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| Sergio Fernández de Córdova Case Study |
| A One-Man Global Force Good luck trying to keep up with Sergio Fernández de Córdova. The prolific entrepreneur and philanthropist is rarely in one place for long, having traveled more than 750,000 miles to 86 locations in the past two years. Fernández de Córdova began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 12, when he started a community newspaper in his New Jersey hometown, and never looked back. He is best known for having co-founded Fuel Outdoor in 2003. An upstart in the outdoor advertising industry, Fuel grew into a multi-million dollar company with 4,000 outdoor advertising locations, and six offices in nine cities nationwide by 2011. But Fernández de Córdova was feeling restless, and liquidated his share in the company late that year. “Fuel had become an institution,” he explains. “I’d lost that passion I had while it was growing. At the same time, I realized that all the pieces were there: I just had to organize my life around my interests.” Given the various roles he plays in numerous organizations, all that travel makes sense. He’s a founding board member of the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council, an official delegate for the U.S. Department of State’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, sits on the board of the SBA’s Committee of Underserved Communities, and is past Chairman of Political Affairs for Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a global business network of entrepreneurs and business owners. He also heads his own foundation, a venture-capital fund, and is a hands-on investor in numerous start-ups and other companies. It’s no wonder that Fernández de Córdova chooses the American Airlines AAirpass® program to get where he needs to go with maximum flexibility and VIP benefits at a reduced cost. In fact, depending on the market, AAirpass can offer a significant savings off of full fares. The AAirpass program allows members to pre-pay for unrestricted air travel at a fixed rate so they don’t have to search for fares or pay extra for a last-minute booking to any of the more than 250 American Airlines, American Eagle® or AmericanConnection® destinations worldwide. Last-minute changes? No problem. Your pre-paid fare doesn’t change. Fernández de Córdova also enjoys VIP perks including the complimentary Admiral’s Club membership and automatic upgrades when booking certain fares. “The moment I learned about the program, I signed up,” Fernández de Córdova says. “Certainly the flexibility it offers to book at the last minute without paying full fare is compelling, but to me what’s also important is creating partnerships with the companies I work with. This program is a true partnership with American Airlines.” A three-pronged approach Those interests, myriad as they are, revolve around using innovation and disruption for social good, bringing businesses and governments together to solve problems, and giving voice to rising generations of entrepreneurs. He pursues these interests in what he calls his “three verticals:” public/private partnerships, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. He and his partners implement the vertical through the Innovators Fund, which he calls a “sandbox we can all play in” with Fernández de Córdova using his extensive network to connect innovators with leaders in business and government around the globe. “At the same time, we engage them to do something amazing together for the next generation and create impact,” he says. On the philanthropic side, Fernández de Córdova and his partners launched the Pvblic Foundation, which offers in-kind grants pairing not-for-profit organizations with media owners to mount extensive marketing campaigns that have a real-world impact. To wit: Pvblic worked with Rock the Vote to create a multi-pronged, get-out-the-vote campaign during the final phase of the 2012 Presidential election using location-based NFC messaging to reach young voters. “This was the biggest get-out-the-vote campaign in history, Fernández de Córdova says. “As a result, the youth vote, age18 to 29, made up 19 percent of voters.” The third prong is what Fernández de Córdova calls his “big idea.” It’s a multi-billion dollar play that is creating public/private partnerships designed to bring together municipalities and tech companies to implement the hyper-local technology of “smart cities.” “We’re looking at millions of data points: lampposts, bus shelters, buildings,” he says. “We’d intermediate between municipal governments and tech companies looking to develop and implement these systems.” “At the end of the day, I don’t care what they say about technology like teleconferencing and email," Fernández de Córdova says of his busy travel schedule. “It’s all about that face-to-face meeting, period. You have to be there.” If your travel plans boil down to “wherever, whenever” consider the American Airlines AAirpass program , which not only offers price certainty and VIP benefits but convenience as well. You can find Sergio on twitter: @Pvblicf @Sfdecordova @innovatorsfund For more information about the AAirpass product, visit www.AAirpass.com. |
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