Damian Blazy

Damian Blazy joined OpenGate Capital in August 2019 as a Principal on the firm's North American operations team, where he works with the firm's North American portfolio companies on operational improvement and value creation. OpenGate Capital, founded in 2005 with offices in Los Angeles and Paris, is a private equity firm with roughly $1.1 billion in assets under management that acquires and optimizes lower-to-middle-market businesses; it has completed dozens of platform acquisitions and closed its second institutional fund, OpenGate Capital Partners II, at approximately $585 million. Blazy is currently listed by OpenGate as an "Operations Advisor."

Before OpenGate, Blazy spent about 15 years across private equity, strategy consulting, and military service. He was Vice President of Portfolio Operations at a New York-based private equity firm (Kelso & Company, per later profiles), where he worked with executive teams on strategic direction, cost synergies, and growth initiatives. Earlier he was a Principal at management consultancy Oliver Wyman and a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Blazy is also a decorated former U.S. Navy fighter pilot. He flew FA-18s for eight years and deployed twice in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, earning the Strike Fighter Medal for leading 20 combat missions over Afghanistan and the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal. He graduated at the top of his class in Naval Flight Training. On the academic side, he earned a degree in Physics with high honors from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

In April 2023, Blazy stepped into an operating role as Chief Executive Officer of Mersive Technologies — an enterprise wireless-collaboration company (maker of the Solstice platform) that OpenGate acquired in 2017. In December 2025, Blazy and fellow managers (including partner Tom Gioia and former CEO Rob Balgley) invested to take a controlling ownership position in Mersive, moving the company out of OpenGate's majority control while keeping the existing leadership team in place.

• Operates as an operationally focused private equity investor, not an angel/seed backer — the thesis is buying and improving established lower-middle-market companies rather than funding early-stage startups.
• Deal types: corporate carve-outs, divestitures, and special situations where operational turnaround and value creation are the levers.
• Sectors: Industrials, Technology, Consumer, and Business Services.
• Geography: North America (his direct remit), plus OpenGate's broader reach into Western Europe and Latin America.
• Hands-on operator mindset: his career (portfolio operations VP, Oliver Wyman principal, and now sitting CEO of a portfolio company) reflects a preference for driving strategic direction, cost synergies, and growth inside portfolio businesses rather than passive check-writing.
• In his own words on the Mersive thesis: *"Our Solstice collaboration platform will fundamentally change the way we engage with technology for meetings and shared learning."*