Sergio Fernández de Cordova

Before exiting in late 2011, Sergio Fernández de Córdova founded Fuel Outdoor in 2003, taking it into a multi-million dollar company with 4,000 outdoor advertising locations, six offices in nine cities nationwide, and is now a portfolio company of Och-Ziff, a global institutional asset management firm with over $31 billion in capital.

Sergio is more than just a sharp businessman; he is one of the youngest initiators of public-private partnerships to drive business and social change. Launching from much of his work at Fuel, Sergio single-handedly forged a variety of private-public partnerships with political and business leaders in cities such as Miami, Chicago, New York and Dallas. As a reflection of his progressive understanding of business and a burgeoning global economy, he co-founded de Cordova Goldman Capital Management a holding company with long-term investments worldwide. Sergio is also an active investor or advisor in over ten media related companies, such as Hyper Local Ventures, The Bergen Newspaper Group, Cross Commerce Media, NLM and Vlassified.

The New York Enterprise Report nominated Sergio for several awards: Sales and Marketing in 2006, Leadership in 2007, Mergers and acquisitions in 2008 and Green Business in 2009, Sales & Marketing for the Bergen Newspaper group in 2010, and taking home the Social Responsibility program of 2010 award for Fuel Outdoor. In 2007 Sergio was nominated as New York’s Best Up and Coming CEO by the NYC Executive Council and in 2008 as New York’s Best Up and Coming Executive and in 2009 Sergio was Member of the Year – Entrepreneurs Organization – NY.

In 2009, Sergio represented the Entrepreneur Organization (EO) at the G8 Young Business Summit in Italy and again represented EO Global at the YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs Annual Summit, speaking to European Commission members. In 2010 he served as one of five delegates from the US to attend the G20 in Toronto. He was later chosen to serve in a delegation for the Past Presidents of Latin America and attended the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival and the Biennial Gathering of the Americas. In November he was a speaker at the Economic Forum of the Americas, the Forum for Global Cities, speaking on business development in emerging countries.

Sergio is the Chairman of Political Affairs for EO, Chairman of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), and Director of Public & Advertising Relations of the ART AWARDS at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Internationally, Sergio is a board member of the All For Africa Foundation, where he focuses on securing long-term sustainability of initiatives including health, education, clean water and micro-financing in Africa. He is Co-Chairman of the Young Global Leaders Board for the Global Center for Development and Democracy, is an official delegate for the US Department of State’s Global Entrepreneurship Program and is a founding board member of the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, an honor only given to ten accomplished young global leaders.

Sergio has been featured in Crain’s New York Business, INC Magazine, Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired, The Daily News, Newsweek, Bisnow, GQ, AdWeek and New York Enterprise Report. He also speaks publicly at numerous events each year, including the Bloomberg Empowered Entrepreneur Summit, Green Business Summit, NYER’s ‘Turning Your Network into Net Worth’, Womensphere’s Global Summit and Toronto’s Forum for Global Cities.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Sergio also completed an MIT Executive Program for 60 worldwide business leaders under the age of 40. He lives in New York City.