---
title: "From Barranquilla to Miami: How A Woman On A Mission Turns Setbacks into Possibility"
description: Venezuelan-born CEO Eddy Vera builds EV Financial into a purpose-led business that serves Hispanic families, funds EV Foundation programmes and mentors agents.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2025-09-18T11:40:37.000Z
updated: 2026-02-26T22:05:38.249Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/from-barranquilla-to-miami-how-a-woman-on-a-mission-turns-setbacks-into-possibility
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/q4jbfdkjizc-1.jpg
categories: Philanthropic Minds
content_type: Profile
region: Miami
publication: Rich Woman Magazine
---

When you have watched your grandmother struggle to access basic care, or seen children in your community go without meals, those moments don’t leave you. They follow you across borders, through career changes and into boardrooms where you’re making decisions that affect thousands of families. For Eddy Vera, these childhood memories in Venezuela became the driving force behind everything she would build years later in Miami.

Today, Vera is the founder and CEO of EV Financial, a company that has served more than 8,500 Hispanic families across the United States since 2021. Her story isn’t about insurance policies or business growth though. It’s about what happens when someone channels their hardest experiences into a mission that reaches far beyond making money.

## The Woman Behind the Mission

Vera arrived in Miami carrying the weight of watching her community struggle back home. As a [Venezuelan immigrant](https://richwoman.co/article/from-immigration-advocate-to-cannes-shirley-maia-cusick-s-journey-of-boundless-vision-and-uns), she understood firsthand the barriers that Hispanic families face when trying to navigate complex insurance systems in a new country. The [challenges are significant](https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/fact-sheet/key-facts-on-health-coverage-of-immigrants/) – language barriers, unfamiliarity with the system and often, providers who don’t understand their specific needs.

Rather than simply starting another insurance company, Vera built EV Financial around what she calls a ‘human-centred approach’. This means taking time to explain policies in Spanish, understanding cultural nuances around family protection and treating each client as more than just a policy number.

## Finding Purpose in Hardship

In 2023, Vera established the EV Foundation. While her business was helping families in the United States, her heart kept pulling her back to the communities she remembered from childhood. The foundation now provides meals, recreational activities and emotional support to children in Barranquilla, Colombia, while also delivering essential aid to elderly residents in Tovar, Venezuela.

Vera describes her foundation’s work as focused on ‘restoring dignity, not just providing charity’. It’s the difference between dropping off supplies and actually spending time with people, understanding their stories and helping them feel seen.

## Giving Back as a Core Value

Two years into running her foundation, Vera made a decision that would weave her business and charitable work together in a way that few entrepreneurs attempt. ‘Business and social impact can and should go hand in hand,’ she explains. Starting this year, every insurance policy sold through EV Financial will contribute directly to supporting a person or community in need.

Instead of treating philanthropy as something you do after you’ve made money, Vera has woven giving into the very structure of how her company operates.

## Teaching What She’s Learned

Last year, Vera launched EV Agency, a platform that trains insurance agents to lead with vision, ethics and purpose. The programme focuses on both personal and professional development, recognising that [the best service comes from people](https://richwoman.co/article/veronica-king-can-a-positive-mindset-make-you-a-leader-worth-following) who understand their own experiences with hardship.

This November, she’s taking that philosophy further with the launch of ‘Activate Your Purpose’, a digital mentorship programme designed to help participants turn their own challenges into opportunities. The programme reflects her belief that [leadership starts with acknowledging your own struggles](https://richwoman.co/article/candice-kelly-the-florida-mum-mixing-grit-and-heart-to-lift-others-up), then using what you’ve learned to help others navigate theirs.

## Speaking Across Borders

Vera’s 2025 calendar reads like a map of her expanding influence. She’ll speak at She Inspire Miami this month, Latina Expo in October and HÉROES: El Evento later that month. Her ‘Born in the Midst of Adversity’ speaking tour will take her across the Americas, sharing her story with audiences who often see their own struggles reflected in her words.

These aren’t just speaking engagements. Vera makes time during her travels to visit [vulnerable communities](https://www.theevfoundation.com/about), bringing her story directly to people who might benefit from seeing someone who has walked a similar path.

## When Business Meets Heart

The integration of EV Financial and the EV Foundation represents something bigger than typical charity work. It’s about creating a way of working where success is measured not just by how many policies you sell, but by how many lives you touch. When a family in Miami gets insurance coverage, a child in Barranquilla might receive a meal. When an agent completes training, an elderly person in Tovar might get essential supplies.

This approach addresses the unique challenges that [Hispanic families face](https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/lacking-life-insurance-makes-many-hispanic-families-especially-vulnerable-times-crisis) when it comes to financial protection. Many lack life insurance, making them especially vulnerable during crises. Vera’s approach recognises that financial security isn’t just about individual policies – it’s about strengthening entire communities.

## A Mission Born from Memory

‘My mission is to show that adversity can be a platform for purpose, and purpose can change entire communities,’ Vera says. It’s a statement that captures the thread running through everything she’s built – from the insurance company that treats Hispanic families with dignity, to the foundation that serves communities across three countries, to the mentorship programmes that help others find their own path forward.

Her story challenges the idea that business success and social impact must exist in separate spheres. Personal experiences with hardship can become the foundation for supporting others, creating effects that extend far beyond any single company or programme.

This month, as Vera prepares for her speaking engagement at She Inspire Miami, she’s also overseeing meal distributions in Barranquilla and planning the November launch of her [mentorship programme](https://richwoman.co/article/one-second-at-a-time-how-eddy-vera-won-her-battles-with-repeated-paralysis-and-cancer). It’s a schedule that reflects her core belief: that the setbacks that once seemed like obstacles were actually preparing her to [build something bigger](https://richwoman.co/article/no-magic-formula-required-how-a-north-queensland-mum-found-freedom-beyond-burnout) than she could have imagined.

For the thousands of families served by EV Financial and the communities supported by the EV Foundation, Vera’s willingness to turn her own struggles into support for others has meant the difference between surviving and thriving.