Dan Palmier: Boston Renaissance Man in Action

Boston entrepreneur and philanthropist Daniel Palmier faces no shortage of challenges in his life, and doesn’t back down from any one of them. He’s managed to find a strong balance between his work life and his social life, by bringing his knowledge and skills together with members of his family to not only build business’ but to help local and global charities as well.

Daniel Palmier In Business

Over the last 25 years, Dan Palmier has built his entrepreneurial career mainly through real estate lending and finance markets. Throughout these years, he gained experience and knowledge while working with companies such as Lehman Brothers Holdings and Arbor Realty Capital. All of this experience and success led him to his current position as CEO and founder of UC Funds, a real estate financing company which was founded in 2010. He is currently a member of the National Multi-Housing Council as well as the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association. During his career, he’s arranged nearly $1 billion in investments in more than 20 states for real properties. This includes recent efforts to gather more than $7 million of a bridge loan for a Texas apartment community.

He’s also managed to make charitable causes a part of his work, even if it isn’t a paying gig for him. It fuels his energy and blends with time with his family as his three children (two sons and a daughter) work with him.

Palmier In Philanthropy

Palmier and his family have worked actively with Boston’s Catholic School Charities as well as St. Christopher School on Staten Island, making sure it stayed open during and after the upheaval of Hurricane Sandy through the Daniel Palmier Foundation. They provided the school with much-needed supplies and cash as well as helping them in rebuilding the athletic facilities – another cause Palmier feels a deep connection to.

Furthermore, Palmier and his family work with the Haiti Self Sustainability Project, the Assembly of God Alliance, and the Aide Aux Enfants Orphanage in Haiti (AAEO) – providing new mattresses and bedding, an electric water pump, repair for bed frames, and more for the children at AAEO. In addition to other work in Haiti, he’s bringing aid to their hospital’s cardiac arrest services. He donates to other Christian charities such as the Asian Christian Academy in Bangalore, India – making sure that the 2500 students grades K-12 have facilities, help to a Christian seminary, a mobile medical unit for villages to have healthcare, and a 35-bed hospital.

Closer to home, their family foundation which is called the Palmier Foundation – works with Friends of Wellesley METCO, Inc., One Fund Boston, and the Lieutenant Walsh – Firefighter Kennedy Memorial Fund. Dan also ran in the Boston Marathon for several different years to raise money for causes as well as participating in the Jimmy Fund walk.

Daniel Palmier In Health and Wellness

Palmier bought Fitbit Force in 2013 as a way of expressing his passion about fitness and health, and was so impressed, that he made sure all his friends and family used the devices that specialize in tracking activity, quality of sleep, and calories burned. He encourages workmates at UC Funds to skip the elevator and take stairs and walk while in the city instead of using cars. Dan also started little fitness competitions within the office in order to try and get his employees to be more active, and live an overall healthier lifestyle.

Dan doesn’t just advise others about fitness, he himself is also involved in yoga, golfing, running, horseback riding, and boxing. He invites the staff to join him in these activities occasionally as well. Seeing his team, family, friends, and colleagues improve their quality of life is, according to him, one of his best lifetime accomplishments. Other activities he enjoys include tasting different types of food from around the world, and attending Boston Celtics games.