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Daniela V. Fernandez

@dvfernandez

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VELAMAR Founder & Managing Partner

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One of my biggest takeaways from New York Climate Week was how much the conversation has matured.

Less doom and gloom. Less obsession with headline commitments. More focus on what is actually working, what is scaling, what companies are adopting, and where the economics are finally starting to make sense.

The urgency hasn’t disappeared. It feels more grounded.

Real transformation rarely happens through declarations. It happens through capital, procurement, regulation, infrastructure, and thousands of decisions that slowly change a system.

And personally, I left the week incredibly grateful.

For the friendships, the conversations, and the people choosing to build alongside us at VELAMAR, as partners, investors, and friends.

There is still so much work to do. But there is also a lot worth building on. *Updated video* taken in New York, New York by @dvfernandez

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3 days ago

What does it actually take to change an industry?

Last night at Soho House, VELAMAR brought together leaders across brands, capital and industrial systems to talk about exactly that.

Because industries do not transform simply because we tell them they should.

They transform when the better material performs better. When the economics make sense. When capital is available. When companies can integrate innovation into their supply chains. And when consumers actually want the product.

For years, sustainability has too often been communicated as a sermon.

What I believe we are beginning to see now is something very different, sustainability succeeding as economics.

That shift matters deeply to me.

What we manufacture, the materials and chemicals we use, and the systems we build around them ultimately affect far more than business. They make their way into our environment, our oceans and our bodies.

Last night, Francesco Corvaro, Italy’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, opened the evening, followed by a conversation with Gregg Meyer of Steve Madden, Ovie Iroro of FirstBank, Alexandre Pinho of SAP and Timothée Macé Dubois of Schneider Electric.

These are people making decisions about what gets funded, adopted and scaled, and ultimately what becomes part of our everyday lives.

The energy in the room was not optimism for the sake of optimism.

It came from people who understand how difficult transformation actually is, and are still choosing to build it.

And on a personal level, seeing VELAMAR create this room, this conversation and this community felt like a meaningful milestone.

We are just getting started. ✨ taken in Soho House New York by @dvfernandez

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10 days ago

NEWS: I’m moving to New York to open VELAMAR’s New York headquarters.

And in a strange way, it brings me full circle.

When I was a junior in college interning at a private equity firm in New York, I remember sitting in a meeting with an investment memo in front of me. I should probably have been taking notes.

Instead, I was doodling in the margins what my own investment firm would look like one day.

I didn’t know what it would be called. I didn’t know how I would build it. I just knew the vision I had.

During a lot of my internships, I had this feeling that I didn’t quite fit. I was surrounded by incredibly accomplished people and learning constantly, but I couldn’t see myself following the path that seemed so obvious on paper.

At the time, I thought the problem was me.

It took me years to understand that sometimes not fitting into an existing path is valuable information I had to listen to.

Even then, I knew I wanted capital to be part of solving enormous problems. I wanted to work with entrepreneurs transforming industries. I wanted to build institutions, not simply join them.

I just didn’t have the language for it yet.

A lot happened between that investment memo and today.

I built Sustainable Ocean Alliance. I invested in entrepreneurs. I learned how to build from nothing, raise capital, start again, and eventually build VELAMAR.

And now I’m coming back to New York to build the firm I once drew in the margins of someone else’s memo.

There’s something about that that feels very full circle.

Sometimes you don’t need to force yourself into the path in front of you.

You need to pay attention to what you keep imagining in the margins.

Entering my New York era🗽

NYC friends, drop me a message. I’d love to see you. taken in New York, New York by @dvfernandez

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18 days ago

In between the milestones are the moments that shape you ✨ by @dvfernandez

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2 months ago

A film once changed the direction of my life.

I was nineteen, sitting in my Georgetown dorm room, torn between taking the safe path or starting a nonprofit that many people told me was a mistake.

Then I watched Racing Extinction.

The next morning, I made my decision to take the leap of faith and risk everything for the enormous responsibility I felt to do something for our planet.

Twelve years later, I’m still doing the work.

That’s why VELAMAR’s partnership with the Biarritz Film Festival, Nouvelles Vagues, meant so much to me. Thank you @jeromepulis for bringing the ocean to film.

Film has a unique power. It can do what reports, policies, and regulations often cannot. It makes people feel. It shapes culture. And culture shapes what we choose to protect.

At the @festivalnouvellesvagues , we presented The Ocean You Eat, Wear, and Breathe, a conversation with Mike Obenson @mikeobenson and Eugene Riconneaus @eugenericonneaus about how deeply the ocean is woven into our everyday lives, through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the air we breathe, and ultimately, our future.

Because culture doesn’t follow change.

It creates it.

What film changed the way you see the world?

If you’d like the YouTube link to the keynote and panel once it’s released, comment “ocean” below and I’ll send it to you💕 by @dvfernandez

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3 months ago

“Imagine you’re on your deathbed. Standing around your bed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential, the ideas you never acted on, the talents you never used. ‘We came to you because you could have brought us to life,’ they say. ‘And now we go to the grave together.’”

I saw this quote this week and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, especially after coming home from Terras Tuscany.

Three days with people across sustainability, finance, insurance, infrastructure, and technology who are not waiting for permission, perfect timing, or guaranteed outcomes to do the work that matters.

It made me think about what it means to live without those ghosts.

For me, that means putting everything I can behind the protection of our ocean and our planet, while I still can.

Thank you to the Terras team for creating a space where people doing hard and necessary work can find each other and leave with more courage than they came in with.

Maybe the question is not whether we are ready.

Maybe the question is what we are still waiting for ✨ by @dvfernandez

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3 months ago

One year ago, we stood on stage at the Monaco Blue Economy & Finance Forum to announce the launch of VELAMAR.

At the time, all we had was a conviction. A belief that the ocean deserved an entirely different financial infrastructure, and that if we could build the right platform, capital would follow.

It did.

This year, we can back to the forum as champions and sponsors of the very gathering where our journey began.

It was emotional.

Building a company is one of the hardest things you can do. There are days when you’re filled with certainty and excitement, and days when you question everything. When you’re trying to change the status quo and build something that doesn’t yet exist, uncertainty becomes part of your daily life. So does exhaustion. So does doubt.

A few days ago, I came across this quote from Carl Jung, and it reminded of my “why”:

“The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life. They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities. The artist who never makes art becomes cynical about those who do. The lover who never risks loving mocks romance. The thinker who never commits to a philosophy sneers at belief itself. And yet, all of them suffer, because deep down they know: the life they mock is the life they were meant to live.”

It reminded me that the biggest risk is looking back one day and realizing you never had the courage to pursue the life you knew you were capable of living and creating the change that is in your hands.

To everyone who believed in me, in my co-founder, and in VELAMAR long before there was proof, thank you. You saw something before the rest of the world could, and I will never take that for granted.

We’re still at the very beginning. But being back in Monaco a year later showed me that extraordinary successes aren’t created overnight. They are built when you commit fully each day, especially during the quiet moments when nobody is watching.

If you’re creating something that ignites your spirit within, this is your reminder to give it everything you’ve got because that is what the vision demands✨ by @dvfernandez

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3 months ago

Proud to see VELAMAR come to life ✨
What once lived as an idea, now lives in rooms, conversations, partnerships, and momentum. We’re just getting started. by @dvfernandez

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6 months ago

Three months into 2026.
Be right back in build mode ✨ by @dvfernandez

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7 months ago

According to Illuminem’s « Best and Worst of Davos 2026 » roundup, produced in partnership with the Financial Times, the panel convened by « VELAMAR » stood out as the strongest sustainability conversation of the forum.

The panel brought together leaders who are actually shaping how business operates, not just how it talks about sustainability:

- Aurelia Figueroa, Chief Sustainability Officer, Breitling
- Belinda Saunders, Sustainability Lead, BlaBlaCar
- Cara Williams, Sustainability and ESG Lead, Mercer

Davos hosts thousands of sessions every year.

Very few matter.

The ones that do are the ones that change where capital flows and how companies actually operate.

#VELAMAR #Davos2026 #WEF2026 #CapitalAllocation #CorporateStrategy #SustainableFinance #ESGLeadership #FutureOfBusiness #SystemsThinking by @dvfernandez

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8 months ago

NYC EVENT

I’ll be speaking at the Wall Street Green Summit next month on the work that VELAMAR is doing to build the financial infrastructure for the ocean economy.Grateful to Peter Fusaro who has been holding this convening for years.

What’s changed is pretty obvious if you’re paying attention. Environmental and ocean risk isn’t abstract anymore. It’s not something you park in a separate conversation.

The degradation of our ocean and planet is finally showing up in capital allocation decisions, in strategy, and in the ultimate determination of whether businesses stay competitive or not.

Finance is not a passive observer in this transition. It sets incentives, prices risk, and decides which business models get oxygen and which ones don’t. We are finally seeing broader recognition that plastics, materials, supply-chain fragility, and climate-driven disruption are not ESG side conversations.
They are balance-sheet issues, cost-of-capital issues, and competitiveness issues.

I’m speaking March 10th at 4:50 PM, and will be part of conversations on ocean and climate risk, capital flows into ocean-linked solutions, sustainable equity, and plastic abatement.

Proud to help bring this conversation to the center of the financial system.

#WallStreetGreenSummit #VELAMAR #OceanFinance #BlueEconomy #ClimateRisk
#NatureRisk #CapitalAllocation #SustainableFinance #ClimateFinance #FinancialInfrastructure #SystemsChange #OceanEconomy #GlobalLeadership #NYCEvents by @dvfernandez

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8 months ago

Stepping into my 30s has taught me something I didn’t expect: peace that comes from embracing who you are, unapologetically.

I started Sustainable Ocean Alliance at 19 from my dorm room, carrying nothing but belief that the ocean deserved better.
If I could whisper anything to that younger me:
Read everything.
The right people matter more than the crowd.
Trust your gut as much as your mind.
Don’t wait to tell people you love them.
Become your own biggest fan.
And always, always remember why you started.
The journey tests you. But your reason carries you.

Swipe for the full list of lessons I wish I’d known sooner.

Here’s to becoming more yourself with every year 🌹 by @dvfernandez

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9 months ago