Fernando Herrera

About Fernando Herrera

Fernando has built his career in the entrepreneurial divisions of large companies — leading brands and businesses where ambition outran the budget, and growth came from strategy and execution rather than spend. He helps CEOs reinvent challenger and legacy businesses without sacrificing cultural soul or commercial rigor. Drawing from two decades of P&L and brand leadership across Fortune 100, PE-backed, and privately held organizations, he brings a rare combination of strategic vision and hands-on execution. A first-generation Cuban American, Fernando thrives in complex environments—leading brand reinventions, integrations, and acquisitions—while building and scaling marketing functions made for sustainable growth.

How Fernando has Helped Businesses Grow

• Drove double-digit revenue growth and significant share gains across Sun-Maid's enterprise portfolio, earning two ANA Gold REGGIE Awards across two categories.
• Integrated Plum Organics into Sun-Maid in under 90 days, standing up a new brand team, agency model, and dual-brand strategy that reversed a multi-year sales decline.
• Fueled significant consumption growth and established new price elasticity in a commoditized category, repositioning Carapelli olive oil from mainstream to premium at Deoleo.
• Built the market-entry plan for a B2B manufacturing entrant, validating a multi-billion-dollar addressable market, delivering an investor-ready deck that supported a capital introduction.
• Improved global customer marketing ROI at Beats by Dre (Apple), leading a 12-person international team with a global omnichannel budget.
• Launched the SensisCMO Practice, reaching top-decile agency revenue, while driving a double-digit increase in premium enrollments for a publishing and professional learning client.
• Grew Don Francisco's Coffee and drove double-digit CAGR on the relaunched premium ground coffee line at Gaviña, including the brand's first national awareness campaign.

How Fernando Leverages AI for Business Impact

• Designs and operationalizes AI-assisted workflows across consulting and client organizations, translating individual AI use into repeatable processes designed for independent team execution; has implemented workflows spanning brand content, executive thought leadership, and regulated skincare marketing, with full transfer to client teams achieved in brand content and regulated skincare marketing.
• Builds reusable AI prompt templates that automatically adjust for different audiences and content types, include a sign-off step before anything gets published, rank which sources to trust first, and hand off structured direction to a separate step for visuals—so content can be produced at scale without losing brand voice or fit.
• Applies rigorous AI governance to external-facing work, including mandatory source verification, human approval gates, prohibited-claims controls, plagiarism checks, legal-risk grading, asset verification, and a zero-embellishment standard for professional claims.
• Architects practical AI automations and integrated workflows—for example, a Gemini API–enabled Gmail-to-CRM pipeline with a live daily trigger—by defining requirements and architecture, directing AI-generated code, and personally deploying, testing, and debugging that system, without functioning as the hands-on software developer.
• Uses AI as a strategic thought partner and execution accelerator across market analysis, growth strategy, positioning, investor materials, business development, and content—combining AI-enabled speed and breadth with human judgment, verification, and final accountability.

Executive Experience

• Independent Consultant, CPG | B2B | AdTech | Education
• Vice President, Marketing, Sun-Maid Growers of California
• Head of Worldwide Customer Marketing, Beats by Dre (Apple)
• Vice President of Marketing, North America, Deoleo S.A.
• Head of SensisCMO Practice, Sensis Agency
• Vice President Marketing Grocery Division, F. Gaviña & Sons, Inc.
• Brand Management Kraft Heinz, ConAgra Foods

 

Education

• MBA, Marketing, USC Marshall School of Business
• BS, Cognitive Science, UC Irvine

Download Fernando's Resume Here