Following a family dispute surrounding the will of his deceased father,[1] Davies moved to Baku, Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea in 1998 and became one of the leading frontier investors of the former Soviet Union. After participating in a failed US$1 billion privatisation fund (as a result of the Russian Financial Crisis) which spanned the Caucasus Mountains, Caspian Basin, and through Central Asia to the Kyrgyz Republic; Davies moved to Beijing, China by way of Anchorage, Alaska and Lyford Cay, The Bahamas.
Davies, formerly managing director of Franklin Templeton China, is an emerging markets and global macromanager and founded the J. Davies Gallerie. With his late mother Jamie and brothers William and Hugh, he was co-chairman of the 2004 Auction Napa Valley, an event which has raised more than $100 million for charity since inception. He was a co-founder of Harvard Capital's 1998 Mingecevir Refugee Project in Azerbaijan, and past-President of the Bachelors of San Francisco. Davies attended the Thacher School, is a graduate of Boston University, and studied at the Universite de Grenoble in France. After 11 years in Moscow, he and his wife Elizaveta emigrated from Russia and are living in London.