, also known as Jim, is the former Chief Financial Officer and an executive board member of Revolution Lighting Technologies, a public LED lighting solutions provider on the NASDAQ syndicate. He is also the founder of L-1 Investment Partners, LLC, the private equity firm that manages around 50% of RVLT’s stock. Growing up, he attended Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, where h
e graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance. He later became a Certified public accountant (CPA) and was registered in the State of New York until 1997. DePalma moved to New York to begin his business career in 1973 at PricewaterhouseCoopers (previously known as Coopers and Lybrand). He specialized in operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management for defense and communications clients/companies during his tenure. After spending around 22 years at one of the world’s largest accounting firms and advancing to Senior Partner, Mr. DePalma joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation. He served several executive positions in operations, finance, and corporate transactions here. He was a part of Westinghouse at two crucial points in the company’s history: its purchase of the CBS television network in 1997 and its acquisition by Viacom International in 1999. During this period, its market cap grew from $3 billion to around $50 billion, making it one of the most successful transactions in history. Before leaving Viacom International in 2001, he served as a Director of CBS MarketWatch. DePalma joined Core and L-3. He served as Communications Consultant and CEO at Core Software Technologies till early 2006. In August of the same year, he joined MorphoTrust USA, an advanced identity verification solutions provider for Federal agencies, as Executive Vice President and Treasurer. He left this post in 2012 to join Revolution Lighting Technologies as a Director. He became Revolution Lighting’s Chief Financial Officer in 2015. During this period, Mr. DePalma held one of the highest positions in the company and had a lot of influence on the finance department’s structure, processes, and culture. He retired from his post in 2019 due to personal reasons. However, since then, he offered to assist RVLT in transition to a new Chief Financial Officer following his resignation. Moreover, he has made himself available to assist the company with its accounting issues and ongoing investigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company had been charged by the SEC for falsely inflating its reported revenues from 2014 to 2018, leading to substantial penalties and prohibitions. However, the company has recovered since then, with Mr. DePalma helping out from time to time. Since 2011, Mr. DePalma has also served as Vice Chairman/Managing Partner at Aston Capital Partners GP, LLC, an investment management firm offering trading and hedge fund management services for individual and institutional investors. Before resigning from RVLT, James had amassed over $4.4 million worth of shares in the company. However, since 2019, he has sold nearly 8.8 million units bringing his holdings to around $0.95 million. DePalma has also invested in several properties and businesses in New York and Connecticut, adding several revenue streams to his name.
