Fernando Machado - Brand Innovators

Fernando Machado

Senior Advisor and Board Member

Fernando is a global marketer with a passion for growing brands and businesses. With more than 160 Lions in Cannes (8 GPs, including 2 Titanium GPs), 16 D&AD Yellow Pencils, and 2 Grand Effies in North America, Fernando is known for pushing the creative boundaries to drive business growth. Currently as Global CMO at Restaurant Brands International, Fernando’s focus is infusing Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons with purpose (incl. sustainability), improving product quality, modernizing design, and inspiring the organization around tech, digital and brand development. Under Fernando’s leadership, Burger King became Client of the Year at the D&AD in 2016, Creative Marketer of the Year in Cannes 2017, Client of the Year at the One Show 2018, Advertiser of the Year at the Clio Awards 2018 and 2019, and Creative Brand of the Year in Cannes 2019. Fernando led campaigns such as “Proud Whopper”, “McWhopper”, “Google Home of the Whopper”, “Burning Stores”, “Bullying Jr”, “Whopper Neutrality”, “Scary Clown Night”, “Burn that Ad”, “Birthday Clowns”, and “Whopper Detour”. Prior to joining BK, Fernando worked for 18 years at Unilever. Starting as an intern, he moved up the ranks working different product categories and brands, including Dove where he led the groundbreaking “Beauty Sketches” (Titanium GP in 2013). Fernando was recognized by Adweek as Grand Brand Genius (2013 and 2018 – only person to ever win twice), by Business Insider as top 10 people transforming advertising, by the AD Club of NY as Marketer of the Year (2017), by Business Insider as top 10 most innovative CMOs (2017, 2018 and #1 in 2019), by AdAge as top 50 most creative people in the business (2017), by Forbes as Top 100 Most Creative Minds in Business and by Fast Company as Top 100 Most Creative People in Business (2019).