Transforming your Vision into a Competitive Advantage

At Darwin Associates, we believe that continuous intelligence gathering, and a deep understanding of both internal client dynamics and external trends are essential. 

Our mission is to position your company ahead of the geopolitical and economic forces that shape your industry.

At Darwin Associates, we believe that continuous intelligence gathering, and a deep understanding of both internal client dynamics and external trends are essential. 

At Darwin Associates, we believe that continuous intelligence gathering, and a deep understanding of both internal client dynamics and external trends are essential. 

The Insight Powerhouse

What is Unique About us

We practice a new idea of public affairs — built for the speed and dynamics of our time. Our four pillars — Cultural, Economic, Digital, and European Diplomacy — work as one to deliver strategic positioning that strengthens our clients' influence and drives their success, at the highest level and across the widest range of topics and geographies: from Tech, Pharma and Defense to EU capitals, the United States, and South America.

In a world moving this fast, adaptability matters more than size. We're small by design — close to our clients, quick to read change and quicker to act on it. We never stop at the thinking: we crack the challenge and make it happen, always for the right outcome — for our clients, for Europe, and for every stakeholder at the table. 

 

What Makes Us Unique

The Making of

Darwin Associates

A Word on Paloma Castro, the Founder and Managing Partner. 

Paloma built her career inside major global companies — leading corporate affairs for McDonald's Europe, Global Corporate Affairs for LVMH, and International Government Relations for Richemont, before heading international communications at Lime. That depth, across food, luxury, and mobility, led her to found RYSE, her label for women-inclusive finance — her first step from executive to founder.

Darwin Associates carries that instinct into every mandate: influence today is won in rooms and relationships, not rulebooks — and the firm operates natively where it is made, reading the moment before others even sense it shifting. Darwin Seed, the firm's investment arm, extends that same value — Paloma's eye for the companies shaping tomorrow's markets. That same trajectory has naturally grown her into a voice in media and culture: a TEDx speaker, a commentator on BFM Business on women's economic participation, and a guest on Her Wealthy Show Podcast. She is a member of the board of Club Ératosthène and the International Women's Forum — an influence that echoes in Darwin's own patronages with BOZAR and the Festival d'Automne.

Darwin Associates
Team

 

Paloma Castro

CEO

Paloma Castro photo

Ajax De Moubray

Executive Project Manager

Konstantin Achkasov

Project Manager

Inés Rivet-Bonjean

Analyst

At a glance

7
Partners
11000
Thought leaders reach
90
% Success Rate

Darwin Associates
Partners Ecosystem

Dr. Tarek
OLIVEIRA SHAYYA

Business Consulting and Services

Gratiya Advisory

Founder & Managing Director

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Business Consulting and Services

Gratiya Advisory

Gracefully empowering exceptional potential across the Global South.
Public Diplomacy, Public Affairs & Commercial Diplomacy, Governance/Compliance/Risk Management, Major Events & Programming, Finance & Corporate Services, Insights & Ideas Lab.

Jeffrey
SECHREST

Investment Banking

Rockdale Partners

President & CEO

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Investment Banking

Rockdale Partners

Rockdale Partners is an independent financial advisory firm specializing in Technology, Media and Telecommunications. The firm works closely with a select number of long standing clients and is responsible for advising senior management and boards on a broad range of activities including mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and general corporate strategy.

Alexia
KEFALAS

Press

Ta Nea

Foreign Correspondent

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Press

Ta Nea

Darwin Associates works alongside Ta Nea, one of Greece's principal daily newspapers, published in Athens since 1931 and a fixture of the country's political and economic debate. The relationship gives Darwin a reading of the Greek and wider Eastern Mediterranean public sphere — how issues are framed, argued and understood — and a bridge across the Franco-Hellenic axis. Where Ta Nea holds the ground of Greek opinion, Darwin holds public affairs and strategic positioning — so that a client engaging Athens, or the region around it, does so already fluent in the terrain.

David
HIRSCH

Law Tax

BDO Avocats

Partner

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Law Tax

BDO Avocats

Darwin Associates has partnered with BDO Avocats, the legal and tax practice of the international BDO network. The two firms are complementary by design: BDO Avocats handles the legal and fiscal dimension — international taxation, transfer pricing, corporate and commercial law — led by cofounding partner David Hirsch, a specialist in VAT and customs law. Darwin Associates leads on public affairs and corporate strategy, opening institutional and political channels at the highest level and shaping how a client is positioned before decisions are taken. Founder Paloma Castrobrings this from two decades inside global industry — McDonald's Europe, LVMH, Richemont, eBay and Lime. Together, the partnership gives clients a single point of access: legal rigour and public-affairs reach, aligned to structure and deliver complex, cross-border mandates.

Guillaume
CHABAN DELMAS

Public relations and communication services

MGH Partners

Co Founder

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Public relations and communication services

MGH Partners

Because the world is changing, we are reinventing public affairs and influential communication.
A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, Guillaume has nearly 10 years of experience in public affairs, both in France and internationally. Specialising in institutional relations and political communication, he has participated in several campaigns, including in France with the Mouvement Démocrate in 2014, in support of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022, and in several local elections in France and Africa. He is also a municipal councillor in Bordeaux, where he is mainly involved in issues relating to international cooperation and economic development in the city.

Jack
SONG

Brand Reputation

0 2 1 Strategy

Founder

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Brand Reputation

0 2 1 Strategy

Darwin Associates works alongside 0 2 1 Strategy, a global brand reputation and strategic communications consultancy founded by Jack S. Song. The two firms are complementary by design: 0 2 1 Strategy builds and defends reputation—shaping how a company is understood by its market and media while securing its cultural relevance—while Darwin Associates opens institutional and political doors, positioning that same company with the regulators and governments that shape its market authority. Song brings over two decades of experience building strategic communications functions for venture-backed international companies across mobility, healthtech, fintech, AI, and robotics, backed by earlier chapters in high-profile political campaigns and film marketing. His track record of helping founders scale into new markets complements Darwin’s native reach across Europe. Together, they ensure a company expanding into the EU arrives both fully understood by its market and strategically aligned with the institutions around it.