Nametags Chat Episode 123 - Dan Berlin

Dan Berlin is a enterprising entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and endurance athlete who happens to be blind. He believes in creating opportunity and giving back around the globe.
Dan gradually lost his eyesight from cone-rod dystrophy. He was diagnosed at 7 years old and became legally blind in his late 20s. After more than 12 years of working around the globe in large multi-national corporations, he co-founded Rodelle, a world-leading vanilla extract company, which sold to Archer-Daniels Midland Company in 2018, and subsequently exited as CEO at age 48. He is now a founding partner in AfriTech Catalytic Growth Company, which invests in innovative startups throughout Africa.
Dan is a co-founder and President of Team See Possibilities, a non-profit organization which empowers young people with vision loss to thrive by providing scholarship and mentorship to high achieving college students who are vision impaired. He also serves as chairman of the board of Success Beyond Sight, a nonprofit corporation that helps individuals who are blind or have low vision to advance professionally and fully engage in community life by eliminating barriers to their equal opportunity for success.
Dan is a member of and co-founded Team Sea to See which was comprised of four blind cyclists riding tandem bicycles in 2018 Race Across America, known as the toughest bike race in the world. They completed the race in an amazing 7 days, 15 hours, and 3 minutes. Team Sea to See is now producing a documentary on the project with Sterling Light Films.
Dan also enjoys taking on epic endurance challenges around the world, challenging the perception of what a person with vision loss is capable of achieving. Dan was the first blind runner to complete the 46 mile rim to rim to rim run across the Grand Canyon and back, and has subsequently run over a dozen marathons, Ironman triathlons, as well as trail-ultramarathons in South America, Africa, Asia and New Zealand