Jessie Fernández

Christian, Connector, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Marketer, Potential employer, Project manager

Jessie Fernandez is a brand strategist and fractional CMO with over 20 years of international marketing experience across healthcare, aviation, security, and outsourcing sectors. Founder of Understanding Brands, she helps organizations build authentic identities that connect with the people they serve. A bilingual marketing educator at UNITEC and award-winning strategist, Jessie bridges the gap between brand theory and real-world impact. She is passionate about amplifying ideas that challenge, inspire, and create meaningful change.

Making brands more human and accessible and amplifying underrepresented voices.

Building brands that actually convert (not just look pretty).

My job was to find people with ideas worth spreading. But what I discovered was both humbling and unsettling. The most powerful ideas weren't in the polished pitches. They were hiding inside people who had convinced themselves their story didn't deserve a stage. They had the insight, the experience, the spark. But somewhere along the way, someone had quietly told them otherwise. That their background was too niche. Their industry too specific. Their story too ordinary. And so they stayed quiet. They handed the microphone to someone who looked more like what they imagined a speaker should look like. My job was to convince them otherwise, walk with them through the process, and help them find their voice. And they became TEDx speakers.

Being the person behind the scenes developing other people's ideas and voices.