Alma mater Rutgers University Occupation Entrepreneur | Religion Catholic Name Sergio Fernandez | |
Sergio Alonso Fernández de Córdova is a Peruvian-American entrepreneur. In 2003 he co-founded Fuel Outdoor, and has since founded several more organizations including the PVBLIC Foundation, P3 Global Management, Infrastructure Media Group Holdings, and Innovators Fund. In public life he is an official delegate of the US State Department's entrepreneurship program and a member of the Global Entrepreneurs Council of the United Nations.
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Early life
Fernández de Córdova was born in Peru and his family immigrated to New Jersey when he was nine years old. At the age of twelve, he founded a local newspaper named Edgewater Residential as his first business with his mother Maria Estela de Veyga. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1999 with a BA in Sociology. He still serves as the Director for Edgewater Residential.
Fuel Outdoor
The genesis of Fuel Outdoor was to utilize the outside of buildings, on scaffolding, and other urban spaces for advertising space. Fernández de Córdova founded the company with partner Seth Lippert in 2003. The two already had a small graphic design and media company, and their largest client was looking to budget for an outdoor advertising media campaign. They purchased their first billboard lease with $25,000 from an angel investor; the side of a building near Madison Square Garden, which patrons of the Garden could view when entering or exiting the arena.
They eventually secured six properties in New York City. By the end of their first year they had expanded to owning the rights to 35 properties in the city, and they put together a Board of Directors for the company in 2004. The Board eventually introduced Fernández de Córdova to Michael Freedman, who became the company's CEO in 2006. The first major investor in Fuel Outdoor was the hedgefund Och-Ziff Capital Management. Fuel Outdoor grew their revenue in 2006 from $3.5 million in 2005 to $20 million, as the company reinvested 100% of its profits back into the business. Fernández de Córdova served as the head of the Real Estate, Government Affairs, and Legal divisions for the company, which became one of the three largest out-of-home advertising companies in the United States. He sold his share of the company to Och-Ziff in 2011.
Other ventures
Fernandez de Cordova founded the organization Entrepreneur Week, an organization that connects entrepreneurs to entrepreneur support organizations globally. In 2009 he founded Innovators Fund, a seeding platform for global disruptive civic-focused technology ventures, the fund has partnered with the US State Department to help support entrepreneurship in Muslim majority countries. In 2011 he founded a holding company named Infrastructure Media Group Holdings focusing on global infrastructure partnerships and commodities industries. In 2012 he then founded the PVBLIC Foundation, which focuses on repurposing advertising space for non-profit use and donating unused space to non-profit organizations. Each of the organizations focuses on public-private partnerships in the development of infrastructure and technology. Additionally, he is the founder of de Córdova Goldman Capital Management, as well as P3 Global Management, Inc., which he founded towards the end of 2012 as an investor in municipal infrastructure. He also sits on Dell’s EIR Board of Advisors and was an advisor for TD Waterhouse Group Inc.
Public life
Fernández de Córdova was a panelist for the New York Entrepreneur Week at the New York University Stern School of Business in 2009. That year he also represented the Entrepreneurs Organization at the G8 Young Business Summit and the YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs Annual Summit. He served as Chairman of Political Affairs for the organization. In 2010 he was one of five US young leader delegates at the G20 Summit in Toronto. He is also an official delegate of the US State Department's entrepreneurship program and became one of ten inaugural members of the Global Entrepreneurs Council of the United Nations in April 2011. In addition, he is Chairman of the World Energy Forum's Next Generation Energy Leaders, Chairman of the G8 Young Summit, National Co-Chairman for Technology for Obama, and a member of the Council of Underserved Communities for the US Small Business Administration. In 2012 Fernández de Córdova was a speaker for the first TEDx WallStreet conference. He has been interviewed regarding urban development by publications including the New York Times. He is also on the selection committee for the New York Friars' Club.
Awards
Fernández de Córdova has been nominated by the New York Enterprise Report for their annual awards six times, winning the top place once in 2010 for their Social Responsibility Program award. In 2011 he was knighted by the Orden Militar y Hospitalaria de San Lázaro de Jerusalén. That year he also received a Latin Trendsetter award from the magazine Latin Trends.